Planeta Forum

[planeta]

What are the ethics of volunteering? -- This question was first posed in the Ethical Travel Dialogue, June 13-July 21, 2006.
http://www.planeta.com/ecotravel/tour/etd.html
http://forum.planeta.com/viewforum.php?f=79

As of September 2009, we're moving this and related topics into the Responsible Tourism Forum
http://forum.planeta.com/viewforum.php?f=76

REQUEST -- Please keep messages brief, preferably less than three paragraphs or 250 words. If you have a relevant URL, please mention it within hyphens or on a separate line.

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REFERENCES

Volunteering
http://www.planeta.com/ecotravel/tour/volunteer.html

I Want to Volunteer Abroad - World Hum
http://tinyurl.com/jqu8f

[Michael]

Unfortunately my interest in ethical tourism began because of a fight I witnessed in Accra between a Ghanaian taxi driver and a young British man on his gap year doing a so called volunteer project.

They were figthing over the price of the taxi fare - 200 Cedis, which at the time was worth about twenty pence (GBP £0.20 or 30 Cents USD). For the Ghanaian, that 200 Cedis was equivalent to the price of a meal for his family, for the Brit, not even enough to buy a single cigarette or apple.


Recently Tourism Concern held a debate with the motion ‘Gap years and volunteer tourism are the new colonialism?'

Those arguing for the motion included representatives from both Maasai and Thai Community Tourism organisations together with a leading UK academic. Volunteer tourism, they said, “markets itself to young people wanting to gain experience and boost their CV using negative stereotypes of the Third World and is therefore a continuation of colonialism.”

Those against the motion, a former gapper, an author and a senior manager from one of the larger gap year companies attested that gap years and volunteer holidays “offer meaningful opportunities for both the communities and the gappers.”

The panel for the motion summarised that “development aid must always focus on the needs of local people, it cannot focus on the needs of customers and tourists.” They continued that problems arise when volunteer tourism tries to be a form of short-term development.

Tourism Concern plans to look into working to produce codes of conducts for gap year and volunteer tourism industry in the UK.

[planeta]

Very interesting! Was a formal summary prepared? If so, we'd be happy to publish it on Planeta.com or link to it if it is elsewhere on the Web.

The question of volunteer program evaluation came up in a recent dialogue conducted online World Hum
http://tinyurl.com/jqu8f

My question is how are these programs evaluated? We ask travelers to listen to locals and respond to their demands, but the practical question is how.

Codes of conduct would be great use and would an index of locally managed projects. Ethical Travel Guide lists more than a dozen countries with volunteering options. Personally, I would like to see an updated index on the Web with comments from locals and travelers.

On a separate note, I wonder what the best way would be to involve volunteers with Planeta.com? Over the past 10+ years, many people have written to volunteer, but they tend to want to want to volunteer more than they want to follow directions. Suggestions?

[Mary Finn]

Michael made some very good points about volunteering. In my experiences with volunteer programs in Ecuador, I have seen some positive and also some very negative aspects of volunteers. Volunteer programs have the potential for doing some good work, for example, in conservation, or teaching English or environmental education. Volunteers also seem willing to endure less than perfect conditions, so paying volunteer programs seem to be potentially a good way for a small community with few resources to get started in ecotourism.

But as Michael illustrates with his example of the gap year student fighting with a taxi driver in Ghana, we cannot assume that the mere fact of being a ´volunteer` ensures cultural sensitivity or buy-in to the ideals of ecotourism, or even common courtesy and social responsibility. As he points out, volunteers could have many motivations, not all of them Altruistic. Some want to pad CVs, others are looking for a relatively cheap way to travel, and the list goes on.

I have also seen a number of examples of what I consider outrageous behavior from volunteers of all nationalities, ages and genders:

• Gap year students of all genders, ´mooning´ and insulting locals, dancing semi-nude, exhibiting loud public drunkenness, and in general imitating an episode of ´wild college kids on vacation.

• Women of all ages whose idea of ´relating to the locals´ involves having ´vacation flings´ (some almost as soon as they arrive). None seemed to have any concern about local norms, or the effects of their behaviors, and many had no compunctions about taking up even with local married men. One enthusiastic volunteer even took it upon herself to ´set up´ local guys with her girlfriends, encouraging one to send photos of herself clad only in a towel in advance of her visit.

• Volunteers whose main interest seems to be padding their CVs or even finding semi-permanent jobs. These seem generally not too interested in really training or empowering locals, and some seem quite obvious about wanting take over running things.

