By Hal Whiteman
These are, perhaps, not the usual observations to appear on this blog. While they are mostly about student volunteers, they are not by one. Let me nail my volunteer colours to the mast straightaway; I am a semi-retired, short-term volunteer in his 60s, who recently completed a month at a provincial university in southern Vietnam, helping them with their business planning.
I am writing this post at the behest of my son, who suggested that there may be some merit in my offering some thoughts on the performance of student volunteers, with a view to making suggestions as to how their efforts might bear more fruit. In setting out these views I do not mean to suggest for an instant that my outlook is any wiser or more productive. Productivity is to a significant extent the luck of the draw; if I had come a couple of months earlier, before a positive change in management in the office I worked with, my work would have had much less effect. And I’m sure I made my share of gaffes, both cultural and professional, that undercut my contribution.
The volunteers I encountered fall roughly into three categories: long-term volunteers, for whom development assistance is a career; shorter-term volunteers, whose expertise is of specific use to the university; and students who are taking a term or a summer away from studies to volunteer in a variety of capacities.
The long-term volunteers are, to me, the stars among the front-line workers; they are committed and work long hours for little compensation. They accept that progress will be slow and uneven, and that culture usually, although not always, takes precedence over change. They are there to help the community build capacity. Their job is, to them, more than just a job – it is a way of life.
Those like me, older and with specific skills, will succeed or fail depending on three principal factors: how well and how quickly we adapt quickly to culture and circumstances; whether there is a good match between what the organization wants and what we can deliver; and how hard and diligently we work. Because most of us have a long work experience to draw on, we are better able to take initiative in the absence of specific direction.
Student volunteers bring energy and enthusiasm to their assignments, and like all volunteers, mixed motives. They sincerely want to help make a better world, they are thrilled at the idea of seeing a different part of it, and they revel at the prospect of new experiences. They are prepared to do whatever they are asked, whether in their job description or not. These traits can carry them a long way, but they bring limitations as well. It’s not that they are here on a lark, but my perception is that most have little sense of or interest in the longer term impact of their presence here, no interest in gauging the success or failure of their mandate. They are generally not sufficiently motivated (or perhaps confident) to take independent initiative. Most work short hours, negotiate three-day weekends to go to Saigon or Bangkok, and generally enjoy life.
In part, they are able to do this as a result of complicity on the part of the host organization, which wants them to have the time and opportunity to enjoy the local environment. I could have done the same. I don’t mean to suggest that they are insensitive to the different cultural norms here; they dress modestly, behave correctly, include the Vietnamese in some of their activities, and take an interest in the minorities. But in the end volunteer service will, for most of them, be just another one of life’s experiences, not rooted in any particular view of the world or specific ideas for its betterment. It will end when their assignment ends.
Without exception, and this may be a personal as much as a generational difference, they are almost completely ahistorical in outlook. With one exception, the student volunteers I encountered all come from European backgrounds. Without exception, they know and care little about their own Judeo-Christian, Greco-Roman roots and modes of thought. Frequently I heard remarks like “their music is really weird” or “I don’t understand how they can eat dog”. Thus we often judge the customs and traditions of others without recognizing our own cultural biases. A more serious shortcoming I have come across in many places, including Vietnam, is the assumption that easy smiles are tokens of happiness amid the most desperate circumstances (“Well, they may be incredibly poor, but they seem quite content”). Ignored is the fact that they may lack clean drinking water or functional literacy. There is a failure to recognize that we easily confuse happiness (a dominant western value) with acceptance (predominant in eastern and other societies).
So our western heritage is a closed book to many student volunteers, one which they have no interest in opening. Asia and Africa offer a different cultural experience, with sights, sounds, tastes, smells that take them beyond their normal lives without requiring them to examine their assumptions about what they are experiencing. Europe is old, fusty, expensive, and in these days when travel to developing countries is increasingly easy, perhaps a bit intimidating. I always remind myself that if I don’t know who I am, culturally speaking, I will have a diminished ability to understand and appreciate the culture of others. And I’m quite sure that I am often guilty of unrecognized cultural judgments.
