Entries about volunteer

Ever dreamed of volunteering in Costa Rica? Can you afford it? Photo by shinenyc.

Several years ago, I researched doing a volunteer trip and was disheartened when most volunteer programs I found were well beyond my budget. I became sceptical. If these people want me to volunteer for them, why are they charging me so much money to do so?

In fact, it wasn’t the local organisations that were threatening to bleed me dry financially. It was the multinational companies acting as the middle man between them and potential volunteers such as myself. Their exorbitant fees were what turned me off volunteering overseas.

I was startled to read just how much going through an international “voluntourism company“ adds to the price. Rob Meyer, on his blog GoBudgetTravel, showed that a volunteer program costing a mere $450 if arranged directly with the organisation, costs $2245 if you go through a multinational company.

Where’s all that extra cash going?

Scott Pralinsky, the executive director for Tropical Adventures (a “so-called voluntourism company” which operates in Costa Rica), replied to Rob’s post from his own blog, explaining that the extra money helps pay for quite a bit. Besides setting you up with an appropriate local organisation, these companies provide valuable support for volunteers. They also research and decide which areas of Costa Rica most need support. And of course there are administrative costs, advertising, and salaries to pay.

I agree that companies like Tropical Adventures have their place. They are great for travellers who might not be willing (or able) to plan a volunteer trip themselves.

Unfortunately, voluntourism companies also tend to be the most prominent. How many travellers grow discouraged and give up after they find they cannot afford to volunteer - without ever realising that they can organise it on their own?

Should voluntourism companies take greater care to inform potential volunteers that there are cheaper ways to volunteer - even if that means some people don't volunteer through them?

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For those interested in organising their own volunteer trip, here are a few great articles worth checking out:

• The Complete Guide to Volunteer Tourism
  
• 6 Steps to Organizing Your Own Volunteer Trip
  
• How to Save Thousands by Organizing Your Own Volunteer Trip
  

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The whole concept of paying to volunteer inspires me with cynicism. After all, when you pay someone, it usually means that they will give you something in return, but that doesn't really seem to add up when it comes to paid volunteer experiences. If I have to pay to volunteer, then I assume that the organisation I'm paying actually considers me more hassle than help. Which begs the question: how effective and/or useful is voluntary work?

A TravelMole report about the surge in popularity of "humanitarian travel" does little to defeat my cynicism. Humanitarian travel is big business.

Luckily enough though, my job with Travellerspoint gives me plenty of opportunity to read about travellers who are out there volunteering. A few blogs I've read recently have highlighted the merits of being a volunteer.

Nat and Evan are volunteering in Kazakhstan for Crossroads, "an aid organization that seeks to meet needs with resources." As Evan describes it, "it’s kind of like a huge Vinnies on a wholesale level, but rather than selling goods, CR gives them away to welfare organisations that reach out to those most in need across the globe."

Without a substantial knowledge of Russian, how helpful are Nat and Evan able to be? While they have been limited by the language problem, they've still got their hands dirty - Evan helps out with a building renovation while Nat works in the office and cooks:

Her biggest challenge has been coming up with recipes with a very limited range of ingredients and big cost constraints (aim $1 per person per day). Needless to say she has come up with some delightful variations on the standard fare of carrots, cabbage and potatoes.

I have already mentioned Brian Chu's blog. In his latest entry, entitled Who's helping who?, he writes about his volunteer experience with an orphanage in Peru, where he spends his afternoons helping adolescent boys with their homework and playing ping pong and other games with them. Part of the experience of volunteering is coming to understand that the people we thought we were there to help might actually be able to teach us a thing or two about life.

I can go in and out of Inabif as I please, to and from Huancayo whenever, and back and forth across borders with relative ease. Those boys don't even leave the orphanage's perimeters very often. And yet they live like they're on top of the world.

While I'm still cynical about paying exorbitant amounts of money to volunteer for an organisation that may or may not find my work beneficial, Brian and Nat and Evan's blogs do assuage my cynicism somewhat. Even if you're not going to change the world with your volunteer work, your time and effort could really help an organisation; and you may find the contact with people less "fortunate" than yourself a humbling experience.

Thanks to Rolf Potts' Vagablogging, I found Idealist.org this morning, a site by Action Without Borders that "connects people, organizations, and resources to help build a world where all people can live free and dignified lives."

Idealistic indeed, but this week the site is launching a global initiative to unite people with similair interests and desires across the face of the planet. From February 5-11, there will be 273 meetings worldwide.

The premise for these meetings is the belief that there are many people in the world who share similair desires and visions of change. By providing the opportunity for these people to connect with each other and work together, be it through the internet or in person, "the world would be a different place."

Cynical? Maybe you should take a look at the organisations in your neighbourhood that are trying to achieve positive change.