Indian Volunteers for Community Service

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Indian Volunteers for Community Service (IVCS) is a registered charity whose aim is to raise funds for rural development projects in India, and to raise awareness of rural development in India by enabling people to experience grass roots development through direct involvement[1]. It is non-political and non-religious.

[edit] History

IVCS was established in the UK in 1981 to give people from the West an opportunity to experience rural India. Although initially aimed at people of Indian origin living in the West (resulting in the name of the charity), interest was shown by people of non-Indian origin and so the entry criteria were opened up to allow people from all backgrounds to join.

[edit] Current work

IVCS raises funds to support small self-help projects in India with the intention of contributing towards sustainable human development.

It runs a scheme which enables members of IVCS to visit rural India at a project in the village of Amarpurkashi, Uttar Pradesh, where they can assist with a rural development project there and learn about other development projects in India.