The Volunteer Logue recently featured a guest piece by Our Man In Granada – Steve Jackson – on the topic of voluntourism, specifically a look at the downsides of voluntourism. As I mentioned in the introduction to that post, I don’t agree with all of his points, but I think he raises a number of issues which are valuable and worthy of serious discussion. I have a lot of thoughts on the topic, and for the sake of organization have tried to separate my comments into how I agree (that there are serious downsides) and how I don’t agree (or, better put, that I don’t think it’s so black and white).

Most importantly, I think it is important to provide a clear example of how action taken in the name of goodwill can not only make no difference but actually make the situation worse, and I think this is clear from Steve’s post. I don’t think this happens all the time, but I do think that many people really can’t envision how something like a volunteer vacation can have negative consequences – and it can. It is not the case that “anything at all” is always better than “nothing”.

Volunteer vacations, even when they do no harm, are not the solution to the world’s woes, and should be presented in a realistic light by companies providing them and acknowledged as such by participants. Many very real social problems have roots which run much deeper than the mere lack of a particular skill or an able-bodied western volunteer. To be fair, some companies do provide a realistic look at this topic and offer an explanation as to why their programs can still be of a benefit to the local partner organization, if there is one, the participant, and the cause served itself.

It’s worthwhile to point out – as Steve did - that when participants utilize the services of a placement organization, not all of the funds go to the organization; to me this is obvious, but some it may not be. Even if the placement organization is non-profit…that doesn’t mean all your funds somehow go to the local organization. Participants are often in fact paying for quantifiable services, so it doesn’t mean that a company is “stealing your money” by charging for those services, but I think it’s also fair to say that this information should be widely available.

The fact that organizations need to accept volunteers who don’t really do much, mainly because they pay, and the organization needs money, is obviously bad (though as I see it as a part of a larger problem, you can read more of my thoughts on this elsewhere, along with my thoughts on why the downside of voluntourism is not so black and white).