The reports out recently, which claim that overseas gap year volunteers are doing more harm than good, insults hundreds of thousands of gap year volunteers. Professor Richter, the executive director of the South Africa-based Human Sciences Research Council, makes sweeping statements in his report, such as presuming that the work that volunteers do, especially on short term projects, is somehow “low-skilled”. On the contrary, we hear hundreds of success stories every year around the world, including in South Africa, about the work that our volunteers have been part of including teaching, conservation and care projects.

With over 6500 volunteers so far in 2010, Projects Abroad’s direct expenditure in developing countries has been about £16,000,000. Volunteers themselves then spend another £8,000,000, making the total expenditure in developing countries from Projects Abroad volunteers alone some £24,000,000.  Since this expenditure is not in traditional tourism but is used mainly on local staff and services, there will be a high multiplier effect as well.

Aside from finance, we can say that the commercial need for companies such as mine to provide worthwhile work means that considerable effort is expended in matching the abilities and inclinations of volunteers to something actually needed in developing countries, whether it be helping nurses in a hospital, supporting English teachers, developing a conservation project or working with entrepreneurs.  Gap year volunteers do not take away other people’s jobs. If they did, we would not get volunteers. Clearly these volunteers are intelligent, sensitive people who would not be willing to waste their time on something that wasn’t doing some real good. We are commercially obligated to do useful work that makes a real difference to the quality of people’s lives.

Volunteers working within South Africa can be involved in teaching English and many other subjects in schools. Volunteers can also choose to join care projects in orphanages, children’s hospitals and crèches, or work on a unique sports project that will allow them to combine helping underprivileged youngsters with making the most of the glorious beaches in the surrounding area.

It is my belief that the experience of living and working in a developing country, even for a relatively short period, is immensely beneficial to long-term relationships between communities. We recently measured how positive the experience of working with Projects Abroad volunteers was for the host families and supervisors by interviewing 20 placements each in Ghana, India and Peru. We asked them about the exchanges of ideas, the affect on recipients directly (such as schoolchildren, orphans, patients and hospitals and others), and on the local community as a whole. The results showed that an outstanding 70 per cent rated the experience either positive or strongly positive.

This all goes to show that our experiences and survey findings all point to the opposing conclusion of Professor Richter, that volunteering abroad does in fact have a meaningful purpose on both the lives of people in developing countries and the experiences of the volunteers themselves. It would be a great shame if this study discourages anyone thinking of taking on a volunteer project.