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.
Volunteer Tourism, quaintly nicknamed “voluntourism”, is a booming travel trend estimated to be worth $2.6 billion and involve over 20 million travellers annually. A growing number of people (especially millennials but reaching all demographics) are unsatisfied with their vacations being all about them and wish to “give back” to the communities they are travelling in. It can seem like a win-win situation, both being a more immersive kind of travel and also of benefit to others, but in fact, it can be complex to get it right, and there are a few ethical issues to consider to ensure that your good intentions are put to good use.
Volunteer trips can be a hugely rewarding form of travel, but they can’t be undertaken lightly. In this post, we share some important questions that will help you decide if volunteering is for you, and help you pinpoint what you would like to get out of the experience.
Question 1: What has attracted you to volunteering abroad?
It is important to be honest about your motivations to ensure you have a successful and satisfactory time volunteering. Try to identify a combination of motivations that relate to both what you want to give and gain.
If you are drawn to volunteering from a desire for adventure, or snazzy brochures of elephant trekking in exotic locations, take a step back and ask yourself if what you really need is a vacation. Volunteering is hard work! Even though you may be in a wonderful place and will also have time to explore, the reality is that you may spend the majority of your time in an office or doing manual labour.
If you find you are mainly motivated by the thought of doing some good in the world, remember to be realistic about the amount that you can contribute with the time and the skills that you have. Even if you plan to volunteer for many months, you are likely to make only a small contribution to bigger changes that will be led by local professionals.
If your interest in volunteering mainly stems from your desire to learn and for personal growth, be sure that you are honest with the organization that you volunteer with. You may want to look for a program with good training programs and systems of support.
Question 2: What are your core skills?
To really ensure that what you offer as a volunteer will make a difference, think about volunteering in a field in which you have some expertise. There is a need for accountants, computer technicians and nurses everywhere in the world! Even if you don’t feel that you are an expert in anything, there will always be skills that you have and can offer – such as being a whizz with social media or the ability to edit documents in English.
You may wish to have a stint volunteering in order to get a break from your normal work and try your hand at something new. While there is nothing wrong with that, be sure that you are clear with the volunteer organization about your limitations, and never seek to practice beyond your skill set. If you are learning a new skill try to take the position of intern or assistant, supporting qualified local staff members.
Question 3: What are your passions?
Think about what you love doing. When do you feel most engaged, connected, and alive? When were the times in your life that you have been really enraged about an issue or motivated about a change you’d like to see in the world?
Every passion – dancing, programming, good practice in management, campaigning to reduce the amount of plastic in the ocean – can be enhanced and channeled into supporting a good cause. One of our favorite quotes is from Howard Thurman, who said, “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and then go and do that, as what the world needs is people who have come alive.”
Question 4: What impact do you want to have on the world?
If there is a change you would like to see, or an injustice you would like to challenge, be sure to avoid the trap of assuming that you know all about the issue before you have experienced it firsthand. Be open to learning from local people, changing your mind, and even “unlearning” some things you thought to be true. For example, if you are a huge advocate of organic farming and have plenty of technical skills from experience in your own country, it is crucial to find out how cultural, climatic or economic issues may affect the perspective of organic farming overseas.
We also encourage you to think about how an experience abroad might affect your ability to make long-term changes, looking beyond the immediate effects of your trip. Will you learn skills, such as movement-building or effective fund-raising, which will enable you to continue to contribute to this cause in the future?
Considering these questions is a great first step in deciding how to (and whether to) take a volunteer trip abroad.
Good luck with whatever you choose!
For more information about volunteering, visit
www.learningservice.info
☛ Read more: Coming soon
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.