Why should you trust the information on this web page?
14 Reasons Not to Volunteer Abroad
(but reasons that may be okay for
volunteer locally in your own country/community)
credits and disclaimer
Below are the most common reasons I see by people wanting to
volunteer abroad, particularly on the subreddit Volunteer
and also in emails to me.
And they are NOT good reasons.
In addition to listing the reasons, I note why the reasons aren't
ethical nor appropriate and may even do harm.
After the first list, there's also info on what are
appropriate, not harmful, reasons to volunteer abroad.
And I also note at the end why these reasons, which are NOT
appropriate as priorities for volunteering abroad, are, in fact,
mostly good reasons for volunteering locally, in your own
community or your own country.
14 Reasons NOT to Volunteer Abroad
- You want to spend a few days or weeks “doing good.”
There are zero poor communities in other countries wishing that
foreigners will come build schools for them, or dig wells for
them, or hold their orphan children, for a few days or weeks,
rather than paying local people, who are desperate for
employment, to do these tasks themselves.
In a few days or a few weeks, you, the foreign volunteer, are
going to have is a cultural experience that benefits YOU - but
you aren't going to change anyone's life in the community you
are visiting abroad. In fact, many school buildings built by
foreigners remain empty, with no teachers, no educational
materials, no proper structure for a school to operate. Or a
water well that breaks soon after foreigners came and built it -
but didn't train local people how to repair it. And in working
with supposed "orphans" for just a few weeks (more than half of
whom are NOT orphans), you are potentially harming children
(they need regular, stable adults in their lives - not a
never-ending stream of different adults).
Only skilled volunteers who stay at site for months (a full year
is best - two even better) and dedicate time and effort to
cultivating relationships and building trust actually succeed at
creating something meaningful, long-term, for a local community.
People who spend just a week or two "helping" very often are
taking local paid job opportunities away from local people - who
would very much like to build their own schools, dig their own
wells, care for any child who is orphaned (and most
are NOT orphans, BTW), etc. And there are NO credible,
ethical nonprofits that bring in unskilled foreigners to work
with wildlife. NONE. More about the harm of orphanage voluntourism (&
wildlife voluntourism as well). Also see the ChildSafe
guidelines for volunteers: "Working with children in
institutions, such as orphanages or schools, is a job for local
experts, not for unqualified volunteers who are just passing
through. Children deserve more than good intentions, they need
experienced, skilled and supervised caretakers and teachers who
know the local culture and language."
If you aren’t ready to spend six months or a year onsite, and if
you don’t have expertise that cannot be found in the area where
you want to go, be a tourist instead. There is NO SHAME in being
a tourist and going to an area and learning about it. transire
benefaciendo: "to travel along while doing good."
Being a tourist in a poor area abroad DOES REAL GOOD: paying for
accommodations, local food and local guides employs local
people, and gives them a sustainable form of income. Blogging
about the experience and sharing photos, with links to places
you stayed and contacts for guides, encourages more people to
visit and spend money - money that goes DIRECTLY to local
people.
- You want to “find yourself” or “figure things out.”
Volunteering abroad is NOT for people who are facing an
existential crisis. Volunteering abroad is not a substitute for
therapy for yourself. Credible programs that are locally driven
- where local people have identified the priorities and are the
people you work with - do not have the time nor the capabilities
nor the priority to give you meaning to your life. If you are
going to volunteer there, then those local communities need you
to be focused, to put your feelings aside and to get the tasks
done. Expecting a volunteering abroad gig to meet your spiritual
needs is, quite frankly, arrogant.
If, in the end, volunteering abroad does help you “find
yourself”, great - but remember that is not the priority for
volunteering abroad, that projects at credible programs are not
designed with that as a priority. First comes what local people
want and need, not your "vanity
volunteering" needs.
Also see Volunteering to address your own mental health.
- You are depressed or stressed out and need a pick me up.
Picture a scene where someone would say this:
"These are some recent college graduates from Canada. They
have very little work experience, don't speak your language,
and have no training in any of the things you have identified
as needing most, like maternal health care, elementary school
education, farm-to-market chains, etc. However, they are all
chronically-depressed and they'd like to play with your kids
every day, take photos, post them to Instagram, etc. It would
really cheer them up. Okay?"
No one would say, "Yes, here are my kids! Have fun!" to such a
group.
