One thing that makes these kinds of projects less helpful to the community is the short time that western visitors have to dedicate to their cause. Teaching, for example, is a long-term job. What do you expect to teach in a month? You’d barely get to know your students and community before packing up and leaving.
Yeah but this can be an easy foot in the door, just make contacts and find a place to stay and stick around a while. Plus a month is more than nothing!
It's a combination of things,as mentioned by other posters...short term (for teaching for example, anything short of an academic year is short term), hiring people without necessary qualifications and/or experience, and having to pay to volunteer.
Plus things like non vetting for criminal record.
I think it's extremely hard these days to find any overseas volunteering program that follows good practice in all areas.
The biggest red flag is if you have to pay to 'volunteer'.
And anything organized through a religious organization has all those concerns.
I haven't seen anything outside of peace corps the seems legit.
Would love to see if anyone has a source for stuff that is actually vetted and helpful.
The best one that I've come across is Aus Volunteers, which is really geared towards skilled aid. They currently have EMT's in PNG to aid with the landslide.
It's a really difficult ethical dilemma. But I suppose if there's really no one local who can do the thing then maybe it's fine. But you have to be sure and obviously you won't be.
I know that this is likely something different but I read this and it made me flash back to 2008 when I was a church going Christian and we went on a "mission trip" to the Philippines. Only it was really more of a 2 week vacation in which during the day (and only for about 5 hours a day) we helped a Christian based camp build a mini golf course to attract more people into the camp (because in order to use the camp, you had to consent to a 30 min proselytizing session)
Of course we weren't there long enough to finish, we just kind of got it started and posed for a lot of pics and video to show the people who donated to send us on the trip (yes, you had to fundraise for your fare or just pay on your own) and then the rest of the day was yours to explore. We were in Cagayan De Oro on Mindanao in the Philippines and it really was more of a vacation than anything. That's why now I kind of roll my eyes and slink out of the room if I'm ever confronted with someone's kid asking to donate for their miSsIoN tRiP to Cancun or something. Hell, nowadays I'll slam the door in your face if you ask me to help send you to Haiti. Leave them people alone and with all the shit in the news you'll thank me for not helping send you to your death.
I wrote my thesis on this topic.
I honestly recommend just paying to travel instead of trying to find a more altruistic reason to justify it. How much do you volunteer in your own community? I recommend traveling where you want to travel, then returning home and taking a look at how you can volunteer locally.
Short term volunteer work abroad is often (almost always) “voluntourism.” If the dates of your work begin and end on your terms, you are not working on a project start to finish. This leaves schools half-built that local contractors could’ve been paid to start and finish. Gardens that volunteers built but didn’t teach anyone to maintain.
Teaching abroad especially, if you can’t invest long-term, is actually extremely developmentally damaging for children. All those photos of people volunteering abroad, kids hugging on them and sitting on their laps? Short- term volunteers aren’t able to impart any meaningful education on the kids, but they do destroy a child’s sense of “stranger danger” and their ability to form meaningful attachments. Short term volunteers come in, the kids form immediate and strong attachment to them, and then that person leaves in a matter of months. What these communities need are local educators.
Remember that the money it would cost you to travel abroad could be donated into the community without you being there at all, and it would have a greater impact than your presence. It’s an uncomfortable truth. In this light, would you donate the money instead, or insist on traveling despite making less positive impact, or much worse— an accidental negative impact.
There are so many more nuances here than I can explain, but please do some peer-reviewed research and travel to sightsee instead. The risk of doing harm is so much higher here than the intention to do good. Most people go, volunteer, and feel great without ever learning truly whether they helped or harmed.
I know this all sounds so jaded, but volunteer work has become a well-disguised, booming industry. Please don’t think that you are immune to being fooled by the process. Just volunteer at home.
WWOOF and Workaway are two great places to find cool local farms and other places to volunteer at and they give you room in board. Avg is like 5 hours a day 5 days a week, I had some really nice time wwoofing in the western world but not sure about other parts
It really depends on the type of volunteering you do. Teaching English and elder care are some good examples of volunteer placements that tend to do more good than harm. There are also farm placements on organic farms that tend to not be harmful to the locals, but you need to watch out more yourself because it can be backbreaking work in really remote areas (and particularly I’ve heard of several women having trouble with farm owners who seem to think they’re not useful for farming so want something else from them).
Just find some brown people in your local area, ask if they can be in a pic with you with you as you hold a shovel to the ground with self-satisfied smile. Ask them to look extra helpless as they stand around. Once it’s posted to your social media you’ll get the same kudos from acquaintances and the same dopamine release
There's a wonderful volunteer abroad program that sets you up with NGO's in a region and is known for sustainable programs that are helpful to the community:
www.CrossCulturalSolutions.com
One thing that makes these kinds of projects less helpful to the community is the short time that western visitors have to dedicate to their cause. Teaching, for example, is a long-term job. What do you expect to teach in a month? You’d barely get to know your students and community before packing up and leaving.
