Every year thousands of us here in the UK take time out to work on aid projects.
But are these eager “do-gooders” giving up their time for the wrong reasons? Are they doing more harm than good?
Charitable organisations are developing guidelines for volunteers to try to understand the implications of a long term commitment and how their work may impact the local community on a project. Often it is a reaction to high profile humanitarian disasters or huge media appeals such as “Make Poverty History” that can generate a rush of volunteers in to troubled countries, often without the skills to be fully effective.
Neera Dhingra,, VSO's spokesperson doesn't believe that their intentions are always right. “People want to make a difference,” she says, "but it might be wiser to travel and experience the world first before arriving on a project, wasting time and therefore having no impact.”
Simon Larkin, from Bristol worked as a volunteer in a refugee camp in Tanzania in the 1990’s. He feels that then the requirements to be involved with development work was very different.
“I applied to go after I finished University and felt that all I needed was to have a passion to help and wanted to make a difference. I did not have any vocational qualifications that would be useful, but I thought that having a genuine passion to go there was enough to be appreciated. The selections process was fairly rigorous and it set me on the path to work for development charities from that moment.”
Staying put for two years in the same camp may prove his long term commitment to his work and silence any cynical opinions to the contrary. He was able to learn the local language and immerse himself fully in to the culture and people. But without a vocational training, was his work tangible?
Organisations feel the pressure to take responsibility to train their volunteers and ensure their motivations are worthwhile. At the same time, professional aid workers must also be seen to be having the correct motivation and be trained and prepared for what to expect.
Chris Grose, Head of IMA International provides training in building up global development programmes. He works alongside government, NGOs, private companies and UN agencies. He knows how important it is to ensure that projects stay in place and remain sustainable and training is crucial for communities in the developing world.
“We don’t want to be known as the Brits coming from the UK telling the locals what to do. Where possible we deliver our courses to reach those people who are involved in their own communities and may provide them with a consultant if specialist knowledge is needed. That person will have had vast experience of that country and culture already.”
However, Mark Campbell, a development worker,believes that any volunteer is usually a hinder rather than a help. Even with expert professional skills and knowledge he believes volunteers will never get over the huge divide between the white UK “helper” and the local ‘needy’ people.
He argues that any humanitarian volunteer worker although under a label of being “a voice to the voiceless” they are only actually there for selfish altruistic reasons.
He says “that there will always be a huge divide between the volunteer who will remain the “expert” and the beneficiary -“the local”. Although they may be there to deal with a specific problem and materially try to improve the situation of a lesser-privileged group; in turn it lessens the position of the local communities who are then reduced to passive observers and unable to lay the foundations for the future.”
Medecins Sans Frontiere advertisement for more active medical volunteers ask directly “We need you. That’s a fact. You are vital to our work”. For those of us who want to give some time to a worthy cause, our motivation may be in question but we need to be certain how the change would encompass more than a change of scenery.
Find out more ...
How Save the Children encourages self sufficiency in developing countries. Click here
See how VSO is launching its Global Xchange experience to volunteers. Click here
How volunteering can improve your chances of success in your career. Click here
Read more ...click here to read a success story from Afghanistan.
Watch ... how volunteers explain their actions...
Click on the video to see how three volunteers gave up their time here in the UK to work abroad. If they were "vital" to the causes they supported, how did they measure the impact of their presence?