HESO 449: Ecohealth SDS

I found the readings very eye-opening in terms of volunteering abroad and different people’s expectations and reflections from an international experience. In the Maclean’s article it mentions that a short period of time in a community will not lift the community out of poverty, a “real failure of the development community” and “fabricated volunteer experience.” I feel this is a core issue that volunteers can have.

I also agree with Shah & Wu in that a global health ethics course and further research in teaching ethics is something that should be carried out. I think this will stop the constant act of pushing aid into other countries for our benefit and will result in more solutions that will last long term. When volunteering, building a mutualistic relationship with the community or a person and gaining their respect is crucial and should not be done merely to put on your resume.

I don’t have any experience volunteering in a developing country so I’m glad this was brought to my attention if I ever decide to. Look forward to next class!

Students’ need to volunteer abroad, usually for short time periods, has always been an interesting discussion to me. I don’t think that it will be helpful to critique peoples’ decisions to go abroad because given the economic industry built around this experience, which is predominantly marketed towards middle-upper class youth, it is likely that this “voluntourism” will not go away.

Instead there is a need for transparency of students’ experiences abroad. In developing countries, where most students are placed to build an orphanage or dig a well, the costs and resources of sending first world students to these areas is not justified. Instead local people could be employed to do the same job, which fosters sustainability and community empowerment, and forgoes the pollution created by global travel. Stephen Lewis expressed these very sentiments at the UBC Student Leadership Conference in 2007. When students go abroad for short time periods, without any real connection to their destination, students, scholarship committees and graduate school admissions need to be transparent about what the students really did during their global trip. These students aren’t making a direct change or doing anything noteworthy to change the world. Instead these students experience self-growth, learning, and get a taste of cross-cultural relations outside of the comforts of their “middle class bubble”. It may seem like I am suggesting that going abroad for the purpose of “an overly-romanticized journey of the self” is unjust, however this is not the case. The only injustice in going on this type of journey is pretending that you are accomplishing more than you actually are.

Given the large amount of resources that we are investing into student travel to the global south, and given the striking comparisons between social conditions in Canada’s north to the global south, I pose the question, what can be done to expose students to northern Canada to “Go North”?

I think that the EIESL project serves a great purpose in helping to overcome some of the issues in international service that April mentioned, and how to critically look at the ways in which we take action as global citizens. I also agree that the sustainable outcome of one’s volunteer experience abroad is weakened by the fact that often students from developed countries are thrown into cultures, societies and projects to which they have little relation. The reason for this may be as simple as the desire to stretch one’s boundaries of personal experience with the intention or conviction that change at a global or community level can be instilled. Although I do believe that such travels are not as effective as ones with a more deeply rooted intent, I’m also inclined to believe that initiatives like the EIESL project help bridge this gap by allowing individuals to critically think about their intent in volunteering abroad. It also seems to me helpful to build a vision before carrying out international service, both long-term and short-term visions, which I believe will accomplish a number of things: it will allow students to think about what really interests them or makes them passionate—a necessary but often underestimated ingredient for creating sustainable change. The project also allows students to consider the social and ethical implications of their service and perhaps build a mental framework for organizing all of these elements (initial ideas, how to mobilize resources, maintaining newly established interventions, etc).
In summary, it all comes down to finding one’s niche in volunteering or service through a more critical approach, and perhaps to gradually continue building upon the notion that sustainable change can be brought about successfully, whether that’s at the furthest corner of the globe or in one’s own neighborhood, as long as one has the passion, motivation and belief to implement those changes on a long-term basis.

Well said summary Natasha!! As mentioned, this weeks reading were differently eye-opening. I was aware to some extend about volunteering abroad and how it is sometimes done as Mendleson mentions to “ add a line in a resume” or it is done for other motivations such as “career” and “skill development”. However, what intrigued me the most when reading Shah and Wu’s article was that medical student in-training who participate in Global Health Experience (GHEs) can sometimes “do more harm than good”. They explain that this is in fact due to the lack of knowledge and training of these students as well as insufficient licensed physician’s supervision . They further recommend, that there are many different form of initiatives that medical students in-training can participate in global health that follow a better ethical guideline with incorporation of medical professionalism and it does not involve direct patient care. For example, education, cultural research and advocacy are a few named by Shah and Wu. It is alarming that there are no specific ethical standards exist for GHEs. This has resulted in medical students sometimes “prioritizing” their educational learning using “underserved population” as a tool. Health Advocacy role by Dianna, a second year medical student demonstrated her positive perspective on her volunteer journey. I found her experience was mainly about her learning education. Lastly, on blog posting regarding volunteering, there was a mention of “voluntourism” which I think is an interesting way of describing some of the short term volunteering abroad programs. I agree that these are a “band aid solution” and have challenges of their own. If we want to help internationally or even locally we need to look deeper at other determinants of health to create a more sustainable long term solutions for many of the on-going problems.

