There’s been a lot written  about volunteer travel in the last few months.

So here’s a digest of some of the articles we found most interesting or annoying or worrying or even pleasing – some include us  - most do not.

This article certainly caused a stir - the tragic rise of gap year voluntourism

from The Guardian Beware voluntourists doing good

Why we no longer accept unqualified teaching volunteers  travel on why they no longer accept unqualified teaching volunteers 

from the BBC slum tourism 

a post from worried volunteer Mary 

what is voluntourism

And the debate about volunteering with children continues

To keep up to date follow the better child protection page on facebook 

a must watch for anyone thinking of volunteering in an orphanage – not just in cambodia 

This video incensed us  and made Sallie write this blog

This  BBC interview with a volunteer was disappointing in that it sensationalised but didn’t offer advice  and here’s our response 

and finally a video interview with Sallie

Phew! Said there had been a lot going on!

I listened to a short radio article yesterday on the BBC 4 consumer programme ‘You and Yours‘  - it’s about 40 minutes in.

It was very disappointing. A young medical student called Savannah recounted a disturbing story about “a large sending organisation” that had placed her in poor accommodation and at a challenging project with no support – I think the interview was about 4 minutes. It did nothing but sensationalise – it was prurient in its sensationalisation of what sounded like a horrid and worrying experience for the volunteer (and by inference her co-volunteers).

This was not the fault of the volunteer or the journalist, Phillipa Jacks, who was also being “interviewed”–  the time she had was less than a minute. This was radio journalism at it worst – collect a horror story – report it and do nothing –  nothing to address the issue – Savannah also mentioned a good experience she had had with a local charity– neither organisation was named  - what was achieved? – what can the consumer learn from this? – I’d bet my house on the fact that “big operator” has much more marketing buck than the local charity and knows all the right marketing language to use – so who is the potential volunteer going to find first when left to their own research??

This post however is not about the shortcoming of ‘You and Yours’.

It’s a piece about what’s happening because volunteers are not naming organisations that mislead and mis-sell – and how constructive criticism can be really advantageous to volunteers in helping them to avoid the kind of situation Savannah found herself in. (more…)

Tags: people and places, volunteer, volunteer abroad

Many of you will have heard of Tribes Travel – they are award winners.  A small, personalised tour operator run by husband and wife team Amanda and Guy, Tribes specialise in personal service – for the traveller and for the communities they visit.

“… we believe that the very best tailor made holidays are the ones which not only make you feel special and help you engage with the places you visit, but which, at no extra cost to you, also allow the destinations (people, places and wildlife) to benefit from your visit.”

Which is why, year after year, Tribes wins awards for sustainable travel.

Well now people and places  wants to say a big “thank you” to Tribes – look at what they have gone and done! http://www.tribes.co.uk/volunteering

Support like this from another award-winning responsible tour operator warms our hearts -

….if you are researching a holiday – and not planning to volunteer with us !!! – you couldn’t do better than talking to these guys -

http://www.tribes.co.uk

Tags: responsible travel, volunteer, volunteer abroad

One of the main  reasons Kate, Harold and I started people and places was to campaign for better volunteering experiences – better for local communities and for volunteers. Back in 2007 we started a questions you should ask campaign – and we’re very  pleased to see that many volunteers, as well as members of the press and other volunteer organisations, are now asking these questions too … BUT – there’s still a long way to go!

There are – still far too many examples of volunteers and local people being exploited – still too many questionable child care projects – if anything there are more! – still too many projects where volunteers are poorly screened and prepared – still too many buildings being built by volunteers – buildings that stand empty because there are no funds or skills to staff them – still too many volunteers who are replacing local employment – still too few organisations exercising transparency in where volunteer monies go.

Many of you will know that Harold Goodwin, our co founder and Non Executive Chair of our Advisory Committee,  is Professor of Responsible Tourism Management. We are working with him on two awareness campaigns Better Volunteering and Better Child Protection . Working with Children – our mistake - read it here

We would really welcome your opinions, insights ,questions and stories.

You can read more about the campaigns and other campaigns Harold is involved with here

We have been watching the development of a new volunteer travel resource with great interest. Volunteer Forever  isnt just another site giving you lists of volunteer opportunities and some advice.