Another reason this is not a good reason to volunteer abroad:
you must be able to handle stressful situations if you go
overseas just to travel, let alone to also volunteer. Planes get
delayed. Transportation to and from an airport may fall through.
Scammers try to target travelers, including aid workers,
specifically. Clean bathrooms may be difficult to find.
Bathrooms with flushing, Western-style toilets may be hard to
find. In most countries, animals - whether dogs and cats or
wildlife - are not treated as humanely as they are in, say, the
USA, and you are going to see this mistreatment first hand. When
you travel to a country with more poverty than what you have
seen in your own country, you are going to see standards of
living that may seem especially cruel to you. In many cultures,
the idea of time may be treated quite differently - they may not
start meetings or events at the time they have said it would.
Local people may not like to make eye contact with you, or may
not have seen many people of your particular height, weight,
skin color or hair color and they may stare at you.
Have you had positive experiences working with others in the
past? Are you comfortable with children, or elderly people, or
people who may have intellectual disabilities, or people living
a highly-impovershed life? Are you mature enough to stay calm
with speaking with angry parents, angry neighbors and bored
and/or nosy or seemingly-lazy bureaucrats? What stresses you out
and how likely are you to encounter those same stressers abroad?
In short, if you are depressed or stressed out and think
volunteering abroad can help your mental state, you will
probably, instead, enter a situation that will make your mental
state far worse.
Put on top of all that the very real commitments you make when
you volunteer overseas and the much higher expectations of
international volunteers: you MUST show up, you MUST do the work
you have signed up for and you are expected to jump right into
the work. And the priority are the clients - the people, even
the animals, that are to be helped - not the foreign volunteers
and their feelings. The children you are working with may have
an emotional meltdown, the parents of those children may become
emotional and demanding, people in the community where you are
working may become distressed because of a misunderstanding and
target you with their frustrations, and you are expected to know
what to do in those situations to diffuse emotions.
In what shape and how stable is your own life? Have you recently
had a life change such as divorce or lost your job? Have you
lost someone especially close? Are you still fragile from your
own experiences with neglect or abuse or harassment, and if so,
how close to the surface are those feelings? Volunteering abroad
isn't going to take you away from any of that. Volunteering
abroad is NOT for people who are facing mental health issues. It
is not for people who need to “recover” from divorce,
bankruptcy, a broken heart, a death, getting fired, or any other
personal or professional crisis. Again, volunteering abroad is
not a substitute for therapy. Credible programs that are locally
driven - where local people have identified the priorities and
are the people you work with - do not have the time nor the
capabilities nor the priority to address your mental health
issues. Expecting a volunteering abroad gig to help you overcome
a personal tragedy or mental health issue is not only arrogant,
it’s dangerous. If, in the end, volunteering abroad does help
you, great - but remember that is not the priority for
volunteering abroad.
Here's more about volunteering
to help your own mental health.
- You want to be a part of response to a current, urgent
disaster.
You're seeing volunteer handing out diapers or soup or something
to people after a tornado or a flood or a war or other disaster
and you want to be a part of it! You want to go to that place
and hug those victims of disaster and be a part of the helpers!
If you really care about those people, you will NOT do that.
When you arrive at a disaster zone and announce, "Here I am! I'm
ready to help", you are probably in the way more than you are
helping. If you have traveled far from your home, are you
expecting to find a hotel room where you can stay - thereby
taking space away from desperate, homeless people who need that
hotel room? Or you want a church to let you sleep in their
basement - even if they want those spaces for desperate,
homeless people? How will you be distinguished from people there
that have the intent to harm these people - and, yes, there are
people that show up just for that purpose? What training do you
have in dealing with people in these kinds of crisis situations,
who can lash out because of the extreme stress they are under?
Do you know that certain questions or comments, however well
intentioned, can further traumatize people in these crisis
situations?
As noted in this resource
regarding volunteering in a post-disaster or breaking-disaster
situation, volunteers must be mentally and physically
prepared to work 16 hour days (or more) in highly-stressful
situations where their own basic needs (like going to the
bathroom) must be kept to a minimum. They often have to live in
austere conditions, sleeping in a tent (that they must bring
themselves) or a gymnasium with dozens, even hundreds, of other
people, and using a very rustic latrine. And what happens if you
get to the situation and discover you cannot handle what's
happening around you, such as a riot, or a medical situation, or
an armed group that shows up to rob you, or an illness of your
own?
