International Association IBO
IBO activities started in 1953 at the initiative of a Dutch priest, Father Werenfried van Straaten, to help refugees that still lived under very bad conditions after WWII. In several countries separate organisations were founded. These came together in an international association, IBO, in 1962. IBO functions as a framework for the cooperation between the members, thus promoting a good coordination of the activities.  IBO is a member of the Coordinating Committee for International Voluntary Service / UNESCO.

At the moment, IBO-Europe has branches in Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Switzerland. In 2004 activities were organised in all these countries (apart from Switzerland), as well as in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Lithuania, Romania, Russia, Slovakia.

In principle each national branche has three tasks:

• The organisation of workcamps in its own country;
  
  
• The sending of volunteers abroad;
  
  
• Gathering the finances necessary for these activities.