The really excity innovation is that you will be able to fundraise on the site to support your volunteer work.

We are listed of course here – so give it a try! and please think about doing a review to let future volunteers know the realities of volunteering with us.

We meet many inspirational people in our work - Linda Cruse is definitely

Linda

one of those people.

Linda trained as a nurse and has traveled to 16 countries in 12 years –  with just one suitcase.

Now she has written a book about her experiences – some of which were pretty challenging! The books called “Marmalade and Machine Guns”

‘Volunteering’ is not for everyone. There are times when it doesn’t
fit, such as when you are busy raising a family or in the thick of
progressing your career, but there are windows in many people’s
lives when it is the perfect answer, even though the idea may not
have taken shape in their minds. I spent years in a job that had no
meaning other than its ability to put food on the table. That is how
it is for many people. And, for us, the ‘mid-life crisis’ strikes a
particularly hard blow. I think of it as an expression of the soul’s cry
for meaning: ‘What is it all for?’ ‘What do I really want to do?’ If
you don’t articulate that cry, anatomise it, and respond to it then you
could be heading down a one-way street to depression. A whole
generation of young-at-heart baby boomers have come to this
moment in their lives. Some may be straight off down the road to the
Harley-Davidson dealer, others might be reading Eat, Pray, Love for
all they’re worth. But there are those who decide to embrace change
in an active way, with both hands. Better off than their parents had
been at their age, and with a wealth of leisure time at their disposal,
they cast around for a meaningful way to spend their time.
You can decide to be a volunteer or mentor without whizzing
off to far-flung places. Certainly, what I chose to do wouldn’t
suit everybody. There is a real need for mentorship at home, in
every community. And the more people put their hands up, the
more that ripple effect spreads.” (more…)

Heres a blog post that I have just written for the WTM Responsible Tourism Day blog – what do you think?

 http://www.wtmlondon.com/page.cfm/Action=Library/libID=1/listID=2/libEntryID=146

Two of the key responsible tourism debates for WTM2012 are to be on ‘Tourism and Child Protection’ and ‘Responsible Volunteering’. They could not be more timely. A recent documentary by Al Jazeera – Cambodia’s Orphan Business and the follow up discussion programme –When volunteering becomes big business raise some very serious questions about the ethics of volunteer programmes in orphanages and some of the practices of one of the industry’s largest sending organisations. Nowhere is responsible travel more important than in the area of child protection and the prevention of abuse. The abuse by paedophiles is an obvious danger to address – but what about other dangers: the removal of children from their communities to spurious orphanages; the use of children to beg from and sell to tourists; and particularly pertinent to volunteering, the deep psychological damage that can result when vulnerable children become attached to individuals in a stream of ever changing short term volunteers. Child protection is not just about paedophilia . Michael Horton of ConCERT Cambodia, a key player in the development of child protection in Cambodia,( and our local partner)spoke eloquently about this at last year’s WTMWRTD – A Little Responsible Tourism is a Dangerous Thing… and this year he chairs the panel. We at people and places hope that we are at a tipping point – that more communities and volunteers will speak out about bad practice – this is what will force change. There are examples of good practice in this field – due diligence, transparency and well matched and prepared volunteers and communities feature in all of those examples – but there are still far too many mistakes. So I am looking forward to meeting and talking with industry peers to see how we can achieve more examples of good practice – we have a responsibility to hold the mirror up to ourselves and demand that we do better. Follow the twitter hashtag #voluntourism to keep up with the debate or even better post your ideas here!

people and places are proud to be supporting WTM World Responsible Tourism Day again this year.

