Topic Volunteering abroad does it do more harm than good PDF

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Essay about voluntourism...

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Topic: Volunteering abroad: does it do more harm than good?

Essay: Introduction: ● Who what why

Voluntourism, a term that combines the words “Volunteering” and “Tourism,” refers to a form of tourism that possesses the objective of improving lives through the act of volunteering while travelling. Prior to the current social climate which we live in today, the world was once free from the burdens of the COVID-19 pandemic. Previously, most individuals would easily find themselves coming across posts of voluntourism rapidly spreading all over social media. As a result, voluntourism became increasingly popular with the youth due to the portrayed glitz and glam of voluntourism. Voluntourism is essentially volunteering abroad in a developing country. Such programmes exist to give volunteers a chance of experiencing and learning from a different culture whilst providing aid to those who are presumably in dire need of help. Often, the volunteer efforts can come in the form of education, improvement of infrastructure, medical or even environmental conservation. This essay aims to discuss the implications of voluntourism and the potential adverse or beneficial effects which the act of voluntourism brings upon communities involved. In the context of this essay’s context, the term volunteer refers to individuals who are paying to engage in volunteer work through voluntourism packages rather than paid volunteers.

The act of voluntourism does come with beneficial effects on the communities, which are targeted. It can be said that voluntourists do indeed possess the ability to stimulate the local

economies of the countries they visit. As more volunteers enter the country, local businesses have the chance to gain increased revenues. These voluntourists undoubtedly have to sustain their lives by providing themselves with sustenance, shelter, and transport. As a result, they will have to dine at local restaurants, seek accommodation, and maybe even take taxis to travel from one destination to another. This money goes directly into the pockets of the local people and thus giving them a greater spending power (Anderson, Kim, & Larios, 2017). Additionally, this also increases the likelihood of cultural exchange. The local population is provided with the opportunity to communicate with a potentially diverse range of people from different countries worldwide. It is an excellent opportunity for them to learn about new cultures and expand their knowledge, maybe even broaden their perspectives through the volunteers(Clothier, 2010).

Unfortunately, much like many things in life, there are always drawbacks to any situation. This being said, voluntourism potentially has the capacity to inflict more harm upon local communities than to leave lasting positive, impactful change. As mentioned previously, the voluntourism industry can stimulate the economy. However, it appears to be a double-edged sword as it increases the reliance of volunteers on the economy. As a result, the government may encourage more volunteers to come into the country instead of promoting tourism. With the influx of volunteers coming into the country, they may be taking jobs away from the locals. Instead of having a trained local architect build a school in poor communities, unskilled volunteers may build them and may end up building an unsafe structure that may require lots of maintenance years down the road. When the economy starts relying on voluntourism, it may also lead to the possibility of child trafficking whereby children are stolen, bought or kidnapped from families and placed into fake establishments in order to fuel the demand for volunteer placements and supply fake places to advertise under volunteer tourism packages. At times,

these kidnapped children are forced to intentionally poor living conditions in order to act as a more convincing front to guilt-trip people into donating more money (Doore, Nave, & Travers, 2016).

In conjunction with the issues surrounding colonialism, most of the voluntourism customers are more often than not,westerners who are of Caucasian heritage. Many of these volunteers are sent abroad to provide aid and to have a better understanding of existing cultures that differ greatly from theirs; however, similar to neo-colonialism, voluntourism plays a huge role in further emphasizing the inequality of power relationships between the volunteers and the communities. Volunteers often go to these communities in hopes of providing education despite being untrained in this field, and thus establishing the role of a leader, or a teacher albeit improper, which in turn amplifies the idea that westerners are culturally superior (Smith, 2015). Having said that, despite not conquering the lands of these communities, volunteers often believe that they are creating tremendous positive change upon local communities through the act of educating them about their way of life. However, they may be unintentionally forcing their way of life upon these communities, making local communities increasingly out of touch with their cultural identity (Stein, 2017).

Additionally, as mentioned in the paragraph above, if the government starts welcoming more volunteers instead of promoting tourism, this may encourage volunteer gaze as the community or even the government may start promoting the image of helpless children and starving people, allowing volunteers to believe that they did good by being a part of the efforts to make a change in the country and thus establishing themselves as someone to be worshipped. It is possible that the tourist gaze can also be encouraged whereby a cultural image of the community is portrayed in a specific way through advertising which in turn sets an expectation for the volunteers and the communities may have to ensure that these volunteers have the most

authentic cultural experience in response to the advertisement shown on the websites of the organisations that arrange these tours. Furthermore, the western world had always been the narrative for many non-western countries. Because of the different kinds of gaze, some volunteers may start exhibiting what many may consider elitist behaviours whereby they become more entrenched in viewing locals as individuals who lack skills and knowledge, in addition to being lazy and dependent on aid while the locals may also view these volunteers as snobby and rich and in turn, exploit them (Mostafanezhad, 2014), causing a rift between the two parties.

All things considered, voluntourism does bring more harm than good to the communities as the harm inflicted outweighs the benefit brought by it. It also reinforces neo-colonialism. Nonetheless, it is important to consider that many volunteers fall victims to the illusion that they possess the capacity to make a change and eradicate poverty. Often, the voluntourism advertisements generated by various organizations paint the picture that eradicating poverty relies solely on having a big heart and good intentions. Realistically speaking, poverty is influenced by many factors such as geographical location of a particular community or a country, culture, war, social factors, and many more. While it is tough eradicating poverty completely, we can always help these communities by taking the initiative to find out directly which communities need help and contacting the channels directly rather than going through an intermediary channel such as an agent or even a possibly fake establishment.

References 1. Anderson, S. E., Kim, R., & Larios, K. (2017). Voluntourism: The Economic Benefit and Societal Costs of Short-Term Mission Trips. International Journal of Health and Economic Development, 28-37. 2. Clothier, J. (2010). Voluntourism: The benefits and pitfalls you need to know. CNN. 3. Doore, K. v., Nave, A., & Travers, E. (2016). Voluntourism and Child Traficking Into Orphanages. Forget Me Not.

4. Mostafanezhad, M. (2014). Volunteer tourism and the popular humanitarian gaze. Geoforum, 111-118. 5. Smith, M. (2015). The Cost of Volunteering: Consequences of Voluntourism. Penn Libraries. 6. Stein, Y. R. (2017). Volunteering to Colonize: a Cost-Benefit Analysis of the Impacts of Voluntourism....