In themselves, these are not unmanageable problems. Many parts of the university where I was stationed lack the capability to provide better direction, so it is hard to expect young volunteers without significant management experience to do better.
A more serious concern is, in my view, a failure to recognize adequately their duty of care. Someone is footing the bill to put them in the field, and the host organization devotes considerable time and effort to supporting them. Vietnamese for the most part set an excellent example, working long hours for low pay, and taking evening and weekend classes in order to improve their qualifications. One wonders when we go home how our hosts judge us as workers.
I should stress that my perceptions of student volunteers may be unrepresentative, as they are based on observations covering a few weeks in one location. I did, however, also seek the views of a number of long-term volunteers, who by and large confirmed these impressions.
I hesitate to offer definitive advice on how to behave in the field. It’s certainly not reasonable to expect student volunteers to have management experience or judgment which is normally acquired over the span of a career. But tentatively I would suggest that any short-term volunteer, whether a greybeard like me or a student, should ask themselves five questions as a way of deciding how to behave in the field:
- Am I honouring the ideal of international service-learning in a way that recognizes the contribution, financial and otherwise, of others who have put me in the field and are supporting me while there?
- Do I think about when to act in full conformity with local customs, counterproductive as they may be, and when to resist them (as sensitively as possible) because they don’t produce transfer of knowledge or building of capacity, which are really what westerners can provide.
- How do I balance knowledge transfer against capacity building – when is a stony silence, a function of language problems, when a problem with concept and when a failure to engage, and how do I decide on the best strategy?
- What can I learn from other volunteers? Perhaps I am overly sensitive on this point, but without exception the student volunteers when with me failed what a young friend of mine calls “the question test”. I was always careful to ask them about their background and work in Vietnam, partly in friendship but also to help me understand how to be a better volunteer. Without exception, they did not ask me a single thing about my own experience, although I have learned certain lessons over my career that could have helped them deal with some of the obstacles they face. In other circumstances this would not trouble me. We are two generations apart in age, and they have their own lives to live and their own interests to cultivate. But as an anonymous French medievalist wrote “the advice of the old is like the winter sun: it sheds light but does not warm us.” Perhaps those like me can shed some light that would enrich the student volunteer experience.
- How can I continue to be helpful beyond the end of my mandate? It is one thing to keep in contact for purposes of friendship; it is something else altogether to continue to help once you are home. In any educational institution, real change takes a long time to occur, and requires extended effort to sustain. That friendship can be much richer and more valuable if it is based not only on personal affection but also on continuing professional support.
The future of international service learning lies with today’s student volunteers: you have the time, resources, intelligence and education to make a difference over the long term. Use them well.
35 replies on “To the Beat of a Somewhat Different Drum: a Senior Volunteer’s Perspective”
GRS’rs can post discussion comments here in preparation of Nov 25.
What happens on Nov 25?
Wonderfully salient observations, and I particularly like the suggestion of upholding to “ideals of international service-learning.” It seems analogous to what sportsmanship represents in the world of athletic achievements, and offers a standard via which we can evaluate performance.
I feel that in our community, we are often uncomfortable with asking hard questions related to sustainability and capacity building of a project, and to be openly critical of its potential harms, because of the notion of benevolence that is attributed to any and all projects related to “helping others,” esp. in the international context, which exempts them from scrutiny (ie, no one wants to be the person that says no to a project saving children in sub-Saharan Africa). Students and the wider public, as potential donors, need to ask these probing questions, which though difficult, must happen in order to create change in paradigm and practice.
Great article; I was glad to see the point about knowing “when to act in full conformity with local customs, counterproductive as they may be, and when to resist them (as sensitively as possible) because they don’t produce transfer of knowledge or building of capacity.” In my (limited) experience, I’ve noticed that volunteers think they have to completely conform with local customs at all times rather than analyzing on a case-by-case basis.