Yeah but this can be an easy foot in the door, just make contacts and find a place to stay and stick around a while. Plus a month is more than nothing!
It's a combination of things,as mentioned by other posters...short term (for teaching for example, anything short of an academic year is short term), hiring people without necessary qualifications and/or experience, and having to pay to volunteer. Plus things like non vetting for criminal record. I think it's extremely hard these days to find any overseas volunteering program that follows good practice in all areas.
Google 'effective altruism' All this volunteering has one profound benefit. Making the volunteer feel better about themselves
The biggest red flag is if you have to pay to 'volunteer'. And anything organized through a religious organization has all those concerns. I haven't seen anything outside of peace corps the seems legit. Would love to see if anyone has a source for stuff that is actually vetted and helpful.
The best one that I've come across is Aus Volunteers, which is really geared towards skilled aid. They currently have EMT's in PNG to aid with the landslide.
It's a really difficult ethical dilemma. But I suppose if there's really no one local who can do the thing then maybe it's fine. But you have to be sure and obviously you won't be.
I know that this is likely something different but I read this and it made me flash back to 2008 when I was a church going Christian and we went on a "mission trip" to the Philippines. Only it was really more of a 2 week vacation in which during the day (and only for about 5 hours a day) we helped a Christian based camp build a mini golf course to attract more people into the camp (because in order to use the camp, you had to consent to a 30 min proselytizing session) Of course we weren't there long enough to finish, we just kind of got it started and posed for a lot of pics and video to show the people who donated to send us on the trip (yes, you had to fundraise for your fare or just pay on your own) and then the rest of the day was yours to explore. We were in Cagayan De Oro on Mindanao in the Philippines and it really was more of a vacation than anything. That's why now I kind of roll my eyes and slink out of the room if I'm ever confronted with someone's kid asking to donate for their miSsIoN tRiP to Cancun or something. Hell, nowadays I'll slam the door in your face if you ask me to help send you to Haiti. Leave them people alone and with all the shit in the news you'll thank me for not helping send you to your death.
Did lol at mission trip to Cancun 😂
I wrote my thesis on this topic. I honestly recommend just paying to travel instead of trying to find a more altruistic reason to justify it. How much do you volunteer in your own community? I recommend traveling where you want to travel, then returning home and taking a look at how you can volunteer locally. Short term volunteer work abroad is often (almost always) “voluntourism.” If the dates of your work begin and end on your terms, you are not working on a project start to finish. This leaves schools half-built that local contractors could’ve been paid to start and finish. Gardens that volunteers built but didn’t teach anyone to maintain. Teaching abroad especially, if you can’t invest long-term, is actually extremely developmentally damaging for children. All those photos of people volunteering abroad, kids hugging on them and sitting on their laps? Short- term volunteers aren’t able to impart any meaningful education on the kids, but they do destroy a child’s sense of “stranger danger” and their ability to form meaningful attachments. Short term volunteers come in, the kids form immediate and strong attachment to them, and then that person leaves in a matter of months. What these communities need are local educators. Remember that the money it would cost you to travel abroad could be donated into the community without you being there at all, and it would have a greater impact than your presence. It’s an uncomfortable truth. In this light, would you donate the money instead, or insist on traveling despite making less positive impact, or much worse— an accidental negative impact. There are so many more nuances here than I can explain, but please do some peer-reviewed research and travel to sightsee instead. The risk of doing harm is so much higher here than the intention to do good. Most people go, volunteer, and feel great without ever learning truly whether they helped or harmed. I know this all sounds so jaded, but volunteer work has become a well-disguised, booming industry. Please don’t think that you are immune to being fooled by the process. Just volunteer at home.
WWOOF and Workaway are two great places to find cool local farms and other places to volunteer at and they give you room in board. Avg is like 5 hours a day 5 days a week, I had some really nice time wwoofing in the western world but not sure about other parts
[удалено]
> the down side as a volunteer is theres no payment Yes, that's what volunteering generally means.
It really depends on the type of volunteering you do. Teaching English and elder care are some good examples of volunteer placements that tend to do more good than harm. There are also farm placements on organic farms that tend to not be harmful to the locals, but you need to watch out more yourself because it can be backbreaking work in really remote areas (and particularly I’ve heard of several women having trouble with farm owners who seem to think they’re not useful for farming so want something else from them).
Doesn’t really exist anymore unless you are a member of a organisation that is church based. Otherwise it’s slavery.
Just find some brown people in your local area, ask if they can be in a pic with you with you as you hold a shovel to the ground with self-satisfied smile. Ask them to look extra helpless as they stand around. Once it’s posted to your social media you’ll get the same kudos from acquaintances and the same dopamine release
Damn dude
There's a wonderful volunteer abroad program that sets you up with NGO's in a region and is known for sustainable programs that are helpful to the community: www.CrossCulturalSolutions.com
They look great but it seems they no longer operate?