Volunteers who show up, unaffiliated, untrained and not
self-sufficient get in the way rather than helping, and take
precious resources from those who have been devastated in a
disaster situation.
If you want to help in a disaster in the future, this resource can help you get
the training and experience now for volunteering in a
post-disaster or breaking-disaster situation in the future.
There is so, so much you can do now to get the experience and
skills you need to help in a disaster situation, at home or
abroad.
And if you want to help NOW, remember that cash is king - cash
to charities gets disaster-affected people the temporary housing
they need MOST, more than anything, including your hugs. Also,
there might already be refugees from that disaster you are
watching right in your own geographic area - local nonprofits
will help you connect to local volunteering opportunities to
help them.
- You are bored & want an adventure.
Picture the scene:
"Hey, there are some people here from the USA, and they are
really bored, so they thought coming to your village and doing
work that you would really prefer to do yourself, and be paid
for, like building a school or a well, or caring for children
who have lost their families to HIV or natural disasters or
civil war, would be fun."
For all the reasons that have already been stated, this is a
really bad reason to want to volunteer abroad. It is an insult
to communities in need of outside expertise.
In addition, when you travel to another country, you need to be
prepared to be bored for long periods of time. You need to be
prepared for long, boring bus rides, and long, boring waits at
the bus stop with no phone connection, and boring, even lonely
evenings in your room with no Internet access and no other
volunteers available to hang out with you. You think you're
bored now? Just wait until you volunteer or work abroad in a
humanitarian situation!
- You have failed previously & are looking for success.
I'm sorry you didn't do well in school, I'm sorry that all of
your jobs have ended poorly. But volunteering abroad is not for
people who are looking for success when they haven't been able
to find it elsewhere. People in developing countries need people
who have successfully done things in their own community,
successfully, and that could do the same internationally, in a
different community.
Local volunteering
would be much more appropriate for you, especially a
program that would teach you a skill for your volunteering
service, or a gig where you assist an experienced volunteer.
- You think it will help you get into a “great” university.
There are zero poor communities anywhere in the world saying,
“Gosh, I wish some inexperienced university student who has
never lived in a low infrastructure environment, doesn’t speak
our local language and have never done in their own communities
what they want to do abroad would come here and “help” us - and
I hope the experience helps them get into Yale!"
The world does NOT need more "vanity
volunteering" projects.
- You want to jazz up your Instagram or other social media
profile.
This is one of the worst reasons ever to volunteer.
People living in poverty are not your props. Neither are at-risk
children anywhere.
Can you post photos to your social media from an experience
abroad! Sure, as long as you have people's permission, including
all of the parents of the children you want to photograph.
Again, the world does NOT need more "vanity
volunteering" projects.
- You think it will look great on your résumé.
Sure, it might look interesting to potential employers to see
that you worked abroad. They might even ask you about it in an
interview. However, the best volunteers are those committed to
sustainable development and have a real, needed expertise to
offer local people, not those concerned most, primarily, about
career development. Again, the world does NOT need more "vanity
volunteering" projects.
- You never lived abroad during university.
Then go live abroad. Spend money and soak up all the local
culture you want. Hire local guides. Eat in local restaurants.
Stay with families. Blog about it. Take lots of photos. It's
already been noted how much being a tourist abroad can help
local people far more than volunteering for a few weeks in those
communities. But the priority in credible volunteering abroad is
what local people actually need, and they need someone that will
take the assignment with the utmost seriousness and that will
always put the needs of the community to be served FIRST, that
will always make those needs a priority.
- You want to learn another language, for free.
Credible volunteering programs send volunteers who already can
work in a local language. They require candidates to pass a test
to prove it, and often conduct part of the interview in that
language, just to be sure. You would be better off taking an
immersion class or traveling long-term in a country that speaks
the language you want to learn.
If you want to go abroad to learn a language, pay to go to a
language school that's abroad.
- You want to travel for free.
The purpose of credible volunteer placement organizations is not
for people to travel for free. That is not why credible programs
exist. Credible volunteering programs are those that are focused
primarily on communities to be served, and some of these - UNV,
CUSO, VSO and Peace Corps - often do pay for all of the
volunteers' expenses: flights, in-country travel,
accommodations, work visas, and a stipend to pay for food, local
taxis, etc. But providing free travel is NOT why these programs
exist.
