“Voluntourism”: Not So Black And White (2)

By Kate | Permalink | No Comments | June 19th, 2007 | Trackback

(Find Part 1 here.)

Focusing mainly on the problems with short term volunteering in contrast to longer term volunteering leaves out what is, I believe, a large piece of the picture: the fact that many, many social problems are not the result of a shortage of skills, and will not be fixed by well meaning foreign volunteers, no matter how qualified or long term they are…the problems are just not that type of problem. That doesn’t mean plenty of volunteers don’t make a difference; they do. And it doesn’t mean that there are never situations that are improved by a well placed volunteer. There are. But many “world problems” exist because of complex social or historical or other realities, and it’s not a matter of placing the right foreign volunteer for the right amount of time, or getting that person to train a local. And this is where orienting a variety of people to some portion of the reality of the situation comes in.

I think that there’s something to be said for opening people’s eyes to a given situation.

If a short term volunteer experiences even a few of the complexities of some problem, and realizes “Oh, maybe people aren’t always responsible for their own poverty”, “we’re not stupid, we’re just poor”, or sees that people aren’t, say, full of ancient ethnic hatreds for their neighbors but are rather caught in a no-win situation, I think this matters. It may not produce an immediate, measurable result, but it matters. People may also just see up close that volunteer vacations are not a particularly effective way to get things done. Or they may develop a basic enough understanding to independently ask, for example, when a local organization can build a school for $5,000, why does an international organization spend $50,000 and import staff to boot?

I’ve lived abroad for four of the last five year, and many experienced volunteers have also spent time abroad – from this perspective it is perhaps easier to look condescendingly at the idea of “experiencing poverty” or something for a week – of course you can’t experience poverty a week. But for many people, a week or two spent in this context is quite unlike anything they’ve ever experienced. Will everyone develop an interest that leads them to more than a surface look at the issue? No, but some will.

It’s probably also true that a person’s opinion on matters in this area in general is at least framed, if not determined by, their larger outlook on things; where do the “problems” that volunteer vacations / long-term volunteers / aid in general seek to address stem from, and, if they can be “solved”, what kind of outcome specifically would be a good one? People aren’t going to agree on all the details, and a difference of opinion does not necessarily mean one side is enlightened and the other isn’t – it can show a difference in perspective rather than a lack of knowledge or consideration.

In any case, I’m not really done on this topic but will stop here for now. I thank Our Man In Granada Steve for his willingness to participate a very interesting discussion by sharing his opinion in his guest piece – and also other readers who have participated and hopefully will participate by leaving comments (and Josh from Tranquilo Traveler left a great one already with a link to an article entitled “The cost of short-term mission trips“).

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