International Voluntary Services
Encyclopedia
International Voluntary Services, Inc., (IVS) was a private nonprofit organization
that placed American
volunteers in development projects in Third World
countries. IVS had volunteers in Algeria, Bolivia, Ecuador, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Laos, Nepal, South Vietnam and other countries. Despite the organization's roots in Christian pacifism
, it operated on a nonsectarian
basis, accepting volunteers regardless of their religious
beliefs.
, Brethren
and Quaker
organizations. It began a 50 year history of international development
. The first project was when two young men were sent to Egypt
to help improve poultry and dairy farming among the farmers of Assiut.
An office was opened in Iraq
, and teams worked in village sanitation, nursing, home construction, and agriculture. In Nepal
, a training school was set up for local community development workers. In Liberia
, a large team of teachers taught at the elementary level. And in Vietnam
, a very successful resettlement and agricultural development was begun. Other country locations that were started in this period were Jordan
, Cambodia
, Laos
, and Ghana
.
. Eleven volunteers were killed or died in accidents during this period and three were captured and imprisoned by the North Vietnamese.
The first volunteer to lose his life was Peter M. Hunting, a 1963 Wesleyan University
graduate, who was killed in an ambush in the Mekong Delta
in 1965. He is the subject of a memoir and magazine article by his sister, the author and radio essayist Jill Hunting. Jill Hunting writes in her memoir that volunteers in the Vietnam war zone were aware of the risks they took, with one volunteer reporting "thirty different attempts on his life that he never mentioned to anyone while he was in Vietnam."
In addition, there were programs in Syria
, Gaza
, Algeria
, Sabah
, Sudan
, Morocco
, Zaire
, Libya
, and Yemen
.
were sent all over the world, to one where a smaller number of professionals were placed in locations. In some regions, skilled and educated locals, whose skills were not being utilized due to underemployment
, were recruited to volunteer in the program. By the 1990's over 80% of IVS staff and volunteers were host country nationals or internationals. In addition, IVS began working with other aid organizations
in regions, supplying volunteers to these existing programs.
Programs that began during this time period include Zimbabwe
, the Caribbean, Ethiopia
, Cape Verde
, Mali
, and an HIV/AIDS education
program among sex workers in Thailand
, Vietnam
, and Cambodia
.
organizations, placing self-funded volunteers in other national NGO organizations, and nearly abandoning the original vision of grassroots volunteerism to fund and support foreign organizations.
When the eventuality of closing IVS became unavoidable, the organization committed itself to establishing its remaining operating programs in Bolivia
, Ecuador
, and Bangladesh
as national NGOs. This goal was achieved with the creation of Fundacion Mingo/IVS and IVS Bangladesh. The Caribbean
program had already converted to this model in 1984, to form Caribbean Advisory and Professional Services.
(USAID) and its predecessors, the United States Technical Cooperation Administration
and the United States International Cooperation Administration
. While steps were taken to broaden the financial base, this dependency became a critical problem later in the organization's history. The organization never developed a strong fiscal support system.
During the fifth decade, financial difficulties increased. The Cooperative Agreement with USAID ended, significantly reducing the amount of money coming in through grants. Later, when USAID policy changed to fund programs based in foreign countries, rather than Washington D.C., even less financial support was coming to IVS.
, who became executive director of UNICEF in 2010, served briefly as head of IVS in the 1970s.
One of the most notable IVS volunteers was Edgar "Pop" Buell
, a farmer from Steuben County, Indiana
, who volunteered to work in agricultural development projects in Laos in 1960. Buell later became a senior USAID official in Laos and managed humanitarian relief to the Hmong
people during the "Secret War" in which the Hmong, with backing from the United States Central Intelligence Agency
, fought communist
Pathet Lao
forces.
In 1967, four senior IVS staff members in Vietnam, including country director Don Luce, resigned to protest American policy in the Vietnam War
, which they believed undermined the humanitarian work that IVS was trying to carry out. The four also drafted a letter to President Lyndon B. Johnson
calling the war "an overwhelming atrocity." Signed by 49 IVS volunteers and staff members, the letter received front-page coverage in the New York Times
.
In 1971, two IVS volunteers in Vietnam, Alexander D. Shimkin
and Ronald Moreau, were terminated by the organization when they became sources for a New York Times story by Gloria Emerson
about the forced use of Vietnamese civilians by South Vietnamese officers and their American advisers to clear land mines near the village of Ba Chúc
. Shimkin was killed the following year while covering the war for Newsweek
. Moreau later became Newsweek's correspondent for Afghanistan
and Pakistan
.