Might free travel to another country benefit the volunteer?
Absolutely! There's no denying that being paid, to having your
expenses covered while volunteering abroad, benefits you, the
volunteer. And many volunteers use the opportunity of living and
working abroad to travel well beyond their service area, even to
other nearby countries - travel that is NOT paid for by anyone
but volunteers themselves, BTW.
- You want to change the world.
You aren’t going to change the world in two weeks abroad. You
aren’t in a month abroad. You probably aren’t going to change
even one life in two weeks abroad - unless you do something
harmful.
Having a a real, meaningful, sustainable impact on just one
local community takes a lot of time. If you don't understand
that, if you don't respect that, don't try to volunteer abroad.
It’s a colonialist perspective, a supremacist perspective, to
think that you, because you are from a privileged country, a
country that has benefited from the stolen wealth of other
countries, know what’s best for a poor community, that you can
solve problems they have struggled with for decades, even
centuries - problems that, often, have their roots in the
exploitation of YOUR country.
Your partnership will be welcomed. Your support for
locally-driven projects will be welcomed. Your work abroad - for
many months, even years, not for just a week or two - can make a
sustainable difference. Your respectful collaboration with many
others could, indeed, change the world.
And this resource is directed at parents of children, but if you
think you are capable of changing the world by volunteering
abroad, you also need to read Teaching
Children Compassion & Understanding Instead of Pity With
Regard To Poverty.
- You Believe A Change in Attitude or Work Ethics Elsewhere
Is What's Needed.
Are you looking to be a heroine or hero, charging in on a
silvery steed to save people? Then please don't vounteer abroad.
Do you understand that it is not your role to teach villagers a
lesson in how to be better parents or better people, and that
it's not your role to straighten out "the system?"
If you think people are poor because of how they think, or that
they are lazy, or that they don't know how to work hard, or
because of their religion, please don't volunteer abroad. People
are not poor because they aren't willing to work, or they aren't
willing to work harder. They aren't poor because they haven't
converted to your religion. They live in poverty because of a
myriad of historical and systemic reasons that cannot be solved
by a volunteer from abroad. When communities are transformed
from chronic poverty to basic economic and societal stability -
and, yes, this DOES happen - it's because of a systemic,
long-term approach by MANY people, one that involves local
people themselves, employs local people themselves, in every
step of the process.
Again, it’s a colonialist perspective, a supremacist
perspective, to think that you, because you are from a
privileged country, a country that has benefited from the stolen
wealth of other countries, know what’s best for a poor
community, that you can solve problems they have struggled with
for decades, even centuries - problems that, often, have their
roots in the exploitation of YOUR country. It is the VERY WORST
of "vanity
volunteering."
And, again, this resource is directed at parents of children,
but if you think you are capable of changing the world by
volunteering abroad, you also need to read Teaching Children Compassion &
Understanding Instead of Pity With Regard To Poverty.
If you want to delve into why the aforementioned reasons are bad
reasons to volunteer abroad, even harmful reasons to volunteer
abroad, see:
An added issue around the ethics of people wanting to go
"volunteer" for a few weeks abroad is a growing interest by people
in developing countries (in Africa, South America and parts of
Asia) to do what they see people - mostly white people from
privileged countries do: go to other countries and volunteer and
post fabulous, exciting photos to Instagram. Why shouldn't someone
from Egypt not have the same international volunteering and travel
opportunities as an unskilled but plucky person from Canada? If an
unskilled foreign volunteer can go to Kenya and build a school in
a high poverty area, or cradle orphan babies, or interact with
wildlife, why can't someone with little or no expertise from Kenya
go to the USA and build a school in a high poverty area, or cradle
orphan babies, or interact with wildlife?
Do note, however, that credible organizations like the United Nations Volunteers
programme actively recruits highly skilled people who live in in
developing countries (in Africa, South America and parts of Asia)
to be UN Volunteers - there are far more UNVs from developing
countries than from privileged countries.
Really, all of these are bad reasons to
volunteer abroad?