The most disturbing part of all was that in many of these cases, the organizations in charge of these volunteers, as well as the ´community leaders´ receiving them, were aware of these behaviors, and did nothing about them – in fact, refused to do anything about them. The excuses were that this behavior was ´normal´, or that both locals and vols were ´having a good time`, and that these were activities between consenting adults, and so ´no harm was done.´

Both the in-country representative of the conservation organization coordinating the gap year visits and the official community ´leader´ also played the ´whatever the community wants to do is no one else´s business` card. The latter in particular was quite indignant in rejecting the right of ´outsiders´ to ´impose´ any sort of behavioral norms, and in his defense of the men´s personal liberties (including their ´right´ to actively set out to seduce visiting women for travel visas or other personal gain - or as he put it, ´everyone has the right to try to win the lottery´).

In fact though many in the community, especially the women and children – DID suffer significant harm from this behavior – and were most certainly NOT in agreement with this leader´s position. But as they were the least visible and most powerless community members, their voices went unheard (the conservation rep tended to meet only with one or two of the male community leaders and refused several opportunities to get to know the women and other community members better.)

Given these types of problems (which I fear is not confined to just this community), I think that Tourism Concern´s plans to look into codes of conducts for volunteer tourism is sorely needed. As this type of travel is rapidly growing in Ecuador and many other developing countries, it is important that there be agreement on norms for responsible behavior that promote truly responsible ecotourism and volunteerism, and protects local communities.

thanks,

Mary

[Guyonne]

Mary this is so depressing to hear! There is growing interesting in volunteer tourism in the UK at the moment and Tourism Concern has been fielding a lot of questions from the media since we had the conference last year. It is a rapidly growing market and I suppose was always in danger of losing touch with its values and purpose because of this.

I just wanted to make a distinction between Gap year volunteers and older volunteers, I think they are very different groups of people with very different reasons for volunteering. Gap year volunteers are predominantly students taking time out before or after college for some excitement and new experiences.

On the other hand there is a growing number of professional people who genuinely want to contribute their labour to people less fortunate than themselves. Of course, they will also have more selfish reasons for volunteering but, mostly, they just want to help. There has been an explosion of operators to service this market and the prices some of them charge are incredible! At the moment there is no way of knowing whether the volunteer or the community they are meant to be helping is being ripped off. This is why Tourism Concern has started to look at codes of practice.

But isn’t there a fundamental tension in putting together tourism and volunteering? For the vast majority of people, tourism is something we do for our own pleasure whereas volunteering is a gift for the benefit of others. Isn’t it inevitable that putting the two activities together will erode the value of both?

[advlife]

I agree that there is a difference between older volunteers and gap year volunteers. But Guyonne's question about whether combining tourism and volunteering erodes the value of both is relevant to both types.

I considered offering volunteer opportunities as part of my tour product when I first launched my company eight years ago. However, I never felt comfortable that I could provide the right mix of pleasure and production from any "itineraries" or volunteer opportunities. I was afraid that a project would be too unorganized and thus not meet a client's expectations of really achieving something good, or I was afraid that the local was too rustic and a client would be miserable - or often both!

Guyonne's question is a good one and immediately made me think of Peace Corpes volunteers. In the US, we don't really have 'gap' years. Many of us do go out and travel, but it's not so prevalent that it has it's own term. Still, the idea of taking a year or two off to volunteer in an exotic and poor country is very familiar to us, and the largest such organization doing this is the US Peace Corps. Here is an organization with millions of dollars in resources, field offices in every local, and decades of continuity at project sites. No doubt, Peace Corps has had a positive impact on some countries, but I hear story after story from returned volunteers about how they spent their first year just trying to figure out how to help the community they are living in. Then, the last year, just before they leave, they start to accomplish something.... then they go home.

What I'm trying to get at is that it is extraordinarily difficult accomplish something positive in a 2 year program, let alone a year program or just a few months. The very transient nature of volunteering in a foreign country reduces the effectiveness of volunteering - and thus the entire volunteer experience. Are we better off focusing on the "tourism" part of volunteer tourism? Maybe renaming it "experiential travel" as this puts the focus firmly on the traveler's satisfaction?

