Voluntourism: Helping or Hurting? How to Volunteer Responsibly Abroad

What if there was a way to travel where one could explore the world, learn about a new culture, and make an impact in impoverished communities along the way? For many, voluntourism seems like the perfect solution. Voluntourism is one of the most popular ways to achieve both these goals. According to WorldVision, voluntourism is defined as “a form of tourism in which travellers participate in voluntary work, typically for a charity.” The work areas include healthcare, agriculture, sports training, childcare, and education, creating a $2.6 billion industry.

With so many service areas available, voluntourism can seem like a beneficial and appealing option for tourists who desire to make a difference. However, there are many risks involved in this type of tourism. The tips below can help tourists understand the main risks, identify red flags and engage in volunteer work ethically and effectively.

The Main Risks:

  1. Lack of experience:
    Well-meaning but often inexperienced volunteers can create more harm than good in the voluntourism industry. Many voluntourism work projects involve construction of homes or schools. However, lack of experience among volunteers can lead to poorly constructed projects which cost the community more time and money to fix. Despite the good intentions behind these projects, when not done effectively they only benefit the volunteers by providing them a feel-good experience. Furthermore, many orphanages and schools do not screen for volunteer qualifications which can give unscreened sexual predators access to vulnerable children.
  2. Exploitation:
    Due to the free labour created by volunteers, many countries are not incentivized to implement regulations and supervision. This is especially problematic for volunteer programs assisting schools or orphanages. According to Lumos, an NGO dedicated to ending the institutionalization of children, 80% of children in orphanages have a living parent. Many of these orphanages are more of a business than a social service. In some cases, orphanages convince parents to hand their children over to receive a better education and healthcare. However, behind the scenes is a scheme intended to milk donors and volunteers of their money while abusing and neglecting the children. According to the Huffington Post, one mother reported that “I thought I was doing the right thing. If I had known what was really happening in that place, I would never have given him away”. In addition, visits to these orphanages are proven to create separation anxiety, unhealthy short-lived attachments and developmental damage to the children.
  3. Disruption to the local economy:
    The economy is one of sectors most prominently impacted by voluntourism. Reliance on volunteers to complete local work projects can discourage job growth in the local community. Inadvertently, volunteers can become substitutes for local masons, construction workers and carpenters which leaves locals unemployed and takes away resources and training from the local workforce. This harms the local economy as more funds are spent on volunteers instead of the creation of sustainable jobs and long-term financial security for the locals. Similarly, handouts in the form of food, money or clothes create dependency on voluntourists and discourage the development of local businesses.  Furthermore, fees from the voluntourism industry can become a primary source of local income rather than the long-term development of the local job industry.

How to ethically volunteer abroad:

  1. Self assess:
    Many who desire to volunteer while traveling often do not reflect on the root of their intentions. Serving those in need is not about a cute instagram post with children or trying to prove oneself to a family or a community back home. Oftentimes, volunteering is best done when it comes from a desire to learn from the community one is serving, rather than putting oneself at the centre.
  2. Focus on strengths and passions:
    As aforementioned, it is important that volunteers focus on their strengths and interests. Volunteering in a familiar sector will provide the background knowledge to accurately access the ethics of the program and provide effective help. For example, medical students should volunteer in the healthcare sector with a focus on training. This will create a long-term solution that builds up the strengths of the community.
  3. Research:
    Extensive research is necessary to find an organization utilizing volunteers ethically and effectively. While searching through websites, alarm bells should go off if locals are not central to the planning and execution of the organizations’ vision. Additionally, it is also a red flag iif volunteers are replacing the role of the local workforce. This also involves researching the local community to make sure the organization is meeting genuine needs rather than a misinformed perception of what a community might need.

Many times, it feels easier to focus on solutions abroad rather than complex ones experienced throughout day-to-day life in one’s home country. However, the problems of clean water, illiteracy and poverty abroad are equally as complicated, and often better understood by locals. It’s for this reason that NGOs like World Vision choose to volunteer domestically.

For those who do not feel fully convinced by the work of a volunteer organization abroad, there is no shame in choosing to focus on domestic issues in one’s home country. However, for those who remain on the hunt, click here for a well-researched list of volunteer organizations.

Looking to do a volunteer trip on a budget? Check out this article.

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day;
teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.”