A humanitarian crisis on the scale of the devastating Nepal earthquakes moves people not only to donate, but to seek volunteer opportunities. However, sending well-meaning but inexperienced westerners to work on short-term projects in developing countries has come under fire for doing more harm than good. So what value can volunteer tourism – voluntourism for short – have for charities and NGOs? And how can they make the most of their volunteers’ time?
Sallie Grayson, programme director at People and Places, believes voluntourism can be effective if managed responsibly. The problem lies not in the concept but with the organisations sending volunteers abroad, she says. Many agencies are driven by profit, and work to meet the demands of the volunteer rather than the charity. The result is that individuals are placed on projects that don’t match their skillsets.
Grayson, who started People and Places 10 years ago, to bring about change in the industry by demonstrating best practice, says it’s important to properly assess each volunteer before sending them abroad to ensure they meet the needs of the project. Reports from both the volunteer and the organisation after the placement has come to an end also help inform the project’s development plans and ensure future volunteers are used effectively.
With most placements lasting just one to two weeks, what needs are voluntourists realistically able to address? Daniela Papi, a trainer in personal and global development education and social entrepreneurship, writes that the length of time a volunteer spends abroad is not really an issue as long as the participant has strong skills that match the organisation’s needs, an open-minded and flexible attitude, has experienced a range of cultures, and understands different values and ways of communicating.
It is key that volunteers are suitably prepared before they travel, she says. “All too often, the volunteers do not know where they are going to be working before they arrive. How can that be effective? Organisations need to ask for a lot of information from the volunteer before they arrive and match that individual to a specific role.”
She adds there are some roles where a couple of weeks could be effective – a healthcare worker, for example, or a role in conservation. Whatever the work, the task needs to be focused and the volunteer must be clear what they are going to do.
So how can a small organisation ensure they are getting the volunteers they really need? Grayson says charities looking to recruit from an agency need to be very clear about the process and who decides which volunteers to select, when they arrive, and what they will be doing. They also need to appreciate that managing volunteers well takes time.
“Many small organisations don’t have the capacity to manage the volunteers. They are also taking a tourist, which is what a short-term volunteer is, into their community for some time,” she says.
“There are a number of cultural issues – will the local community be comfortable with strangers in their midst? How will they make sure that their culture is protected and respected? They need to make sure that the recruitment organisation has devised a code of conduct and, if there are children present, a child protection policy. A needs assessment must be done.”
KickStart Ghana is a charity investing in sports and education projects in west Africa and has successfully recruited short-term volunteers from the UK and Europe. The charity’s co-founder, David Coles, says that bringing in overseas volunteers for a six-week project, for example, can be hugely beneficial in terms of sharing skills and exchanging ideas.
While they do recruit from Ghana, one of the added benefits of recruiting short-term volunteers is that they become a messenger of the charity’s work on their return. Coles, who also runs LSE’s student volunteer centre, believes volunteers play an important role in educating their peers.
He says: “We don’t think our charity is going to solve the ills of every problem Ghana is facing. It might be done by the business community and some of that is going to be coming from the UK. So by publicising a positive but truthful image, hopefully Ghana is going to be benefiting in other ways. Our volunteers are very good voices for doing that and getting involved in other international development opportunities as well.”
Coles believes the question of whether voluntourism really helps projects overseas is much more nuanced than many critics would have us believe.
“Sometimes the argument is framed to ask who is really benefitting here – the volunteer or the community? I don’t feel it is a zero sum game,” he says. “Just because some people are benefitting doesn’t mean others are not. Both volunteer and the local community can benefit at the same time, but perhaps in different ways.”
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