Of course the reasons you want to volunteer abroad can include
that you want to better understand cultures different than your
own, or you want more experience working in a particular language
(that you can ALREADY work in), or that you want to work for
international development agencies and this could be a nice entry
into learning more, or that you are excited about the opportunity
to really challenge yourself in an international context. As long
as you are coming from a place of respect for local people and
seeing them as the drivers of what you are going to do, not the
helpless recipients of your charity, you can and should enjoy
those benefits from volunteering abroad.
And if, in your ethical, respectful, appropriate volunteering
abroad, more people do start reading your blog or watching your
YouTube channel, that's fine - as long as you are respecting local
cultures, not posting images of children without parents'
permission, aren't perpetuating racist stereotypes, etc.
And if volunteering with UN Volunteers, CUSO, VSO, Peace Corps or
a similar, credible, long-term placement agency allows you to
travel to a country you have always wanted to see, without your
having to pay for travel and accommodations yourself, wonderful!
Again, you partnership will be welcomed in other countries. Your
support for locally-driven projects will be welcomed. Your work
abroad - for many months, even years, not for just a week or two -
can make a sustainable difference. Your respectful collaboration
with many others could, indeed, change the world.
So, what are the good reasons for
volunteering abroad?
Really, there's one primary reason to volunteer abroad: because
you have an area of deep expertise you really do think could help
abroad, an expertise you have gained in your own community or
elsewhere in your own country, an expertise that is coupled with
curiosity, an intense interest in another country, and a desire to
collaborate with others.
Is it okay to have a sense of adventure that you think such an
experience might satisfy? Sure! As long as you have expertise
that's actually needed, you are ready to make a commitment longer
than a a few weeks, and you always remember: the priority is what
local people want and need, in local people being in control of
the process, and local skills being built.
Even Respectful Voluntourism Abroad,
where you pay for a "volunteering" experience in another country
for just a few weeks, requires some expertise (as opposed
to non-respectful, not credible voluntourism that is just about
the voluntourism organization making money).
So, volunteering abroad is only for the
privileged?
No.
First, let me say it again: credible organizations like the
United Nations Volunteers programme actively recruit highly
skilled people who live in in developing countries (in Africa,
South America and parts of Asia) to be UN Volunteers - there are
far more UNVs from developing countries than from privileged
countries.
Secondly: if you have skills and experience needed abroad, you
are a great candidate for credible, long-term volunteering
programs, regardless of where you went to university or what
country you are from. If you have expertise that's needed, you can
volunteer abroad in an ethical, community-focused program. Your options
for such volunteering abroad are here, along with advice on
how you can get the needed experience through work and
volunteering in your own community.
Voluntourism - where people pay
lots of money to go abroad for just a few weeks - is, indeed, for
just the privileged who can afford to pay the fees to go.
Traveling abroad is also only for the privileged who can afford to
pay for all their travel, accommodations, visas, etc. - and who
have a passport another country would find acceptable (not
everyone has such a passport).
Why are you doing this?! Why are you
saying this?!
Why am I doing this? Because I'm tired of seeing volunteering,
locally or abroad, that's more focused on volunteers and their
feelings and personal needs and ambitions than on the people and
communities to be served. Because I'm tired of seeing local people
excluded from decision-making and participation that is supposed
to positively affect their lives. Because I'm tired of seeing the
remnants of white colonialism and supremacy present in
volunteering and other nonprofit/NGO activities. Because I really
do want volunteers to help, not hurt.
Did you say earlier these might be good
reasons for volunteering locally?!
I did say that. I did indeed. And below, I'm going to list the
reasons that, while back for volunteering abroad, are good for
volunteering locally, and why:
- You want to spend a few days or weeks “doing good.”
Great! There are probably at least a few local nonprofits and
community groups in your area that would love for you to come
for a one-day episodic or micro volunteering event. There are
local groups that create such short-term opportunities
specifically for people that want to spend just a few hours, or
a day, or a few days, "doing good," with no further commitment,
like Habitat for Humanity, or tree-planting nonprofits, or
trash-pickup groups like SOLVE. When you participate in these
kinds of short-term local activities, you aren't taking paid
work away from local people, you are learning about your own
community, and you are doing activities that that have been
created especially for volunteers. Here's how you find volunteering activities - and
here's info about group volunteering
efforts specifically.
