Key Takeaways
- I’m frequently asked about volunteering overseas, and unfortunately I don’t know much about it. So today, I’m turning the blog over to friend and volu
- A foundational motivation underpinning the past four years I’ve been traveling around the world has been the idea that serving others would help me fi
- I left home to travel for many reasons, and I had many preconceived ideas about what I would find outside the confines of the United States. Traveling
I’m frequently asked about volunteering overseas, and unfortunately I don’t know much about it. So today, I’m turning the blog over to friend and volunteer tourism expert Shannon O’Donnell from the blog A Little Adrift. She’s been volunteering around the world for years and recently published a book on the subject. She’s the expert, so without further ado, here’s Shannon’s advice on finding good volunteer opportunities.
A foundational motivation underpinning the past four years I’ve been traveling around the world has been the idea that serving others would help me find clearer direction for my life. There are many ways to better understand and respect other cultures as we travel, but for me, the most effective has been volunteering.
I left home to travel for many reasons, and I had many preconceived ideas about what I would find outside the confines of the United States. Traveling dispelled many of those notions almost immediately, but it was only when I slowed down and spent time volunteering that I was able to sink into the travel experience in a way that goes beyond photographing the major temples, churches, and iconic sites.
When I first left in 2008 on what I thought would simply be a year-long round-the-world trip, I was overwhelmed by how convoluted and ethically ambiguous the international volunteer industry seemed. Simple searches to find projects I could support on my trip yielded a bevy of companies touting volunteer experiences in the poorest countries in the world and yet costing many thousands of dollars — it didn’t make sense, and it nearly discouraged me from doing any work at all.
But once I traveled, researched, and learned, I realized there are many quality, ethical options out there for travelers interested in volunteering, but finding them is tougher than it should be. It’s this quandary that motivated me to write my book, The Volunteer Traveler’s Handbook.
I know what it’s like to want to volunteer and travel but to be confused by the sometimes huge fees, the equivocal ethics, and the sheer number of options. With that in mind, I jumped at the opportunity Route for Less gave me to share five clear steps on how to find and vet good-fit volunteer projects.
Step One: Understand Development and Aid
During my first year volunteering internationally, I overlooked this first step and instead fueled my volunteer efforts with enthusiasm and little knowledge, and, as a result, I, unfortunately, supported a few projects that I now see had fundamental ethical issues. One of the hardest things for new, eager volunteers to understand is that not all organizations — even nonprofits — are doing good, necessary work that ethically develops the communities and ecosystems where we volunteer our time. For that reason, take a step back from the planning and instead learn more about core problems facing development projects when they bring in Western volunteers and ideas.
Two core themes I analyze in my book center on how too many volunteer projects can actually foster dependency on international aid and compromise the dignity of the people they are trying to help. Before you volunteer, your job is to understand the macro-industry around volunteering. I’ve collected a list of fantastic books, TED Talks, and websites that provide context for international aid conundrums and the interplay between volunteering and development work. Each one of these three books and articles offers a good start toward broad-level understanding:
- The Elusive Quest for Growth by William R. Easterly: nicely frames the major, core issues of international development models
- The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It by Paul Collier: an easy read and great overall look at development; he presents interesting solutions to major aid issues.
- “It Doesn’t Take a Village: The perverse effects of local aid”: this Economist article analyzes the idea that empowerment at the local level is best, countering with arguments of corruption, elitism, and bureaucratic issues. The article illustrates that there is no panacea for the major development issues.
Step Two: Choose a Good-Fit Type of Volunteering
There are an overwhelming number of ways to volunteer, and since I started traveling more than four years ago, I’ve tried most of them. I used a placement company on my round-the-world trip to find a monastery in Nepal where I could teach, I’ve taken recommendations from travelers on the road, and now I most often volunteer independently with
