SASVO

Author: CSA

Publishing date: 22.06.2007 00:00

The Southern African Student Volunteers (SASVO) was established in 1993 to give students and communities in the Southern African region the opportunity to work together as volunteers in sustainable community development projects. SASVO was now a joint project of the CSA and the Centre for Human Rights. Although based at the University of Pretoria, students from all universities in southern Africa and from all disciplines participated in SASVO projects.

SASVO aimed to improve the quality of life in rural areas through the placement of community-based project officers (CBPOs) who worked with community members various projects. They organised three-week work camps for student volunteers from Southern African universities during holiday periods. There were special camps organised for student leaders so they could develop volunteer programmes from their campuses.

SASVO worked on the basis of "meeting communities halfway", the principle of 50/50. Half of the effort came from SASVO and half from the communities with whom they were working with.