By Claire Bennett, Learning Service
Claire lives and works in Kathmandu, Nepal, and freelances as a trainer and consultant. She is passionate about global education, ethical travel and ensuring good intentions are put to good use. Claire recently released her book: Learning Service: The Essential Guide to Volunteering Abroad.
So you’ve found your dream opportunity volunteering abroad, and you’re excited to gain some experience, learn new skills, and have an adventure. But also you’re hoping that you’ll be able to contribute something meaningful with your time, and make a difference to a place or cause. Whether you’re an experienced professional offering your skills, or a first-time traveller wanting to try your hand at something new, here are some tips for ensuring that you give as much “good” as you get!
Adopt a Learning Attitude
Overenthusiastic volunteers can assume that their most important job while overseas is to “help.” This can be an enormous burden on you as a volunteer. If you have just arrived in a country, have to navigate a new organization, and are not yet familiar with your role, it is very difficult to know if the actions you take actually help.
Rather than entering with fixed ideas of what you are going to do and rushing to take action, instead see your primary role as learning. Your local hosts will know much more about an issue than you do. Learning from them about why certain problems exist and what they are doing about it will ensure your contribution is useful and fits into the bigger picture. Being open to learning will also enhance your own experience by giving you a deeper insight into the place you are in.
Do the Work That is Needed
If you are volunteering to conserve wildlife, you may want to be out in the forest spotting glimpses of rare animals. If you are offering your time to a women’s empowerment project, you may wish to interact with local women and girls to encourage them to join. However, this may not be the reason your hosts requested volunteer support. Maybe they were looking for someone who could edit reports in English, enter data into a spreadsheet or update their website.
Sometimes volunteer experiences centre on catering to volunteers, offering them exciting work or a sense of accomplishment. In these situations, you can be more of a burden than a help. For you to do the most interesting tasks you might need training, management support or a translator. Consider what resources you are taking away from the organization and ensure that what you are giving back is at least as valuable as what you are taking.
Work Within Your Skill Set
All volunteers come with a unique set of skills. Whether you are an experienced nurse or an enthusiastic college student, you will have something to offer. However, volunteers acting outside of their skill set can cause harm. We have found instances of volunteers being asked to provide training on topics they knew nothing about, or even medically unqualified people being asked to perform surgical procedures.
All of us have our limitations. An excellent teacher will be a novice at agricultural work if they are doing it for the first time. A good rule of thumb is to not undertake any tasks that you would not be qualified to do in your home country. Even then, remember that things will work considerably differently overseas. Another useful rule is to never make any decisions on behalf of your hosts. Being humble and deferring to local expertise will make you a good ally to the people and organizations tackling these issues for the long term.
Work Alongside Local People
A volunteer doctor can treat patients and a volunteer accountant can do the accounts, but this would mean that volunteers were replacing and doing the jobs of local people. No matter how long an international volunteer stays for, at some point they leave. A better model is for volunteers to work alongside, support or mentor local people who can continue doing that job on an ongoing basis. Ask “How am I helping to make the system run better once I am gone?”
Working in a team with local people is also an amazing opportunity for cultural immersion, a great way for you to brush up on your language skills, and has the potential for you to make lifelong friends. Sharing skills is rarely a one-way street, so see it as another chance for learning and exchange.
Bring a Positive Attitude
You will for sure face many challenges when living in an unfamiliar culture, but how you react to them is to some extent up to you. Consider how your colleagues feel if you constantly complain about their home country – either about things that are a normal (or valued!) part of life, like a rice-heavy diet or squat toilets, or about things that are daily challenges for people who live in that society, such as the lack of water or electricity. Those same challenges can instead be viewed as opportunities. If you catch yourself complaining about the local food, weather, people, or working conditions, consider what you are also learning from the experience.
The energy you bring with you is contagious. Sometimes the best thing you can bring into an organization (or even a room!) is your positivity, your willingness to work hard, and your care for those around you.
It Doesn’t End When You Leave!
Whatever contribution you make during your time volunteering, it pales in comparison with the potential impact that you can have during the rest of your life. Many volunteers find their experience overseas transformative. You may return with new goals and inspiration for a new career or lifestyle. You may wish to bring volunteering into your life at home or choose another volunteer trip next time you travel. You may even stay in touch with the organization you volunteered with and fundraise, advocate and support them long into the future.
Whatever you go on to do, knowing that you can continue to make a difference with the rest of your life takes the pressure off the short time you spend abroad. Instead of rushing in to make an impact, which is when harm can be done, you can focus on listening and learning so you can make long term change.
For more information about volunteering, visit
www.learningservice.info
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Claire lives and works in Kathmandu, Nepal, and freelances as a trainer and consultant. She is passionate about global education, ethical travel and ensuring good intentions are put to good use. She is co-author of Learning Service: The Essential Guide to Volunteering Abroad.