Hi Matt,
Dr. Shafik Dharamsi will be presenting for the GRS class on Nov 24 (not 25) and the students have been asked to discuss this article in preparation. Looking forward to seeing what comes up!
I found the article refreshing – too often ‘westerners’ think that students who volunteer in developing countries deserve praise. Yet a student volunteer can harm the community that they are volunteering in as well as benefit it.
As “The Weirdest People in the World” article pointed out, westerners are very individualistic. We see volunteer work as beneficial in two ways: the community where the volunteers work benefit and the student volunteers benefit. Yet is this truly what happens, or is it just the volunteers who benefit? As Hal Whiteman alluded to in the article Dr. Dharamsi gave us to read, most international volunteer opportunities available to students these days offer ‘carrots’ to students to induce them to sign up. These ‘carrots’ often include fun expeditions, days off to explore the surrounding area, etc. Will this really induce the right type of volunteers to sign up though? How can a project truly benefit a community if the volunteers have ulterior motives for being there? I am not suggesting that these student volunteers do not have good intentions, or that they do not want to help, but our individualistic culture has brought us up to think about ourselves first. Doesn’t the fact that how great the volunteer work will look on our resume is often one of the enticements used to get student volunteers mean that we are, in reality, using these communities that we are ‘helping’ for our own gain?
I believe that we can make the experience of having student volunteers a positive one for communities. I just don’t know whether we will do so if we think of volunteer experiences in terms of what we will get out of them.
I really enjoyed this article. I think it brings up some really important points that resonated strongly with me. I am preparing myself to go to Rwanda on a service-learning project this summer and I think the biggest challenge for me is going to be finding the balance between knowledge transfer and capacity building. I do tend to look at these opportunities as learning experiences but I think the greatest partnerships comes when there is a reciprocal opportunity to teach as well. Having confidence in my own abilities and education will be challenging. It’s easier to be that passive learner but what does this really bring to anyone but oneself? Another point in this article that I found interesting was “when to act in full conformity with local customs, counterproductive as they may be, and when to resist them (as sensitively as possible) because they don’t produce transfer of knowledge or building of capacity, which are really what westerners can provide.” It is challenging to know when to support your own morals and ideals and when to be open minded. How do you deal with circumstances when your morals are challenged? From the discussion that opened up during our eIESEL workshop about a month ago in the Global lounge, I think the best answer to this question is not to pass judgement on the morals of others, but to teach others to question their own morals. Teaching someone to have an open mind is probably one of the most useful but challenging skills one can possess.
What an insightful article. As a student reading this, I learned a lot that I will most definitely consider from now on. I volunteered in Thailand for a few weeks last year and wish that I had read this beforehand. I absolutely can understand where these points are coming from. The point about not recognizing our own cultural biases when abroad will really stick with me. As stated, ?There is a failure to recognize that we easily confuse happiness (a dominant western value) with acceptance (predominant in eastern and other societies)?. I wish that point would be made to all western volunteers before going abroad, including myself before I volunteered.
The other point of this article that I won?t be able to forget is the principle of continuing to be helpful and involved in a project after your mandate. I think that whether one chooses to do this or not comes down to how interested and invested a volunteer is in the project at hand. I think many student volunteers enter these projects during a gap year when they are uncertain about which direction they want to go with their lives, and hope to gain some insight volunteering. From my personal volunteer experience, I believe this was the case with many students. I had been volunteering teaching English to students, but while at the volunteer location, an experience on my own time during a cultural homestay allowed me to see where I really wanted to focus my efforts, which is in wildlife and natural resource protection. Now I know that if I am to volunteer again, it will be in this field, and I will bring much more passion to the job and will be much more motivated to continue to stay involved with a project. It is unfair to the community and people involved in a project if you are not putting your all into it, and if you are extremely interested and enthusiastic about your involvement in a project, following up with it is something you shouldn?t even have to consider.
Thus, perhaps more of a filtering system should be installed with volunteer projects to ensure that only committed, passionate volunteers are able to go. But I understand this would be difficult with the financial gain linked to voluntourism today.
