By: Autumn Cycles of Beginnings and Ends - Expat of the World
[…] just finished volunteering in Kenya and moved to Sicily that Autumn. The end of constant reggae and being asked to take photos. The […] By: Laura @ Grassroots Nomad
So true! I actually wrote about this a while ago - grassrootsnomad.com/how-to-find-responsible-volunteering-work/
By: Sarah
Very insightful comment Laura, thank you! You're so right about thinking about our own skills when deciding to use them and volunteer abroad. Perhaps the problem is deeper than I first thought. Some people looking to volunteer might not even know what their skill-set is. They don't know how to be useful, but they want to be, and someone is offering them the opportunity to be for just ?1000 a week and showing photos of gleaming children or volunteers hugging lion cubs, etc. It's an easy trap to fall into.
However, there's so much information online that it really is the volunteer's responsibility to research thoroughly, know <em>how</em> they can be useful and help where it's <strong>needed</strong>! By: Sarah
Absolutely! By: Sarah
It's great to hear thoughts on a different kind of volunteering, thanks Stella. What a community doesn't need though, is a bunch of people coming to help who don't really possess the ability to help. I mean it's all well and good "wanting" to do a good thing, but as a previous commenter said, we must put the project before ourselves! I'm sure before volunteers helped to rebuild they thought to themselves if it's something they could actually do. For some reason when it's working with children or vulnerable communities, people are quick to think about how their own life is going to change after the experience, forgetting about their (possibly negative) impact on OTHER lives. By: Sarah
Exactly Anisa, the bad ones ruin it for everybody. I think before volunteering abroad, one should ask themselves if this is a project they have the skills and experience to do at home (if not, don't do it abroad). It's also important "why" someone wants to volunteer abroad: if it is to "save" people, this is a complex issue. If it is to "find" themselves and discover life on the other side, I still don't know if that's so bad. By: Sarah
Spot on Amanda! The research can be hard for a first-timer but is absolutely necessary. That's why I felt an urge to write this after reading so much distaste for volunteers and voluntourism. The "white savior complex" really hit me, complex it is! By: Sarah
Absolutely, and it's those dedicated projects that hopefully will bypass the voluntourism package-holidays, and if people do their research, they should be able to find them! Very sad to hear about the orphanage, sadder to think that it must happen everywhere and that volunteers might not fully understand the implications of their presence. Amen to that- "Put the project before yourself" is something I will carry with me wherever I go. By: Sarah
Very good point Brooke. I never thought of it that way, that to discriminate against "white" volunteers is of course racism. I don't think the colour of skin is the main point the girl from the other article was making but it did make her article stand out more! It went viral and she received a lot of hate mail. You're absolutely right about doing proper research instead of judging the situation safely behind a computer screen! By: Brooke
If people stop focusing on race, we can actually talk about the issues at hand. Not make everything a mud-slinging competition