Categories: Sustainability | Tourism | Volunteer Voluntourism means combining your passion for traveling (tourism) while giving back to the countries you visit (volunteering). A combination of volunteering and tourism, voluntourism is a popular form of international travel. You use your time and energy to help others while exploring a different country and culture. Though there are many surface level rewards, may actually be a growing issue with the impact it has on commonly traveled countries. How can you help the world around you in a sustainable and impactful way? As the popularity of voluntourism increases, we should first look into the reasons why people participate. Many people want to donate their time and energy while abroad to feel a sense of connection with the community, find their purpose, or to make the world a better place. All of this can be done, but may create more problems than it solves. Despite the good intentions from participants, volunteering abroad has been the target of heavy criticism over the last few years Voluntourists and Ted Talk presenter Rob Ormerod, reviews his positive experience in South America in Volunteer your way around the world. As they built a community center over the course of a 2 year period, more than 400 volunteers visited the site in 2 week intervals before moving on to other countries and other projects. Ormerod reiterates how the expertise of a multitude of people came in handy as engineers, construction workers, or product designers added their input to the building, but reteaching the necessary basic skills piled up more time than anticipated. In his positive experience he found that everyone came looking for something different, but they all left with the same thing: a fulfilling experience. Ormerod illustrates the positive light that many see when it comes to voluntourism and dedicating your time to make the world a better place. It all starts with good intentions and a positive mindset, by traveling with a purpose of bettering the place you visit; if you’re going to volunteer where you travel, why not volunteer at home too? He concludes his presentation by saying “There are many ways to change the world, it doesn't have to cost a fortune to travel, so go volunteer” Voluntourists and Ted Talk presenter Daniela Papi, is not as positive in her TedTalk What's wrong with volunteer travel? where she dives into the many reasons why voluntourism may actually be setting us up for failure. Through her 6 years spent in Cambodia, she intended on building a school to help educate the children in the community. Though her intentions, spirits, and funds were high, she learned that schools don't educate children, people do. She and her group came into a community they were unfamiliar with and decided to give them what they thought they needed. Unfortunately, without local insight you cannot properly provide what's needed. The short term solution of building a school and filling it with supplies, eventually turned into a larger problem when she realized they were actually taking away opportunities from the local markets and children on the streets trying to fill their stomachs. This taught her a lesson about how we need to learn before we can help. By turning service learning into learning service we can stop sympathy volunteering, and start empathy learning. When we remove the need for a sense of superiority, which we get from the pictures we have of orphaned children, building schools, and donating goods, we can humble ourselves with a gained sense of knowledge and understanding for others from different cultures. Reasons Voluntourism Isn't As Great As You Might Think It Is:Unskilled labor creates more work A large reason many projects are left unfinished while volunteering abroad is that many don't realize the time and energy it will actually take. There is a learning curve as they may lack the resources needed for the job and most likely won't have the necessary heavy machinery, meaning everything must be done by hand. With unskilled hands in projects that include construction and digging, tasks end up being done poorly and often remain unfinished. Leaving behind halfway done projects creates a burden on the local community to finish something they didn't sign up for. Volunteers take local jobs Volunteers creating work often takes projects away from local contractors that could use the work. This also removes the opportunity for skill building for those in the area and may create an economy dependent on unreliable outsiders to improve their circumstances. Volunteers could better offer their time by helping make economies more independent and self-sufficient through teaching their skills. No long term commitment Many acts of volunteerism occur over the span of a few short weeks. Communities that truly need the assistance of volunteers are left to finish projects with no sense of direction and little to no funding. There can be some good to come from short term help, but this is often only when the volunteers have the skill and training for the communities specific needs, such as health care, construction, or conservation. Perpetuates “white-savior complex” The white-savior complex is an idea in which a white person, or more broadly a white culture, “rescues” people of color from their own situation in a self-serving manner. Traveling to so-called “third world” countries bolsters a feeling of superiority and fuels this white savior complex. Though this may not be the case for all participants of volunteerism, it may still perpetuate the idea in developing countries that they need the assistance of westerners and normalizes the power imbalance between the volunteer and the developing community. Ultimately these white saviors end up using their volunteer work in underdeveloped nations to fuel their sense of being “better than.” Volunteer work may help to spread awareness of poverty and those in need, but is also a way that validates the privilege of those who are giving as a way to fix the guilt they may feel living the rest of their lives the way they do. Focus on rewarding the volunteer Voluntourism places a lot of emphasis on the volunteers and not on the situation happening within the community in need. The ability to have short lived immediate validation and rewards bring in those who are looking to serve themselves more than they are looking to give back. By focusing more on how they're helping these needy communities, volunteers may not have their intentions in the right place. Many short term helpers can actually create an economy dependent on help and deter communities from creating paid opportunities for their locals. Four Ways to Not Be A Part Of The Problem1. Do Your Research Make sure you are asking all of the proper questions, and basing your actions off of the answers. Look around their social media to see if they outwardly promote that they are a sustainable volunteer organization and if they visibly contribute to the local communities. From here, you can see if they respect the environment, customs of the culture, and current issues of the specific area. Lastly, find if they are transparent about affiliations and how their funds are used. Organizations that respect the places they are looking to help are what you are ultimately looking for. 2. Choose How and Where You’ll Live While Volunteering Abroad Homestays are a great way to fully submerge yourself in the culture. They are not only cost effective, but any money spent can go directly to the local family. For volunteers uncomfortable with a homestay option, purposely choosing local accommodations may have the same impact where you see exactly where your contributions are going. 3. Live Responsibly While Participating in Sustainable Volunteering Abroad Walking, biking, and public transportation are great alternatives to rental cars and taxis. For longer distances, try slower and more scenic options like trains to avoid flying. To minimize your carbon footprint, unplug appliances, reuse items as much as you can, and turn off electronics while not in use. Picking local restaurants that serve locally sourced foods, shopping at farmers markets, and reusing water bottles are also great options. 4. Spread the Word Back Home Once returning home from your responsible and sustainable volunteer opportunity, you can share your experience. Writing reviews and referrals for the places you visited can help benefit the community once you have left. This is a great way to educate others who are looking to travel and volunteer in similar locations. Sources UsedJelich, Laura. How to Volunteer Abroad Sustainably, Go Abroad, 17 Feb. 2015, www.goabroad.com/articles/volunteer-abroad/how-to-volunteer-abroad-sustainably.
Ormerod, Rob. Volunteer your way around the world, Youtube Tedx Talks, 28 Mar. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPBYZlSuvSo. Papi, Daniela. What's wrong with volunteer travel?, Youtube Tedx Talks, 15 Aug. 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYWl6Wz2NB8. Travel Earth. Does voluntourism do more harm than good?, Medium, 10 June 2019, medium.com/responsible-travel/does-voluntourism-do-more-harm-than-good-db9d0c9aedfe. Voluntourism Opportunities, Volunteer World, 2021, www.volunteerworld.com/en/volunteer-abroad/voluntourism. What is voluntourism?, Projects Abroad, 2021, www.projects-abroad.org/voluntourism/. White-Savior Complex, Black Equality Resources, 2020, blackequalityresources.com/white-savior-complex/.
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Sydney BrzezinskiSenior undergraduate student at Grand Valley State University studying Business Management, Hospitality & Tourism, and Meeting & Events Management. Through my enrollment in HTM 202 International Tourism, I have maintained this blog as a portion of my required class work from September to December 2021. - Sydney Brzezinski
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