Voluntourism: What could go wrong when trying to do right?

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Comments

[Michael Wollan]

A year ago I was a (college-grad) tourist hoping to volunteer in a developing country, motivated by the desire to learn first-hand at least as much as to feel nice. The more I searched for and investigated the options available, the more I realised many of the points you make in this great article. But this search is HARD. And you must do it yourself - I don't feel I could trust any travel agent to sufficiently investigate these issues.

When I heard the lesson first hand, it became clear to me. As part of a tour group in Calcutta, I visited a locally-run foundation-funded non-government school for children, and heard from one of the staff that foreign volunteers aren't welcome to teach because they simply don't commit for the length of time required for the children to complete the curriculum and sit final tests. We toured the school, met the children, asked questions of the staff and learned a lot. Some of us made a financial donation, and the tour company matched us. It was great to see the children's education being top priority.

However, another example wasn't so clear, and perhaps you can give me your perspective. I investigated online a program in Nepal that brought young foreign tourists to an orphanage to provide care and to teach English, computer-use and other topics for varying periods of up to three months. The program also arranged tour activities in the spare time. To participate meant a substantial fee had to be paid, which covered all expenses, but also funded the running of the orphanage itself. To me, this model implied the entrenchment of short-lived emotional bonds and constantly varying teaching styles, which does not ideally benefit the children. It is perhaps my lack of direct experience that has not allowed me to form a solid opinion on whether this is wrong for not aiming to train and employ long-term local teachers and carers, or whether it is right because it is better than no orphanage.

Sadly, relying on my own online search skills at the time, I could not find a suitable, affordable and sustainable short-term (up to three months) voluntourism program, and did not volunteer. Perhaps some of the links on this site will help for next time.

Thanks for your article.

As a side (and final!) note, my new goal is to volunteer long-term in development. One of the great organisations I found online last year was Pepy! (which is how I found this great blog). But it may be some time before I will have the means to do a 6-12 months unpaid internship, or the experience level required for a development-aid-funded graduate scheme.

[Daniela Papi]

Thank you for the comments, Rebecca. Yes, indeed, I do think making a donation to an NGO when they are investing time in your group is appropriate.

I have spoken with tour companies and volunteer tourism operators who have responded in each of these two ways when asked why they don't give any of their fees to partner NGOs:

"We don't want to give money to the NGOs as we don't want to aid corruption." - My response to that argument is, if you are not willing to put the time in to vet NGOs properly, then you shouldn't be giving them money, but then you also shouldn't be visiting them! Even if YOU are not giving the NGO money, the people you bring will assume you have done your due diligence and will perhaps take it upon themselves to donate to this group you have chosen as their "worthy cause." We should be making sure that our partners are worthy of support before choosing to send groups to them, and make sure we compensate those responsible partners for their time so that they can continue to do great work. (To be honest, what I do find difficult is if travelers want to visit an NGO they have heard of and want to learn more about, one I am not a fan of, but who is willing to take our group in for the visit. I struggle as to what is right in that situation.)

Another argument I have heard from companies charging money from clients but not using any of it to give to the NGOs who are hosting their guests is "We don't want to create any dependencies." Well, if your clients are still giving money directly, then this excuse is not valid, and you are preventing your clients from donating but are instead giving your time and service on a regular basis, is that not another type of dependency on foreign labor? Wouldn't it be better that that organization had funding and could hire people to do whatever tasks you were volunteering for even when you were not there? And if you were worried about them spending money in the wrong place, then are they are probably the wrong people to be working with in the first place!

I have a lot more thoughts on voluntourism dilemmas on the voluntourism section of my blog http://lessonsilearned.org/ and I know Saundra has written extensively about these issues as well. Thanks for reading, commenting, and thinking about these issues!

[Rebecca]

In my job I've often traveled with college students who want to do "service," and we discuss exactly these issues. Thanks for this concise and cogent synthesis of them. Your experienced perspective is appreciated.

One thing I do when I'm organizing the trip is incorporate educational visits or short-term "internships" at community organizations (preferably those run by members of said community) and pay the organization "tuition" for their time and expertise. I figure if we don't bat an eye paying $10/person for educational museum tickets we can give $100-$300 to an NGO who's just hosted us for the day and taught us far more. But I haven't been in your shoes: Do you think this is a reasonable way to tour responsibly?

Also, Jane, ditto. I too find that students, on returning, see the injustices of their own community much more clearly, and make a point of discussing throughout these trips where we might find similar issues to become involved with at home. I also explicitly ask at the end of the trip for students to brainstorm a list of things they can do to repay or pay forward the debt they've incurred through the privilege of their "voluntourism." To me, this is the main reason for supporting such trips.

[Daniela Papi]

Thanks for the comment, Jane.

An organization that I really respect and have worked with a bit that I think does this well for the secondary school age group is Where There Be Dragons. They focus on exposing their students to educational opportunities about responsible development/tourism/self development while also making sure their travel is responsible and "low to the ground". It seems to me that they have been very successful at trying to foster educated global citizens through their tours.

While the price of this type of organized travel can exclude some, there are a lot of lessons to learn in how they and other educational tour operators organize their trips.

If we can remind people that their whole life is their canvas with which to improve the world, not just their week-long volunteer vacations, they might start to look at their vacation time as their monitoring, learning, and "reality-check" time, and the other 51 weeks a year as their time to "save the world."

[Jane Reitsma]

Great piece. I have also been exposed to poorly thought out voluntour trips and young people that were taught they could "save" the world. As a secondary school teacher I am determined to help young people learn about good community development and global citizenship. One of the coolest things I learned along the way is that when young people have positive experiences learning about community development overseas they return to become engaged, committed members of their local community.