History
The first volunteer, Herb Feith, travelled to Jakarta, Indonesia in 1951, taking up the challenge to work alongside Indonesians as a translator as the country dealt with issues of independence. His journey helped establish the Volunteer Graduate Scheme to Indonesia.
In 1961 the Volunteer Graduate Scheme became the Overseas Service Bureau, an organisation with Jim Webb as its founding Director. In 1963, The Bureau launched a program called Australian Volunteers Abroad (AVA) and the first the first 14 Australian Volunteers (AVAs) commenced assignments in Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tanzania and Nigeria. In 1999 it changed its name to Australian Volunteers International.
AVI is governed by a Board of Directors, Chief Executive Officer Dimity Fifer, and a Senior Management Team.
Read more about this topic: Australian Volunteers International
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Let us not underrate the value of a fact; it will one day flower in a truth. It is astonishing how few facts of importance are added in a century to the natural history of any animal. The natural history of man himself is still being gradually written.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Humankind has understood history as a series of battles because, to this day, it regards conflict as the central facet of life.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)