The article “Creating Global Doctors” interested me in particular, mostly because it describes a young medical student’s journey in a part of the world where I would like to work someday, whether it is for a few months or a few years; I use the term ‘work’ very loosely as well, and as I read the class’s blog posts, is equivalent to voluntourism. I have volunteered in Tanzania, but it’s tough to say if I would have gone there if it were not for my family and friends who live there. From Diana Louie’s thoughts, I can attest to the fact that so much can be learned by working in resource-poor settings, where healthcare practitioners cannot rely on lab equipment or tests, but solely on a patient’s verbal anecdotes of their medical history (which, in any part of the world, can be unreliable since fluency in medical terminology is unfortunately often restricted to those who use it in their careers). Diana at the end of her article, switched from using the term ‘work’, to the term ‘care’, which I thought represented the shift in her mentality from before going to Uganda, to her preparations in going back not as someone who only brings her expertise, but also her unconditional desire to truly help another human being.

What surprised me were the ethical implications of volunteers going to work abroad and a deeper insight into the emotions they may go through in tackling additional issues of translation, under-staffing, and consequent mental anguish in possibly misdiagnosing patients. Having more background about the culture and primary language spoken is key, but there are variables that are next to impossible to alleviate, similar to what Diana Louie mentioned. What would be best in this case, to care for a population with all of these challenges and to minimize the emotional toll that voluntourism can take on students who just want to have a well-rounded, ‘useful’, experience? As the previous blog posts touched upon, we cannot have the best of both worlds. The article mentioned that having a course on medical professionalism can make students more aware of global healthcare, but what is the best solution? Is there one?

I think this is a great topic to consider for Ecohealth and students interested in global/public health or the wider world in general!

In addition to volunteering abroad to improve one’s resume, I think another main motivation for voluntourism is to actually see, or “experience”, a developing country. To me, this desire attests to the division between developed and developing countries despite our “globalized world”. People who grow up in developed countries seem to either be repelled or intrigued by developing countries. For those who are intrigued by them, often their notions about these places are romanticized or totally distorted by mainstream representations of these places. So the question is why? Why do those of us who grow up in developed countries in reality know so little about the realities in the rest of the world? I think our education system could be greatly improved to convey a better in depth understanding of other countries, rather than the traditional approach which usually gives us a general overview of a place (using stats) and emphasized “othering” that place and its people.

As part of my major for Latin American studies I took a Geography seminar about north-south relations. In this course we learned about the history of volunteering abroad, which emerged from christian missionary “humanitarianism”, and thus is not a pure/bias-free endeavor. Our course focused on the model of solidarity, meaning instead of going abroad assuming you have knowledge to offer to other people and working on a project, you can work mainly from your local location to support a similar cause abroad. Our class worked with CIPO-Van (a Vancouver based organization) which supported CIPO (Indigenous Council of Oaxaca) who were working for indigenous rights and autonomy in Oaxaca, Mexico. There’s also other examples of solidarity, such as in Colombia, where you can volunteer to accompany a human-rights activist (thereby giving them more of a sense of international protection) whose life is in danger because of their work. I think other models such as these are necessary food for thought for our generation!

I agree with Siena that the main motivation for volunteering abroad should be to “experience” the life in developing countries, and this can only be achieved through long-term placement. By seeing and experiencing a developing country personally, we are less likely to see the underprivileged people through the “lens of orientalism,” which is the false impression of the developing countries, portrayed by the media. The stereotypical portrayal of the lives of people in developing countries propelled many people the urge to help them out. This international volunterism started off with a good, pure intention of making contribution to the underserved people. As the abroad volunteer service progressed and expanded, people’s motivations have become distorted. International Volunteerism has become an expensive experience for enhancing resume. In addition to better the lives of people in the developing countries, I see volunteering abroad as a cross-culture experiential learning. This is an opportunity not only to give what we have, but it is also a chance to learn from them.

It seems to me that in some way a lot of these comments are touching on the idea of perception, a powerful lens through which we view and understand ourselves and the world around us. As a few have already pointed out, the perception of developing countries for many students who volunteer abroad are often very skewed from what the reality actually is. Unfortunately, it is also at times the same case for researchers and NGO workers to neglect the knowledge and input of the local community. Often these skewed perceptions are changed when people actively engage with the community, which is when authentic learning takes place. Not only do limited perceptions prevent us from truly understanding all of the complexities that make up the world, but it often results in an “us vs. them” mentality. Not only does this keep us from gaining a more accurate impression of the world, but it also has consequences for policies and actions. The argument could also be made that the “us vs. them” mentality also shapes our perception of our interactions with the environment and the local ecology in that the connection between a healthy environment and a healthy people is not always acknowledged (which is what Ecohealth is all about after all).

Here is a link to the TED Talk mentioned on the EIESl blog about the “dangers of a single story” by Chimamanda Adichie. It’s about 20 minutes but definitely worth it: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story.html

Thank you Nikki for sharing such a great video with us. Her words are funny, witty, and inspirational. From the talk, we learn that no matter where people go, prejudice is always attached to us letting us judge before we observe and talk before we listen.

