Edition 38: Spring 2007

With more people yearning to do something positive with their vacations, the business of volunteering has bloomed. However, unless managed correctly, even good intentions can have disastrous consequences. Judith Brodie, director of VSO UK, explains how to ensure your efforts are ethical ones.

Let’s face it, who doesn’t want to make the world a better place? We are bombarded with images of war, famine and suffering daily, so with the ever-increasing number of short-term ethical holidays being tagged with the term ‘volunteerism’, the obvious question to ask would seem to be “when and where” rather than “if”. However, dig deeper and it becomes clear that some projects are poorly organised and may exploit recipients and volunteers. Websites such as www.ethicalvolunteering.org help highlight the positives of volunteering, as well as the pitfalls created when good intentions are mixed with poor organisation.

The best place to start is by asking yourself why you want to volunteer. If it’s simply to make you feel better, look elsewhere. Be realistic. Don’t be fooled into thinking that in a couple of weeks, armed with a splendid array of skills and education, you can necessarily make a positive and lasting impact anywhere else apart from in your mind. Most VSO placements are 1- to 2-year commitments, while our shorter placements are for highly skilled professionals who often have overseas experience and are able to hit the ground running. All VSO volunteers work within the framework of our long-term sustainable development programmes.

One pair of hands overnight can’t solve some of the deep-rooted problems in a developing country. An example concerns a young volunteer who was told to hand out food to hungry street children on weekdays while volunteering for a ‘charity’ in Calcutta. When he posed the natural question of whether to feed them at weekends, he was told “that would not improve the children’s lives.” His suspicion was further raised when the charity couldn’t account for his initial £200 registration fee. After leaving and eventually reached home, he learned that all the other volunteers had also left.

Whilst this may sound a tad on the cynical side, not all such trips are a waste of time, money and resources. Good intentions and buckets of enthusiasm are always a good starting point. The key is to do your homework – find out as much as you can about the organisation that you’ll be working with and what their aims and intentions are. A good organisation will be there every step of the way, from your decision making process through to your return and possibly even beyond. Part of your own enjoyment will stem from a good support structure that ensures you have the correct training both before you leave and during your time abroad.

Training should cover all eventualities, such as falling ill or even the outbreak of war. Your safety is paramount after all. They’ll also be honest and upfront about where your hard-earned money is going and why, as well as how much of your flights and accommodation will be subsidised (if at all). If you’re not sure whether the organisation is a charity, check with the Charity Commission (www.charity-commission.gov.uk). Make sure you’re fully informed about what you’ll be doing, for whom and for how long – assume nothing. You’ll be disappointed if you end up doing something you hadn’t planned nor paid to do. Ask why and how your work will help the community – again, the organisation should be fully aware of the impact that your presence there will have. For example, are you taking a role that a local could do (and do better)? What will happen once you leave? Will someone else be taking over or will the work you have done go to waste?

The other thing to bear in mind is that your presence can have an impact, even if you’re not aware of it. For instance, a volunteer who’s currently working at a school in Ecuador told us how turning up to school with an iPod and digital gadgets in one of the world’s poorest parts has only caused unrest amongst the students and highlighted the gulf in wealth between their two cultures.

Just because volunteering is something that you want to do, it doesn’t justify your role in a community that may not even want you there. Your efforts will only be beneficial to the host community (and you) if it’s the right kind of help, backed by pertinent skills and experience matched to an appropriate project. There is the overwhelming assumption that we, for some reason or other, know what’s best for these countries – they can learn from us and not the other way around. However, who is most likely to know whether a community school is better off with another English language assistant or an electrical engineer? A member of the host community or the holiday representative sitting in an office in London? If this is followed through and the right matches are made, then a lot of good may come out of it for everyone involved. Even those who possess a solid base of specialist knowledge will return with a broadened range of work and social skills.

From a personal perspective, working on an ethically sound project can be a hugely rewarding experience. It may sound clichéd but volunteering can do an enormous amount for personal development, increasing self-confidence, learning new skills and languages and, best of all, learning about a foreign culture. Get it right and a lot can be gained, whether you end up teaching in a school or providing medical aid as a nurse. Not every organisation is out there after your money, nor do they have to be non-profit to be sound. Do give great consideration to what it is you want and what can be realistically achieved before running headlong into what could become a disaster. And then you’ll come back feeling you really have made a difference.