This is a blog post I have just written for the WTM Blog -

We are particularly keen to get comments and feedback from organisations that host volunteers in destination and volunteers – and it would be just wonderful to hear from projects themselves – but we know that the vagueries of internet connection makes that pretty tough most of the time – please do post here or on the WTM blog

Bullied Communities and disappointed volunteers

There is much debate in responsible travel circles about the ethics of and need to police volunteer travel – and rightly so. It is particularly good news and not before time! that the WTM Events will include debates and workshops on responsible volunteering and Tourism and Child Protection this year. Whilst there are ethical operators, all too many operators still sell a smoke and mirrors volunteer placement, using emotional marketing speak to hide poorly conceived projects and talking vaguely about money into communities – obscuring the details, and making the volunteer feel uncomfortable about asking pointed questions. Too often volunteers are told money goes into the community, only to find that 75% of the money stayed with the inbound operator! So, like any travel transaction, there needs to be an education of the consumer. They need to be encouraged to ask questions. There should be clarity. (more…)

This blog post by Rachel is an important read – for anyone thinking about volunteering and for sending and recieving organisations.

There are still way too many organisations out there who poorly serve volunteers and the communities they seek to serve….Rachel seems to have happened upon one of these – tho I reserve judgement given that this is only one persons experience.

It sounds as if Rachel was ill informed, badly prepared and that there had been no meaningful consultation with the community she seeked to serve.  ( I do hope someone from the organisation Rachel travelled with replies to her blog – )

So until I am persuaded otherwise this is another article for me to add to irresonsibletourism.org and my “baddies” file….

I have asked Rachel who she travelled with – I would urge here to “name and shame” and I would be very keen to hear from any of her co volunteers.

Heres her post http://rachelrtw.wordpress.com/2012/05/09/what-i-learnt-in-nepal-why-a-bad-travel-experience-isnt-the-end

Yet again I have to share a really important point made by Daniela Papi in a recent post on her blog

Lessons I  Learned .I strongly encourage everyone to subscribe to her blogs.

here is her latest blog.

So, you’re helping people with “no skills”…?!

Tonight was a reminder for me that our vocabulary reflects our biases. OK, so maybe I am too sensitive about development vocabulary (say “villagers” around me, and I turn green!), but saying you are helping people with “no skills” really irks me. Have you told these people that you are “helping” that you think they have “no skills”?

And, if I can picture these skill-less people you speak of as you stand there in your suit, I imagine they can grow food we only know how to pick off of a shelf, perhaps build their own home, and fix the limited electronic items they have – ones we would throw away because we wouldn’t even know where to start in opening them up!

It reminds me of the lady in Colombia last month who asked me where I was from. When I said “America”, she said “Me too!”, and I thought she was joking with me, as she was clearly from Colombia. It took me a while to realize my biased view of the world and correct myself. “I’m from the United States of America”, it turns out, as she was indeed from America too. My myopic world view biases exposed – touche.

The people who made the “no skills” comments at Oxford’s heated “Bottom of the Pyramid Debate” tonight equally had not intended to offend, and certainly were passionate about the work they were involved in, but it still struck me: if we see the people we are working with in this type of work as having “no skills” we’re clearly taking a myopic view of what skills are important to survive in this world.  Drop me in a developing country, in a community without electricity, with no job, and many kids to feed, and I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have the skills to survive. I bet the “villagers” (yep, I feel sick!) in that community would indeed describe me as having “no skills” at all… and in their world, they’d be right.

And since these BoP initiatives ARE in “their world”, maybe it is our skill-less-ness that we need to be making more note of!

(Thanks for permitting me this rant. OK, I’ve dismounted from my higher-than-it-should-be horse. Off to bed!)

End

………………………………

Some time ago I wrote about the mistakes volunteers make and communities make

One mistake I warned against to  potential volunteers was

“Remember, your reality is not necessarily the reality of the project you will be working with.You have skills but just about without exception you do not have MORE skills than local people just DIFFERENT skills from local people – and many of your skills just ain’t relevant skills in that environment.”

one mistake that I pointed out that communities that host volunteers  often make was

“when thinking about volunteers “They know best”

No they don’t – they know different and they will know more about some things and they will know things that you don’t know – BUT they do not know best and you certainly know a lot that they don’t know – including most important of all your community!”

Let’s  respect  ”different” – and embrace  ”sharing”.

If you want to read my mistakes posts here are the links

http://blog.travel-peopleandplaces.co.uk/?p=1061

http://blog.travel-peopleandplaces.co.uk/?p=758

http://blog.travel-peopleandplaces.co.uk/?p=753

And a thank you again to Daniela for an excellent post – and I for one am happy to give you a leg up onto that horse whenever you wish!