Although I'm skeptical of the effectiveness of bringing about long-term positive change in a community or country from volunteer tourism, I do think that thoughtful and responsible tourism has its positive impacts. I wouldn't have gotten into the business if I didn't! Responsible tourism creates stakeholders in the community, sometimes even exchanges useful information between guest and host, and can promote capacity building that can be transferred to other industries. When providing a tour, everyone understands the issues - enjoyment for the traveler in exchange for economic benefit to the provider. When proving a volunteer tour, there is much more confusion. The traveler thinks that it is their time and energy that the provider (community) wants, while the community may think that they should be paid to provide the opportunity to the volunteer to DO something.

[planeta]

I would respectfully disagree with Guyonne that putting tourism and volunteering together erodes the value of both. That said, this is such a lively topic in our dialogue, it's a good idea to examine this in depth and perhaps develop some proposals on figuring out what travelers and locals want from each other.

As Mary pointed out, I am a big fan of intelligent quotes. Here's one:

"A lot of tourists have a consumer attitude -- what can I get, instead of what can I learn. We have to put aside our own cultural biases and learn as much as possible from the people we visit. I find that if you stay long enough, learn the language, you get a sense of who locals are as people."
- Clay Hubbs, publisher of Transitions Abroad, quoted in Rethinking Tourism -- http://tinyurl.com/ol8pb

Last fall Planeta.com and Transitions Abroad teamed up to conduct an online survey focusing on responsible travel. In particular, we asked whether those responding had volunteered overseas.

Results:
 
Yes - 43.6% (34)
No - 56.4% (44)

Source: Responsible Tourism Handbook
http://www.transitionsabroad.com/listings/travel/responsible/responsible_travel_handbook.pdf

The impression I got when reviewing the survey was that most of our readers are quite independent-minded and do not wish to participate in a formal volunteering program. That said, they might be interested in spontaneous volunteering and long-term volunteering. We will be revisiting this question in our 2007 survey.

I am glad that Brian brought up the topic of Peace Corps. Planeta.com has had many years of correspondence with volunteers and administrators, but rarely have we had anything that resembled continuity. Projects begin, are announced and then disappear. Peace Corps and other institutions need to improve their communication, particularly when they are working in the realm of rural development and community tourism.

[Mary Finn]

Guyonne asked:

[planeta]

Thanks, Mary. I see your point about Guyonne's critique. I also agree that we need to find a way of welcoming a dialogue about the tension. It is a gift.

Quoting Harrison Owen on peacemaking: "Chaos, confusion and conflict are eliminated if possible, rather than honored for the gifts they give, and then invited to integrate into the larger fabric."
http://www.planeta.com/planeta/03/0301peacemaking.html

Whether we are developing codes of conduct or a list of things individual travelers can do during a vacation, finding the appropriate balance requires an awareness raised by a dialogue among travelers and community members.

I quote Harrison a lot. He's the author of Open Space Technology which serves as a methodological reference -- http://www.planeta.com/web/ost.html -- for this and other Planeta.com events. His article on peacemaking rings true for much of this particular dialogue as we change our approach from a "Top Down/Command and Control" behavior to a more earnest dialogue.

[STIreland]

Voluntourism I would call it – essential tourism, because people engaged in this form of tourism are not only interested in having a holiday, but a whole new experience that could change their life and the life of others.
This point is what makes it so special, and which make the question above sound irrelevant to me, although correct.
What I mean is that, if there is a form of tourism where people are given the chance to get closer to local people, and maybe in the long term change the vision of people about traditional tourism, than it is good, no matter what.
I remember Olga, in the community of Junin where I was voluntourist 2 years ago. The experience of meeting the tourists, as she said it, changed her forever, gave her confidence about her life and relating herselfto others. She was very shy, so not among the “main organizer of the project” (like Oscar her brother), but still she saw many positives in this mutual relationship.

For me the main ethics/behaviours of a voluntourist:
• Generosity: money paid and time spent can provide invaluable resources to local organisations/communities
• Openness, to take in as much as possible in the place visited
• Act consciously, thoughtfully, and willingly, in dealing with new cultures she is meeting without offending them.
• Passionate about new cultures and people

[planeta]

Greetings, all

Cyber housekeeping notes: we are reactivating this topic and placing this in the Responsible Tourism Forum -- http://forum.planeta.com/viewforum.php?f=76

Also, we're adding a volunteer page to the planeta wiki
http://planeta.wikispaces.com/volunteer

[sallie grayson]

we at www.travel-peopleandplaces.co.uk believe they can be - BUT only if the volunteers are well screened and well matched to community need. That takes a lot of time and commitment from volunteer and placement agency alike. Read more here http://www.travel-peopleandplaces.co.uk/userfiles/final%20for%20tourism%20socity.pdf