Do No Harm by “Helping” — or How to Choose a Good Volunteering Project

The romantic idea of needed help abroad can often be very misleading. Volunteers believe that their work is beneficial, useful to the community, and that they are doing a good deed. Yet the actual result and usefulness often meet many problems. For this reason, we should also talk about the phenomenon of “voluntourism” when selecting a volunteer project.

The term “voluntourism” combines the words “volunteer” and “tourism”. This clever phrase describes the trend of young people from developed countries traveling for short periods — in some cases from a few days to at most several months — to “help” in developing countries. It is often about programs in which a volunteer pays a fee to a local or international organization, and then the organization places them in one of the many offered projects. Programs in these projects can be almost anything — from education and healthcare to human rights issues.

Trend: Traveling to help in countries of the Global South

When entering simple Google search terms such as “volunteer Asia,” 84 million results related to volunteering appear, whether in Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, or even Nepal. Up to 1.6 million young people travel each year from Global North countries to help in Global South countries. In this way, voluntourism is currently becoming one of the fastest-growing sectors in the global market.

Reducing global poverty is a very complex task that requires carefully thought-out projects with long-term, sustainable goals based on expert research. The overall predictability of a project is currently very difficult, because project leaders change every year, and the quality of the same project organized the following year cannot be clearly determined in advance. The organization of such a project and its implementation is also highly complex, involving everything from communication with local people to project content and its economic impact. Yet all these issues are very complex and interconnected; reaching them requires research, consideration of individual goals, and outlining steps to achieve them. These goals should be entirely heterogeneous, adapted to each community, and should reflect their historical, cultural, social, and geographic context.

A drive for profit or merely fulfilling volunteers’ romantic expectations cannot be the main motivators. The primary purpose of such trips by young people should be the pursuit of long-term change, effective assistance to local communities without harm, a sustainable approach to projects, and not merely reinforcing stereotypes and clichés associated with poverty. And although international volunteering is not a solution to development, it may at least serve as a tool — how to unite young people so they can work together in the context of global issues. We must simply remember to choose carefully which project we select.

Volunteering in orphanages is a popular form of voluntourism not only in Southeast Asian countries, but also in Africa and Latin America. Simplified, volunteers are willing to pay and come (for a few days to weeks) to play with local children. Many of these orphanages are not officially registered and function more like tourist attractions. Operators of orphanages are fully aware that activities with children sell very well. In recent years, reports of these centers being used as business schemes have also appeared in international media. The Guardian states that three out of four Cambodian orphans in such homes actually have at least one parent. These children were sent by their parents from their homes for better education, a better future, because their family could not properly take care of them or provide good living conditions.

The Cambodian orphan case was also commented on by UNICEF. It claims that the facilities operate only for private profit, and only one third of total earnings goes to child care, so the children’s welfare is not the concern. A concrete case of this type of orphanage can be found, for example, at Jodie O‘Shea‘s house in Bali, Indonesia. This center takes care of 94 children. One employee confirmed that only six children have no parents, 64 have one living parent, and 14 have both parents alive, while ten children were described as special cases. Many of the children came from the island of Sumba, 500 km from Bali. The Guardian’s reporter was also told that up to five tourist groups visited the orphanage each day, bringing sponsor donations, food, and gifts for the children. The living conditions of these children are not good; food shortages, forced labor, abuse, and beatings all have a major impact on their mental health. This is therefore a form of fraud, a kind of profit-seeking that has become very popular in Southeast Asia specifically with the popularization of Western voluntourism in orphanages. The number of orphanages worldwide continues to rise, yet volunteers are still willing to pay for time spent in one.

Negative impacts on local communities and false orphans

The creation of emotional bonds can be another negative aspect of voluntourism, especially in volunteer activities involving children. Children in schools or orphanages tend to become emotionally attached to volunteers. A question that volunteers may not even realize before a project is: “When will you come back?” In orphanage settings, psychological harm is most common. Children from disrupted families tend to attach much more to adults, looking for role models, inspiration, parents, or friends. Short visits and constant staff turnover have fatal consequences for their mental health. Feelings of loneliness, disrupted long-term relationships, instability of support and structure — all are felt by children in these homes. Unfortunately, when volunteers rotate every two weeks, children barely get used to them, start building a relationship, and the volunteers are already leaving and will never be seen again.

A striking example from Cambodia illustrates the possible impacts on local communities caused by short-term volunteering. As individuals, we can at least try to make a difference by not supporting unregistered institutions. Thinking critically and reflecting on the consequences of one’s actions is key to good development aid. So, which projects should we watch out for, and what should we think through so that our dream of volunteering is truly beneficial and does not burden the host community?

