ABOUT US

The Austrian Service Abroad Association is a non-profit organisation and is largely organised on a voluntary basis. There are currently more than 50 worldwide service locations that are organised into nine areas (South America, Central America, North America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, South Eastern Europe and Israel, East Asia and Australia, South Asia, Africa). Each area is led by an area coordinator. There is a high degree of self-administration within the year groups, which is ensured by a year group spokesperson council. As we are the only organisation supporting voluntary service abroad, the association is present and active in all the new federal states. The Austrian Service Abroad Association is the only organisation that offers all three types of services - memorial service, social service and peace service. Apart from the board of directors, there is a management team and various departments, which are also headed by volunteers.
The Austrian Service Abroad Association lays great emphasis on intensive and long preparation and support of the volunteers abroad.

The Israeli Volunteer Association (IVA) is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation that has been running various programs in the non-profit and volunteer sector in Israel for over 40 years. The IVA serves over 6,000 volunteers a year who come from various cultural and religious communities in Israeli society - Jewish and Arab, secular and religious, working in all parts of Israel. The IVA has over 180,000 graduates and is the largest and oldest organisation of its kind in Israel. The IVA promotes solidarity, equality and social justice and enables young people of all faiths to engage in meaningful volunteer work through which they can acquire social and professional skills.

With many years of professional experience in designing new volunteer programs for different target groups, the IVA was able to build international cooperation and develop new volunteer programs for people outside Israel. In doing so, the IVA can build on long-term cooperations with hundreds of organizations from all over Israel. These programs enable volunteers to gain valuable experience, build relationships and gain a better understanding of conditions in Israel. Through its good relations with Israeli authorities, IVA is able to provide administrative support to volunteers, facilitating, for example, visa applications. Building on its previous experience, IVA has trained a professional team of facilitators and coordinators who can individually accompany and support volunteers throughout Israel with their administrative, social and educational needs.

The IVA's international program is designed as a partnership between Israeli organizations, foreign NGOs (in Austria's case, the Verein Österreichischer Auslandsdienst) and international volunteers.