Volunteering overseas in disaster zones has traditionally meant committing at least a year, paying a host organisation, or possessing a particularly desirable skill set. In our experience, many people would love to give their time and energy volunteering in a disaster zone, but a year off or spare EU1,000 never becomes available. Many people want to contribute but feel that they can’t.
Since 2005, our founding members have worked with several organisations which were set up to challenge the notion that “ordinary” citizens can't be disaster response volunteers. The Tsunami Volunteer Center (TVC), Hands On Disaster Response (HODR), and Burners Without Borders (BWB) were founded on the belief that you, as an individual, have something invaluable to contribute to a powerful, world-wide community of volunteers.
Working with these landmark organisations showed our founding members that supposedly ordinary people working together with the guidance of knowledgeable leaders can make an extraordinary difference in the lives of those affected by disaster.
It was while working on deployment in Pisco, Peru in 2008 that EDV's founding members began discussing how it might be possible for us, a previously absent European based group, to form a new organisation that could take full advantage of European resources.
In September 2008, we decided to move forward and found EDV.
Since our founding, we've registered EDV as charity in England and Wales, raised more than EU 14,500, been named New Start Magazine's International Charity for 2009/2010 award, and launched our first deployment in Haiti.
