We all tend to be very passionate when we latch onto an idea. So I know that those of us who should take a sober look at our efforts are probably the exact people who will not do so.
Step outside your enthusiasm for a moment, though, and ensure that your intentions are being served as effectively as possible. Whether you're considering volunteering as part of an upcoming trip or maybe you're a seasoned volunteer, there are a few things you should consider.
These are not items for or against volunteering outside of your home country. More accurately, they are considerations regarding the effectiveness and direction of your efforts. You are volunteering to be effective, right?
Here are a couple of examples to help you get into that big-picture frame of mind when considering whether to donate your time to a cause.
Creating Dependencies
Let me tell you a story of a real problem we faced in post-earthquake Haiti. Thousands and thousands of Haitians were living in IDP camps after the significant January 12th, 2010 earthquake. In disasters, IDP means Internally Displaced People and is used to differentiate them from international refugee camps.
In the case of Haiti, the average IDP camp is a vast area of tarps, sheet metal, salvage, and far too many families, all crammed together in an open space such as a farmer's field or a park. Not a place anyone would willingly reside.
In any case, a few months after the earthquake, many volunteer groups were heavily focused on helping families move out of these camps and back onto their own property.
Everyone naturally assumes that camp residents would be eager to move away. However, the actual situation that unfolded is that the families would not go.
They loved the idea of leaving the camp but weren't willing to go without the handouts of food, clothes, and other essentials that other volunteer groups were providing in the camp.
If these families went home, they would miss out on the handouts, and so these well-meaning handout organizations were creating a considerable dependency on living in horrible squalor.
Consider, then, on top of all this, the cholera epidemic that Haiti is now seeing and how IDP camps have zero sanitation. How many families are living in potentially deadly filth so they can get their handouts?
I bring this up as something to consider because it's often tough to see the knock-off effects beyond the obvious initial benefits of a kind act.
Time and Money
They say that math never lies, and in this situation, that is pretty much true. Do some math on your potential volunteer plan and see if you're effective with your help.
For example, if you buy a new pair of boots, a sun hat, and a case of bug spray, plus pay for an international flight to help an organization, are you providing more value than the sum of your expenses?
Would the organization have been better served by receiving the money you spent?
Now add the value in time and materials of any training and housing you will receive, plus the proverbial free t-shirt. You see where I'm going here.
By the time you get your butt to an international volunteering situation, you've spent a noteworthy amount of time and money (same thing).
Maybe you should have donated that money instead? Sure, you wouldn't feel awesome, but this isn't about you.
If you're going to spend the money on volunteering, be confident that you are competent enough to make it worthwhile.
Skills vs. Jobs
A common point of contention among international volunteers is the "foreigner saves the day" syndrome. What can you and your friends do that someone local to the issue can not?
Are you providing training and addressing absent skills, or are you simply doing what a local would do if given the chance? This one is often related to time and money considerations as well.
Why should you pay hundreds in airfare, etc., to go milk seals for a week, or whatever it is you want to do, when your expenses could otherwise employ a local for a year to do the same job?
Look for aspects of your plan that involve training or enabling people to help themselves. You know the saying, "Give a man a fish, and he eats for a day, but teach a man to fish, and he eats for a lifetime."
So teach that unemployed local person how to milk seals so that he can then make a living, which he previously wasn't able to do, rather than milking seals for a week and then leaving. Perhaps I should have used a different hypothetical cause? You get the idea.
Conclusion
I encourage you to be able to honestly list the value you are adding. Don't generalize or gloss things over because you're caught up in the romanticism of helping. That said, I encourage you to volunteer.
As all voluntourists should do, I also encourage you to stay involved in some sense afterward. Tell folks about how and why you volunteered, and be around for your co-volunteers to commiserate with.
There are, in fact, very few things in this world as rewarding and satisfying as being directly involved in a meaningful project purely for the sake of doing the right thing. The world doesn't have nearly enough volunteers, so we should ensure that the few we do have are useful.
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About the Author: Shawn Stafford is an attractive crime fighter and part-time nomadic freelance writer, whose other articles can be found on his subtly classy yet mediocre website, Rerunaround. You can also stalk Shawn on Twitter (X): @shawnosaurus
