Who We Are
Volunteers for Sustainable Development in Africa (VOSIEDA)
Volunteers for Sustainable Development in Africa (VOSIEDA) is a Liberian development organization and a network of volunteers working to promote prosperity, reduce extreme poverty, and strengthen peace and stability in Liberia and West Africa’s Mano River Union Basin region: Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone.
Mission
VOSIEDA’s mission is to promote prosperity, reduce extreme poverty, increase economic opportunity, sustain natural resources, and promote peace and stability.
We are incubator of grassroots innovators
We are an incubator of grassroots innovators and the potential of a better future for local communities and people challenged by poverty and marginalization in West Africa’s Mano River Union. We are a leader in community-driven development. Our integrated approach focuses on systemic changes needed to improve people’s lives.
We are community-builders
For more than 20 years, VOSIEDA has empowered hundreds of local volunteers that have used their passion, energy, and intelligence to carryout various sustainable projects from environment and food security to women empowerment, etc. We are always working to improve lives in West Africa’s Mano River’s basin, and we are committed.
We work differently
We facilitate local community groups to identify, prioritize and resolve issues of persistent poverty, empowering participants by equipping them with confidence, skills, resource, and networks to enable them to act together to improve their lives. We work like this because we believed overcoming extreme in West Africa will not be possible without empowering communities to authentically participate and invest in taking ownership, designing and implementing their successful outcomes.
We think differently
We are now raising new questions such as what can we do differently to end poverty in West Africa? We are also riding ourselves of traditional thinking and start using innovation, creativity, and possibilities to address old and deep-rooted poverty problems. We are reaching the poor and empowering them with information so that they can bring pressure to bear on their leaders as a means of creating a prosperous future in West Africa’s Mano River Basin.
Our Priorities
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to tackling sustainable development challenges. We support communities to overcome poverty and reluctance through grassroots, community-driven development and people center model. We honestly believe in working with partners, and the voices of the people with whom we work are at the forefront of everything we do. We couple this with a culture of innovation and learning that ensures we challenge the status quo to find impactful and sustainable solutions. Our goal is to empower people, families, and communities to end extreme poverty.
Our work crosscut across several sectors and issues. Below is the essence of what we do and how we do what we do.
We Promote Volunteerism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusive Development
As a network of volunteers, we strive to shape West Africa’s Subregion where people unite and participate in their development. We value diversity and celebrates the contributions of people of all backgrounds, regardless of their age, ethnicity, race, color, abilities, religion, socioeconomic status, culture, sex, and gender identity.
We continue to train and empower small scale farmers, individuals and communities to increase their productivity, thrive financially and move beyond dependency to productivity in West Africa’s Mano River Basin.