Benefits to projects overseas
We know that volunteering is a great and worthwhile use of your time but how does it help projects overseas?
Amongst all the other benefits of international volunteering like making new friends, learning new skills and (if you’re lucky) getting a tan, we know your real motivation is making a difference. That’s why we’re here and that’s why you’re reading this article. With a plethora of volunteer projects all offering you the chance to save the world, it’s sometimes easy to become a little cynical about the benefits of traveling and volunteering.
Given that you are about to fly off to the four corners of the globe to volunteer, it’s perfectly reasonable to need reassuring that your efforts are going to make a difference. Not just a short-term difference either, but a lasting one. Volunteers hate feeling uncertainty about whether their good work will be built upon. If you feel like that, it’s difficult to put 100% into your daily tasks.
It’s in the interest of all volunteer travel providers to make sure that the projects are really benefiting from your hard work because otherwise no-one will want to travel with them. Done correctly, projects overseas enjoy lasting benefits from the supply of volunteers they receive and we’re going to discuss some of the major ones here.
Continuous supply
A constant supply of volunteers arriving at a project won’t just mean plenty of new faces to meet, it means that the project is getting constant help and is able to reach long-term goals. Being certain of a continuous flow of volunteers makes planning so much easier. There’s nothing worse than leaving a project not knowing when the next helper will be coming and whether the things you taught the children will have been forgotten before they arrive! Such is the constant influx of volunteers to some projects, you may even get to meet the people carrying on your good work and pass on some tips. This really makes you feel like an important part of the process.
Volunteers not money
Simply giving money is a crude way of solving complicated problems, whereas people can be adaptable and be put to many different uses! Corruption and instability have made financial aid-giving very troublesome and money itself is partially responsible for that instability. If projects become dependent on money rather than volunteers then they are really damaged by any drop-off in funding, and their long-term survival is threatened. A constant supply of volunteers on the other hand, is useful but not necessary for their survival; they retain their independence and good long-term prospects.
Benefits to the local economy
Good volunteer travel providers work with projects that are based in the community and have community development as their goal. When volunteers travel to projects they can eat, drink and sleep locally which boosts the economy and in turn boosts the profile and long-term survival hopes of the project. For sustainable volunteering to work, the projects need to be part of the communities. Too often, placements set up for the benefit of western travelers allow money to slip out of the local areas. The phrase ‘community projects’ means that the future of the volunteer project is bound together with that of the community, and any success is mutually beneficial.
Experience of western culture
We know from experience that local communities benefit enormously from the support of volunteers. As well as the practical help they offer around the project, volunteers make an impact on an even deeper level. The social interaction between volunteers and local people is extremely important in breaking down preconceived ideas about western travelers and helps to form a real connection between different people. By demonstrating that foreign travelers have the well-being of their community at heart, it helps convince locals that sustainable tourism is possible and encourages them to take part in it.
- http://www.developments.org.uk/
- http://www.wwf.org.uk/
- http://http://www.corpwatch.org/
- http://www.i-to-i.com/campfire/travel-guides/64-Can-I-actually-make-a-difference-
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