.
IVS was dissolved in 2002.
The archives of IVS are at the Mennonite Church USA Archives
on the Goshen College
campus in Goshen, Indiana
.
A report on IVS/Vietnam is at http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNABI170.pdf
Nonprofit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
that placed American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
volunteers in development projects in Third World
Third World
The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either capitalism and NATO , or communism and the Soviet Union...
countries. IVS had volunteers in Algeria, Bolivia, Ecuador, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Laos, Nepal, South Vietnam and other countries. Despite the organization's roots in Christian pacifism
Christian pacifism
Christian pacifism is the theological and ethical position that any form of violence is incompatible with the Christian faith. Christian pacifists state that Jesus himself was a pacifist who taught and practiced pacifism, and that his followers must do likewise.There have been various notable...
, it operated on a nonsectarian
Nonsectarian
Nonsectarian, in its most literal sense, refers to a lack of sectarianism. The term is also more narrowly used to describe secular private educational institutions or other organizations either not affiliated with or not restricted to a particular religious denomination though the organization...
basis, accepting volunteers regardless of their religious
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
beliefs.
1st Decade (1953-1962)
With this declaration, IVS was founded in 1953 by MennoniteMennonite
The Mennonites are a group of Christian Anabaptist denominations named after the Frisian Menno Simons , who, through his writings, articulated and thereby formalized the teachings of earlier Swiss founders...
, Brethren
Church of the Brethren
The Church of the Brethren is a Christian denomination originating from the Schwarzenau Brethren organized in 1708 by eight persons led by Alexander Mack, in Schwarzenau, Bad Berleburg, Germany. The Brethren movement began as a melding of Radical Pietist and Anabaptist ideas during the...
and Quaker
Religious Society of Friends
The Religious Society of Friends, or Friends Church, is a Christian movement which stresses the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. Members are known as Friends, or popularly as Quakers. It is made of independent organisations, which have split from one another due to doctrinal differences...
organizations. It began a 50 year history of international development
International development
International development or global development is a concept that lacks a universally accepted definition, but it is most used in a holistic and multi-disciplinary context of human development — the development of greater quality of life for humans...
. The first project was when two young men were sent to Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
to help improve poultry and dairy farming among the farmers of Assiut.
An office was opened in Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
, and teams worked in village sanitation, nursing, home construction, and agriculture. In Nepal
Nepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
, a training school was set up for local community development workers. In Liberia
Liberia
Liberia , officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Sierra Leone on the west, Guinea on the north and Côte d'Ivoire on the east. Liberia's coastline is composed of mostly mangrove forests while the more sparsely populated inland consists of forests that open...
, a large team of teachers taught at the elementary level. And in Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
, a very successful resettlement and agricultural development was begun. Other country locations that were started in this period were Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
, Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
, Laos
Laos
Laos Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ Sathalanalat Paxathipatai Paxaxon Lao, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west...
, and Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
.
2nd Decade (1963-1972)
Vietnam and Laos were main focuses of the IVS program during this period, and although all programs in southeast Asia were closed by the mid-seventies, approximately 800 volunteers had served there in the proceeding 20 years. Groups here worked in both rural and urban settings and by the late sixties had become entangled in the turmoil of the Vietnam warVietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
. Eleven volunteers were killed or died in accidents during this period and three were captured and imprisoned by the North Vietnamese.
The first volunteer to lose his life was Peter M. Hunting, a 1963 Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college founded in 1831 and located in Middletown, Connecticut. According to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Wesleyan is the only Baccalaureate College in the nation that emphasizes undergraduate instruction in the arts and...
graduate, who was killed in an ambush in the Mekong Delta
Mekong Delta
The Mekong Delta is the region in southwestern Vietnam where the Mekong River approaches and empties into the sea through a network of distributaries. The Mekong delta region encompasses a large portion of southwestern Vietnam of . The size of the area covered by water depends on the season.The...
in 1965. He is the subject of a memoir and magazine article by his sister, the author and radio essayist Jill Hunting. Jill Hunting writes in her memoir that volunteers in the Vietnam war zone were aware of the risks they took, with one volunteer reporting "thirty different attempts on his life that he never mentioned to anyone while he was in Vietnam."
In addition, there were programs in Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
, Gaza
Gaza
Gaza , also referred to as Gaza City, is a Palestinian city in the Gaza Strip, with a population of about 450,000, making it the largest city in the Palestinian territories.Inhabited since at least the 15th century BC,...
, Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
, Sabah
Sabah
Sabah is one of 13 member states of Malaysia. It is located on the northern portion of the island of Borneo. It is the second largest state in the country after Sarawak, which it borders on its southwest. It also shares a border with the province of East Kalimantan of Indonesia in the south...
, Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
, Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
, Zaire
Zaire
The Republic of Zaire was the name of the present Democratic Republic of the Congo between 27 October 1971 and 17 May 1997. The name of Zaire derives from the , itself an adaptation of the Kongo word nzere or nzadi, or "the river that swallows all rivers".-Self-proclaimed Father of the Nation:In...
, Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
, and Yemen
Yemen
The Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....
.
3rd Decade (1973-1982)
By 1975, all volunteers had been pulled out of mainland southeast Asia. This ended the "Indochina" period of IVS. This change was followed by expansion in other regions around the world. In Bangladesh, volunteer teams worked with agriculture, silviculture, and horticulture, as well as heath and family planning. Disaster relief became important later in the program. A clean water project was undertook in Madagascar, and IVS moved into Latin America. Locations included Ecuador, Bolivia, Indonesia, Colombia, Mauritania, Papua New Guinea, Botswana, and Honduras.4th Decade (1983-1992)
This period of IVS saw a transition from an earlier model where young people from North AmericaNorth America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
were sent all over the world, to one where a smaller number of professionals were placed in locations. In some regions, skilled and educated locals, whose skills were not being utilized due to underemployment
Underemployment
Underemployment refers to an employment situation that is insufficient in some important way for the worker, relative to a standard. Examples include holding a part-time job despite desiring full-time work, and overqualification, where the employee has education, experience, or skills beyond the...
, were recruited to volunteer in the program. By the 1990's over 80% of IVS staff and volunteers were host country nationals or internationals. In addition, IVS began working with other aid organizations
Aid agency
An aid agency is an organisation dedicated to distributing aid. Many professional aid organisations exist, both within government , between governments as multilateral donors and as private voluntary organizations...
in regions, supplying volunteers to these existing programs.
Programs that began during this time period include Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
, the Caribbean, Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
, Cape Verde
Cape Verde
The Republic of Cape Verde is an island country, spanning an archipelago of 10 islands located in the central Atlantic Ocean, 570 kilometres off the coast of Western Africa...
, Mali
Mali
Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...
, and an HIV/AIDS education
AIDS education and training centers
AIDS, caused by the human immunodeficiency virus , has become a global health issue, and various ways are being explored in order to combat the spread of the disease. One such way to somewhat limit the spread of AIDS is through education...
program among sex workers in Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
, Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
, and Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
.
Fifth Decade (1993-2002)
Financial concerns became severe during this period, ultimately forcing the organization to close. Several changes were made to avoid this, such as restructuring to work in partnership with other PVOPVO
PVO may refer to:* DaimlerChrysler's Performance Vehicle Operations, also known as Street and Racing Technology* Private voluntary organization...
organizations, placing self-funded volunteers in other national NGO organizations, and nearly abandoning the original vision of grassroots volunteerism to fund and support foreign organizations.
When the eventuality of closing IVS became unavoidable, the organization committed itself to establishing its remaining operating programs in Bolivia
Bolivia
Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
, Ecuador
Ecuador
Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
, and Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
as national NGOs. This goal was achieved with the creation of Fundacion Mingo/IVS and IVS Bangladesh. The Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
program had already converted to this model in 1984, to form Caribbean Advisory and Professional Services.
Finances
Although IVS was private, it accepted financing for some of its projects from the United States Agency for International DevelopmentUnited States Agency for International Development
The United States Agency for International Development is the United States federal government agency primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid. President John F. Kennedy created USAID in 1961 by executive order to implement development assistance programs in the areas...
(USAID) and its predecessors, the United States Technical Cooperation Administration
Point Four Program
The Point Four Program was a technical assistance program for "developing countries" announced by United States President Harry S. Truman in his inaugural address on January 20, 1949...
and the United States International Cooperation Administration
International Cooperation Administration
The International Cooperation Administration was established by the U.S. State Department Delegation of Authority 85, June 30, 1955, pursuant to EO 10610, May 9, 1955. The predecessor to this administration was the Foreign Operations Administration . Both oganizations coordinated foreign...
. While steps were taken to broaden the financial base, this dependency became a critical problem later in the organization's history. The organization never developed a strong fiscal support system.
