Good Intentions Are Not Enough

How to get involved in aid

I've had two requests recently to provide information on how to develop quality international aid programs and have been invited to speak on making a difference at a college volunteer center. These requests are not surprising given the popularity of Three Cups of Tea, the desire to have a job that makes a difference, increased mobility, and the use social responsibility projects in corporate advertising. Individuals forming their own aid agencies have become so common that one in three aid agencies providing tsunami relief in Thailand were started after the tsunami, most with founders having no previous experience in aid. 

With the charitable giving season upon us, this is a good time for a series on how to make a difference.

The Allure of the Quick Fix

This is an edited version of an earlier post.

"Hit the ground running"

As a Crisis Corps Volunteer (part of the US Peace Corps) I was sent back to Thailand to help with the tsunami recovery efforts. In six months time I was to; determine needs, develop a program, find funding and resources, implement the program, and ensure that it was sustainable. All of this had to be completed on time - there would be no extensions. 

Here is the press release:

"The three resource development volunteers will be working with local governments to determine where the greatest need lies and identifying resources to help the local communities. They will also put together a local staff to insure progress will continue after the Crisis Corps team departs.

How long would it take to develop a program that solves a problem in your own community?

Imagine if a stranger were sent to your community from an aid agency boasting that they were going to solve a community problem. How would your community react and how long would it take for that stranger to be successful?

Hug-an-orphan vacations

The growing popularity of short-term international volunteering (voluntourism) has led to the disturbing trend of hug-an-orphan vacations. While visiting a foreign country people take time to volunteer at an orphanage or else are persuaded to visit orphanages while on vacation. Volunteers and donors alike should immediately question the motivations and professionalism of any orphanage that allows or promotes this.

Orphanages may purposefully maintain substandard conditions to attract foreign donors

Orphanages can bring in a lot of foreign donations, and the best way to keep those donations rolling in is to keep the children at a substandard level so that any volunteer or donor showing up will see with their own eyes how "critical" it is to donate to the orphanage. This not only brings in immediate money, but may also lead to the donor/volunteer raising money or collecting donated goods from friends and family back home. A portion of these funds may be put into caring for the children while large percentages could easily be pocketed for personal profit with few the wiser. Because most volunteers do not speak the local language, they may be completely unaware of what is actually happening while they are there.

Donating shoes and other aid fads

Just like everything else, aid goes through fads. One of the current fads is donating shoes to people in developing countries. Everywhere I look there's a shoe program. Bins for donated shoes are placed just inside the door of shoe stores, there's a phone commercial featuring a shoe company that gives away a pair of shoes for every pair they sell (I'd be interested to know if they donate their own product or if they purchase shoes locally to donate, it makes a difference), and just this week someone taped plastic bags onto all the the porches in my neighborhood with a note asking for donated shoes to send to Africa.

Now I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure they sell shoes in Africa. In fact, I would challenge my well traveled readers to name a country they've visited that didn't have shoes for sell. Just because you visited a village where people weren't wearing shoes doesn't mean that the solution is to take up a collection of shoes to donate. In fact it's often one of the worst solutions to the problem, but it's common because it's a fad that pleases donors, and therefore gets resources and funding. 

Volunteer surgical teams struggle with common aid problems

Normally I wait until Sunday to post related news items, but the article titled Volunteering Overseas - Lessons from Surgical Brigades from the New England Journal of Medicine is worth posting on it's own.  Although the article focuses on issues related to surgeries, it hits upon many of the topics I've covered in this blog.

Good aid takes time
Because of all the challenges faced in working in these conditions one doctor spoke of the need for surgeons that can stay for at least a few weeks. One doctor went as far as to say "But the real impact is made by people who are able to stay in a place for years on end. In my own experience, it took a year to really understand what was going on in a cultural and social context."
(related post: Guideline #1 for volunteering overseas)

Guideline #4 for volunteering overseas

Manage your expectations

Although volunteering overseas can be a life-changing experience, it's also one of the hardest things you'll ever do. Many people have an unrealistic expectation that their experience will be as glamorous as it seems in the Kashi commericals. Managing your expectation before you volunteer will help you have a more successful volunteer experience. Below are some of the common issues international volunteers face.

Guideline #3 for Volunteering Overseas

Examine your motivations

The debate over voluntourism seems to be coalescing around one point - motivation matters. Before volunteering it’s important to have an honest conversation with yourself and examine your motivations and whether putting yourself in the lives of aid recipients is the best way to meet your needs.

If your goal is to help people, start by helping people in your own home town

As a Peace Corps recruiter I often told recruits that you won’t save the world because the world doesn't want to be saved. You will not come riding in on a white horse with all the solutions. Social problems are not easily solved, and there are many factors contributing to them (see posting Mosquito nets, condoms, and recycling). Just as it is difficult to solve problems in our own community, it can be even harder to solve problems in someone else’s community. If your goal is to really make a difference, then consider staying at home and volunteering with charities in your own community. There are plenty of non-profits that need talented people and it may even lead to a paid position, which means you’ll be around long enough to potentially have a real impact.

Guideline #2 for volunteering overseas

Don't volunteer to do what a local person could be paid to do

When it gets right down to it, the fundamental reason why people may need aid is that they don't have enough money to pay for something themselves. Anyone that has enough money could meet all of their own needs. Saudi Arabia has very little local food production, but they don’t have a food crisis because they have the money to pay to import food. People wouldn’t need an aid agency to come in and build school for them if they could earn a good enough money to contribute to the cost of the school themselves. Therefore, one key to alleviating poverty is creating jobs that pay a living wage. By working for free to do something a local person could be hired to do, you are essentially undercutting the local labor market, thereby continuing the poverty cycle.

Guideline #1 for Volunteering Overseas

Guideline # 1 - Good volunteer projects require a significant commitment of time

While most development workers can tell stories of volunteers or volunteer projects that did more harm than good, most of us also got our start through volunteering or an internship. I personally was a Peace Corps Volunteer. With the debate raging over poverty tourism, disaster tourism and voluntourism (see links at end of post), I thought it might be a good time to develop guidelines for useful and appropriate overseas volunteer work.

Because there are many factors to consider in evaluating a volunteer project, this will be a series of posts. I welcome feedback that will help clarify, tweak, or improve the guidelines so that potential volunteers can use these to make informed decisions.

It takes time to understand the local needs and to develop a successful project

This may either be your time or the time of the organization with which you are volunteering. Significant time is needed to truly understand the local needs, their abilities, and how you can best contribute. This requires that either you or the organization understands the local language, culture, and politics. In addition, the people you are helping need to play a key role in determining the type of aid that will be provided and how it will be provided. This cannot be accomplished over a one or two week visit. In fact, Peace Corps used to counsel overanxious volunteers to not even try to accomplish anything their first year, but to spend that time learning the local context and developing relationships that will be key to a successful project. 

Disaster Tourism

As director of D-TRAC I was often asked to orient heads of aid agencies and donors on the tsunami recovery efforts. As part of this there was usually a request to visit temporary camps and villages to see things in person. I was always torn as to the right thing to do. Was it more important for that person to see the situation on the ground, or was it more important for people who have just lost their homes and loved ones to be able to care for their children and rebuild their lives without having strangers walking through their village looking at them.

What is interesting and educational to you may be intrusive and demoralizing to them

Recently, a reader argued that the donor's needs for understanding and education are just as important as the needs of the aid recipients. I would disagree with that. I strongly believe that the needs of the aid recipients should be paramount, with the needs of the donor accommodated only when it is appropriate. What is interesting and educational to the donor may be intrusive and demoralizing to the people they are trying to help.