Communities, instead, become dependent on our help through voluntourism. Projects are not designed to build local know-how in a way that is sustainable over the long term. They are rather one-off intensive incursions into communities. In this way, countries become dependent on projects from Western countries. Development aid should rather be an opportunity for communities to continue doing things themselves afterward. The lack of continuity between projects is also problematic, because without it the outcome of any work can be negligible. A meaningful project is always long-term and sustainable.

How to find the right project for your volunteering abroad

So that you also do not become a victim of voluntourism and do more harm than good, follow these tips when choosing your future global volunteering project in so-called developing countries in Asia, Africa, or Latin America.

1. Get to know yourself and assess: What can I do, what suits me, where do I excel It is normal that to be useful to society, we first need to learn from someone and gain the experience of others. However, short-term volunteer programs in Southeast Asia do not require education, do not verify skills, and do not consider experience decisive. This means even an untrained teacher can go teach, and someone who has never planted an herb can be sent to care for an eco-farm.

Getting to know volunteers, their CV, their interests, and their strengths plays a key role in the eventual (in)effectiveness of the entire project. Problematic programs generally focus more on what volunteers want to do than on what they actually know how to do. How can a project be successful if it is run by people who do not understand the topic at all? Therefore, think about what you are good at, what you excel at, what your education fits, and whether you can truly contribute in that field.

2. Know: How much time do I have for volunteering Another factor affecting volunteer effectiveness is the amount of time volunteers spend in the community and in a given role. Studies show that short-term projects can cause more harm than benefit. Projects are simply too short for volunteer workers’ activities to be effective. A typical example is a volunteer who decides to go teach children English in a school. If they stay in the class for only two weeks, it is entirely logical that they cannot adapt to the environment, get used to the local system, learn the children’s names, build social bonds, determine what the children already know, and teach them something they do not already know. Then it may happen that children are repeatedly taught by volunteers to recite the alphabet or sing “Head and shoulders, knees and toes.” To increase effectiveness, it is necessary to secure enough time.

3. Show respect for the local culture and do not deepen stereotypes Initial shock and adaptation to a new environment can take volunteers weeks. Young people who travel on such projects are not used to conditions of poverty; many have never even been to any developing country before, and their expectations about conditions may be completely distorted. It is also an ethical issue in behavior: if Western helpers do not know the culture beforehand, there is a risk that they simply do not know what is appropriate and proper in that country, what is suitable, what is allowed, what is expected, and what may appear as disrespectful behavior. Therefore, try to learn as much as you can about the country you are going to, study its history, geography, politics, and economic situation, and try to understand that country as much as possible.

4. Consider whether you are taking over a paid local position Tourists in many cases can, through their volunteer activity, take a role that in many cases could otherwise be a paid position for a local person, such as a builder, teacher, or nurse. For project organizers, a volunteer worker represents a major advantage — cheaper labor; they do not have to pay wages, pay health insurance, and on the other hand many volunteers pay in advance for the program or work in exchange for food, hygiene, and accommodation. Some volunteers in Indonesia pay between 6 and 7.5 million Indonesian rupiah for four weeks, which is about 13,500 CZK, while the average monthly salary is 1 million.

5. Adopt the mindset “I am here for you,” rather than “I have come to teach you” William Easterly, professor of economics at New York University, in his book “The White Man’s Burden” speaks about the historical tendency of Europeans to solve other states’ problems and advise them on how to achieve a better quality of life. “Western countries do know what is good for less developed countries.” This white saviorism is a symptom of white superiority, and it is something we need to work on together and dismantle together. Therefore, a cooperative and assistive approach is more appropriate than one of control and dictation.

I believe that travel and learning about new cultures opens eyes and minds and leads young people toward solidarity. The very concept of short-term volunteering is not necessarily bad; on the contrary, it has a certain potential. I find it absolutely amazing how many people want to help, gain experience abroad, and share ideas and their time. A positive aspect is, for example, the time spent in a local community itself: every person contributes to the financial flow, and money spent in developing countries can thus lead to long-term benefit within communities. But if we do not have enough knowledge, skills, or experience, it may be better to contribute to the economic growth of a place simply through travel in that country than through short, uncoordinated development volunteering. It is therefore up to each of us who chooses a volunteer project to think critically and selflessly about that choice. To be aware of one’s own actions and to help in ways that make sense.

Text: Kateřina Nováková, Foto: SAIH, Caritas Australia The author is a student of International Development Studies at Palacký University in Olomouc.

Článok bol vytvorený v rámci predmetu Rozvojové príležitosti Str. Ázie na Katedre rozvojových a environmentálnych štúdií PrF UP v Olomouci (pod dohľadom Dr. S. Šafaříkovej a Dr. B. Markovič Baluchovej)