I want to share a bit about short-term volunteer abroad from my experience. I grew up with my grandmother who used to take me to rural areas of China to volunteer. She was a school teacher, a devoted education fanatic that bused 2-3 hours every weekend to teach the village kids. I was around 5 at the time and I was really fascinated by all the chickens I saw. I fed the chickens a couple of peanuts and I was harshly scolded. Little did I know, the peanuts I fed to the chickens were a child’s lunch.

15 years later, I went back to visit my grandma and her kids. Food wasn’t too big of a problem anymore but people were still poor. I found that a couple of my friends applied to a 4 week English teaching program in the same city so I visited them at their teaching schools. Turns out, they were teaching the rich kids whose parents had the money to send them into schools that offered Caucasian teachers. As volunteers, my friends paid thousands through a non-profit organization to help those in need. In the end, how meaningful was this trip apart from having a nice sightseeing tour?

Anyway this is my “single” sided story. I’m sure there are plenty of great eye-opening experiences with different short term volunteer programs. The key is that we need to do a thorough research before heading into a thousand dollar trip. Always ask yourself, will my trip make an impact for someone in need?

Personally, I have and still do think about volunteering abroad. But there are so many issues that arise from volunteering abroad, some of which have been listed above by fellow classmates. One of the main issues that I have thought about most is the fact that it seems to me that volunteering abroad is most beneficial to the person volunteering and the organization through which the individual volunteers through. In regards to the organizations, they get a lot of money from volunteers and thus get a well known name. With individuals, they obtain fist hand experience in poor areas and they feel content with themselves because they “have helped people in need.” say that in quotes because as mentioned by others as well, they usually end up doing more harm than good. Part of the problem comes from the fact that there is a large gap between Western culture and the rest of the world.

A great example is the posts written by Maryam Rajabi and Farwa Amiri that were about Feminism. Both these individuals are Middle Eastern and they speak about the differences in the perception of feminism. Maryam Rajabi is a well know Iranian feminist and she talks about how she considers herself as a feminist and still cooks and cleans for her family. She even mentions the fact that it is her who bring tea for the men of the family and that she doesn’t see it as an issue. Yet, in the Western World, this may be viewed as repression of women. Farwa on the other hand talks about women wearing burkas in public and the fact that prior to being exposed to western media, internet, etc most women did not mind wearing it and they never thought about a burka being symbolized as oppression. However, an individual going to volunteering from the Western world most likely does not have the same beliefs and ideas as the ones in the area, this thus creates tension between the two groups.

I think that there is a redeeming quality to the voluntourism, as most of us have stated, that people do expose themselves to other cultures, and in that respect can grow as individuals and hopefully not become the ceo of a canadian mining company later in life and destroy the lives of people who live a different way. I also agree that transparency is needed to make this meaningful, but will we get there? Will people still pay 4,000 to chase after baby seaturtles in costa rica if we straight up tell them that overall if they had stayed at home and advocated for environmental consciousness in Canada then the world would actually have benefited from their good intentions?

I like that April mentioned that people are dying to go to the global south, but don’t look around and realize that what they are seeking is not a cultural exchange, but a cultural extraction. How can we put forth what we have to offer (culturally, skill set, etc), if we don’t develop ourselves first in the places that we are from? Countries like Canada and the US are huge, and so incredibly diverse, yet we don’t immerse ourselves in our own landscape and culture, we a trained to only engage when we take a plane to get somewhere.
I definitely link this strange problem that the world is facing, middle class north americans storming the world in the same fashion as missionaries of the past, it’s a sign of illness and weakness in our culture and society. Still brainstorming on this one, but Canada and the USA need a serious dose of introspection

Throughout my undergrad, I’ve always wanted to go on an international exchange. However, because of budget constraints, I really had to consider the meaning of my travel costs and purpose of my visit. In the end, I wasn’t able to justify beyond my immediate need, so I tried to look for alternative opportunities. I already had an interest in aboriginal health and the current issues we are facing today in healthcare, so I looked into gaining cultural experience from the first nations community. After reading numerous articles on the current conditions of aboriginal communities, I was shocked to see many of the reserves had a poverty status below a number of developing countries. It opened my eyes to realize that even within Canada, we have communities that need funding and support to improve living status. When it comes down to costs and resources used, much more effective interventions can be implemented. Often times, I believe we should look within our own communities in order to broaden our perspectives. This can lead to long-term benefits because of the personal connection we have to the place we live, rather than a one-time global trip that simply gets added to the resume…

Of course I realize this isn’t always the case and we should all be conscious about global initiatives. We need people experienced in a variety of fields when it comes down to public health. But lets not forget to look within our own societies before we start jumping abroad…it just seems selfish otherwise.

Imagine though, rather than sending inexperienced students to a developing country, why not allocate those resources to local initiatives. This can ultimately lead to much more successful interventions. After all, isn’t the main motivation to “do good” and “help those in need”?

Coming back to what has been mentioned by previous posters, traveling for the cultural experience is by all means encouraged. It’s just that people should be fully aware of their purpose.