It takes a tremendous amount of time and energy for these
organizations to create these short-term / quickie / episodic /
micro volunteering, so if you sign up, show up, and consider
making a financial donation as well, however tiny, to pay for all
the time and resources that is needed to create these quickie
volunteering gigs. If it takes so much time and effort to create
these short-term volunteering gigs, why do nonprofits create these
events? Because maybe you will get education they think you need
about a particular community issue - lack of affordable housing,
homelessness, homeless animals, lack of clean water, historic
sites, etc. Maybe they hope you will become a financial donor.
Maybe they hope you will enjoy yourself so much you will keep
volunteering, maybe even take on a leadership volunteering role,
maybe even join the board.
- You want to “find yourself” or “figure things out.”
While volunteering abroad is NOT for people who are
facing an existential crisis, local volunteering might
be a good avenue for you. If you volunteer locally and find that
you aren't finding yourself, that you aren't figuring things
out, you can just go home. If you have a series of bad days, you
can go spend times with friends or family or by yourself in a
favorite coffee shop, the library, etc. You can easily quit and
go try to find something else - just don't string the nonprofit
along, don't ghost them, etc. Even locally, nonprofits
need you, the volunteer, to be focused, to put your feelings
aside and to get the tasks done. Don't expect nor demand that
any volunteering meet your spiritual needs - but welcome it if
it happens. Just like with volunteering abroad, first comes what
local people want and need, not your "vanity
volunteering" needs.
Volunteering of any kind is not a substitute for therapy for
yourself, but local volunteering might
help your emotional health - and it might not.
- You are depressed and need a pick me up.
Volunteering of any kind is not a substitute for therapy for
yourself, but local volunteering might
help your mental health - and it might not. While
volunteering abroad is NOT for people who are facing mental
health issues, for the reasons clearly stated earlier, local
volunteering, with its lower risks and options for far, far
lower stress circumstances, could help contribute to your better
mental health. Again, volunteering of any kind, abroad or local,
is not a substitute for therapy, and expecting a volunteering
gig to help you overcome a personal tragedy or mental health
issue is not only arrogant, it can be dangerous. If, in the end,
volunteering does help you, great. Again, here's more
about volunteering
to help your own mental health. As stated earlier, even
locally, nonprofits need you, the volunteer, to be focused, to
put your feelings aside and to get the tasks done. Just like
with volunteering abroad, first comes what local people want and
need, not your "vanity
volunteering" needs.
- You want to be a part of response to a current, urgent
disaster.
This is not a bad reason to volunteer, in general. Remember that
cash is king - cash to charities gets disaster-affected people
the temporary housing they need MOST, more than anything,
including your hugs. Also, as noted earlier, there might already
be refugees from that disaster you are watching right in your
own geographic area - local nonprofits will help you connect to
local volunteering opportunities to help them.
Again, as noted earlier, this
resource regarding volunteering in a post-disaster or
breaking-disaster situation, there is local training and
volunteering you can do right now that will put you into a
position to volunteer farther from home during a disaster.
- You are bored.
It's a bad reason to volunteer abroad, for reasons already
stated, but being bored is not a bad motivation for local
volunteering, so long as you can stay focused on the
volunteering role and you get the task done to the
specifications and needs of the nonprofit or community group.
Remember: this organization is counting on you. If you find that
you are still bored despite volunteering, then finish your
initial commitment and tell the nonprofit you will be ending
your service once you finish that commitment (you will finish
the weekend shift you signed up for, you will note how many
minutes of a video you transcribed, etc.). Don't ghost the
nonprofit (don't just stop showing up).
- You have failed previously & are looking for success.
While this is a bad reason to volunteer abroad, local volunteering
might be just what you need, especially a program that
would teach you a skill, or give you a project you can do and
then feel good about. Maybe you aspire to a leadership position,
but you've never lead a team: volunteering locally can be a
great avenue for learning to work and support other volunteers
and to, eventually, lead a team. A lot of nonprofits are willing
to take a chance on a volunteer as a leader when a for-profit
organization wouldn't with a paid employee. Maybe you've been
fired, and you need a "win" that would make you feel better, and
volunteering on a project might give you that feeling. Just be
prepared to try out several volunteering activities before you
find the right one for you. Here's how to
find volunteering opportunities.
- You think it will help you get into a “great” university.