During the fifth decade, financial difficulties increased. The Cooperative Agreement with USAID ended, significantly reducing the amount of money coming in through grants. Later, when USAID policy changed to fund programs based in foreign countries, rather than Washington D.C., even less financial support was coming to IVS.
People
Anthony LakeAnthony Lake
William Anthony Kirsopp Lake, best known as Tony Lake, is the Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund , author, academic, and former American diplomat, Foreign Service Officer, and political advisor. He has been a foreign policy advisor to many Democratic U.S...
, who became executive director of UNICEF in 2010, served briefly as head of IVS in the 1970s.
One of the most notable IVS volunteers was Edgar "Pop" Buell
Edgar Buell
Edgar “Pop” Buell was a short, bald, profane Indiana farmer born in 1913. Until the age of 47 he resided in Steuben County, Indiana. After his wife died in 1958, he looked for new meaning in his life. He found it with the International Voluntary Services, a precursor to the Peace Corps, which...
, a farmer from Steuben County, Indiana
Steuben County, Indiana
Steuben County is a county located in the northeast corner of the U.S. state of Indiana. As of 2010, the population was 34,185. The county seat is Angola...
, who volunteered to work in agricultural development projects in Laos in 1960. Buell later became a senior USAID official in Laos and managed humanitarian relief to the Hmong
Hmong people
The Hmong , are an Asian ethnic group from the mountainous regions of China, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. Hmong are also one of the sub-groups of the Miao ethnicity in southern China...
people during the "Secret War" in which the Hmong, with backing from the United States Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
, fought communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
Pathet Lao
Pathet Lao
The Pathet Lao was a communist political movement and organization in Laos, formed in the mid-20th century. The group was ultimately successful in assuming political power after the Laotian Civil War. The Pathet Lao were always closely associated with Vietnamese communists...
forces.
In 1967, four senior IVS staff members in Vietnam, including country director Don Luce, resigned to protest American policy in the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, which they believed undermined the humanitarian work that IVS was trying to carry out. The four also drafted a letter to President Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
calling the war "an overwhelming atrocity." Signed by 49 IVS volunteers and staff members, the letter received front-page coverage in the New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
.
In 1971, two IVS volunteers in Vietnam, Alexander D. Shimkin
Alexander D. Shimkin
Alexander Demitri "Alex" Shimkin was an American war correspondent who was killed in Vietnam. He is notable for his investigation of non-combatant casualties in Operation Speedy Express.-Early life and civil rights work:...
and Ronald Moreau, were terminated by the organization when they became sources for a New York Times story by Gloria Emerson
Gloria Emerson
Gloria Emerson was an American author, journalist and New York Times war correspondent, who won a National Book Award for her book about the Vietnam War, Winners and Losers....
about the forced use of Vietnamese civilians by South Vietnamese officers and their American advisers to clear land mines near the village of Ba Chúc
Ba Chúc
Ba Chúc is a commune and village of the Tri Tôn District of An Giang Province, Vietnam. During the Vietnam war, the village came to the attention of Americans when it was revealed in the New York Times that civilians there had been forced by ARVN officers and their American advisers to remove...
. Shimkin was killed the following year while covering the war for Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
. Moreau later became Newsweek's correspondent for Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
and Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
.
Legacy
Considered a precursor to the Peace CorpsPeace Corps
The Peace Corps is an American volunteer program run by the United States Government, as well as a government agency of the same name. The mission of the Peace Corps includes three goals: providing technical assistance, helping people outside the United States to understand US culture, and helping...
.
IVS was dissolved in 2002.
The archives of IVS are at the Mennonite Church USA Archives
Mennonite Church USA Archives
The Mennonite Church USA Archives was founded in 2001 under the denominational merger of the Mennonite Church and the General Conference Mennonite Church...
on the Goshen College
Goshen College
Goshen College, is a private Mennonite liberal arts college in Goshen, Indiana, USA with an enrollment of around 1,000 students. The college is accredited by North Central Association of Colleges and Schools and is a member of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities...
campus in Goshen, Indiana
Goshen, Indiana
Goshen is a city in and the county seat of Elkhart County, Indiana, United States. It is the smaller of the two principal cities of the Elkhart-Goshen Metropolitan Statistical Area, which in turn is part of the South Bend-Elkhart-Mishawaka Combined Statistical Area. It is located in the northern...
.
A report on IVS/Vietnam is at http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNABI170.pdf