I have to admit that I would be turned off if, when screening
volunteer applicants, I saw this as a reason on the volunteer
application that someone wanted to volunteer. That said, it's
absolutely true that a leadership
volunteering opportunity, or a highly
collaborative volunteering opportunity, right in your own
community, can look fantastic on a university application (or a
job application, for that matter). But note: the world does NOT
need more "vanity
volunteering" projects.
- You want to jazz up your Instagram or other social media
profile.
This is an exception to my list: it's a lousy reason to
volunteer, locally or abroad. Again, the world does NOT need
more "vanity
volunteering" projects. That said, if you want to use your
social media profile to promote causes you believe in - you want
more people to spay or neuter their pets, more people to help
register others to vote, people to understand the consequences
of domestic violence, etc. - and you want to volunteer to help
educate yourself better and to improve your messaging, great!
Just check with the nonprofit or community group about their
policies for taking and sharing photos during your volunteering
service, especially if other volunteers, employees or clients
would be in the photos.
- You think it will look great on your résumé.
Similar to my comments about using volunteering to get into a
good university, I have to admit that I would be turned off if,
when screening volunteer applicants, I saw this as a reason on
the volunteer application that someone wanted to volunteer. But
here's what I would NOT be turned off to see:
- I want to volunteer for this role because I have a degree
in graphic design but I need more work experience and
samples of my work for my portfolio.
- I want to volunteer abroad, but I lack much experience
working with multi-cultural audiences, or people that are
different than me and my culture. I think this volunteering
could help me in that regard.
- I moved to this community recently. I think all people see
on my résumé is that I'm not from here. I think this
volunteering could help me be seen as more local and help me
in my job search.
But note, again: the world does NOT need more "vanity
volunteering" projects.
- You never lived abroad during university - or you really
want to work abroad someday.
Volunteering locally is a great way to acquire the skills and
experience that will make you a great candidate for working or
volunteering abroad someday. Here's more about how volunteering
locally can help you to someday volunteer abroad.
- You want to learn another language, for free.
If an organization says volunteers need to be able to speak
Spanish, then it means you must be able to WORK in Spanish, on
day ONE. It means you need to be able to do some or all of your
volunteer interview in Spanish. Or whatever language is called
for. Volunteering locally can help build your language skills,
but please respect language requirements for roles, when stated.
If you want to use volunteering as a way to improve your skills
in another language, then look for opportunities for informal
conversations for language learners - your local library can
probably help.
- You want to travel for free.
This doesn't apply for local volunteering, since you are staying
in your own community. If you want to volunteer in another
part of your own country, you will very likely still have to pay
all travel and accommodation expenses.
- You want to change the world.
You aren’t going to change the world in two weeks of
volunteering, abroad or locally. You aren’t in a month abroad or
locally. Having a real, meaningful, sustainable impact on just
one local community takes a lot of time.
This
concept is called white saviorism. It’s a colonialist
perspective, a supremicist perspective, to think that you,
because you are from a privileged country or class, a country or
class that has benefited from the stolen wealth of other
countries or classes, know what’s best for a poor community,
that you can solve problems they have struggled with for
decades, even centuries - problems that, often, have their roots
in the exploitation of YOUR country or class.
Your equal partnership in volunteering will be welcomed. Your
support for locally-driven projects will be welcomed. Your
openness to listening and learning will be welcomed. Your
respectful, repeated collaboration with many others could,
indeed, change the world.
- You believe a change in attitude or work ethics elsewhere
is what's needed.
If you think people are poor because of how they think, or that
they are lazy, or that they don't know how to work hard, please
don't volunteer abroad. People are not poor because they aren't
willing to work, or they aren't willing to work harder. They
aren't poor because they haven't converted to your religion.
They live in poverty because of a myriad of historical and
systemic reasons that cannot be solved by a volunteer from
abroad. When communities are transformed from chronic poverty to
basic economic and societal stability - and, yes, this DOES
happen - it's because of a systemic, long-term approach by MANY
people, one that involves local people themselves, employs local
people themselves, in every step of the process.
Again: this
concept is called white saviorism. It’s a colonialist
perspective, a supremicist perspective. It comes from a place of
arrogance, that your culture, your religion, your ethics, are
"better" than those you are trying to help. It is the VERY WORST
of "vanity
volunteering."
Here's how you find volunteering activities.
If you disagree with what I've written, by all means, write your
own blog or web page, and then contact
me and let me know the link. I'd like to read your thoughts.
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