How true that the “the advice of the old is like the winter sun: it sheds light but does not warm us.” This article was both refreshing and challenging as I reflect upon my own experiences, aware of the instances in which I have undoubtedly contributed in a negative fashion, demonstrated immaturity in an international context. The reality is though, that I did not merely demonstrate immaturity, I was immature, as is common to the young. In fact, I don’t hope to claim “maturity” for many years to come! I think that it is a slight paradox, that we as students can hope to be wise beyond our years, while still embracing the posture of a student, the very nature of which presupposes a lack of knowledge, and a need to learn! I think that as all of there articles alluded to, having an understanding of our history, and a sense of connection with where we come from is essential, as well as embracing a childlike posture that seeks to learn from those who have come before us.
This is an amazing opportunity to dialogue about issues such as these, as we as students will be representing our universities, our nations, and our generation in the world. I think that it is so important that we be mindful of this, and at the very least, have the sense to acknowledge our limited understanding, and come into wherever we are to go without esteeming ourselves as greater than we are. As students, we need to take a posture of just that, “students”. We are in a place of learning, and I believe that in my life, my greatest opportunities to learn have come when I have come to the awareness of how small I am in the context the history of our humanity, and how much I have to learn.
Rather interesting article… I definitely agree with Hal Whiteman when he says that the long-term “volunteers” are the stars. Someone once told me (in a similar context) that, “short-term [work] is like a honeymoon, long-term is like a marriage”. Incitefull and humerous. Typically short-term work/volunteering is full of excitment and the unknown, with few challenges and free of monotony or srious conflict. When one stays “on the job” for a longer period of time however, they experience the frustrations and conflicts that others don’t. They can see the results (or the lack of) of their work as they do it. They have time to discover conflicts and to better discern the long-term effectiveness of their work. They also, one would hope, have time to make the necessary changes to improve or save projects.
Based on my limited experience and knowledge I would definitely encourage students to wait and then do longer projects when they are better trained, equipped and educated to help.
I think the perspectives offered here are very important for anyone potentially volunteering abroad. Though I almost felt like it was overly generous to short term volunteers, with no transferable skills. After a short term volunteer trip (so naturally I don’t have much experience) I couldn’t help but feel like I was simply a sponge, and to often, though I can think of many exceptions, thats what short term volunteering positions make people. Service learning may be different in ability to impact, but I feel like even then it is very difficult for an outsider to come in and make a long term impact while trying to fulfill all the work needed for credits.
That being said and my own pessimism aside, if we are trying to be useful to our hosts it seems imperative that we ask as many questions as we can of other volunteers and people involved in the community. It strikes me as very worry some that in time Mr. Whiteman was there, in the capacity of a professional no one thought to seek his council or advice! Thats a scary concept indeed if volunteers from all over are simply coming in with their own expectations goals and understandings and not trying to see what other people are doing, especially when they them selves were being asked.
In spite of my beliefs I think that this article contains some great starting points for making a short term trip useful for a student such as myself or anyone else and if not this exact article at least papers with similar themes should be mandatory reading to create some introspection in any would be volunteers.
The first thought that crossed my mind when I finished reading this post was: What was Hal Whiteman like as a young student? And had he had the opportunity to volunteer when he was younger would he have jumped at the opportunity? That being said I do appreciate the insights from someone who has had more life experience in their own country and who has volunteered abroad later in life.
I found two aspect particularly thought provoking.
The first was his comment that as a more experienced individual he was able to take more initiative at the University with little direction from the host organization and that student volunteers “are generally not sufficiently motivated (or perhaps confident) to take independent initiative.” I think in some cases it is difficult to judge while you are in the host country just how much initiative and responsibility you, as a volunteer should be taking on. Drawing on my own experience that involved primarily the construction of a youth shelter we had to be careful when offering our ideas about how to improve the construction. Although we thought some of our methods would be more efficient you could sense the resistance and anxiety that built up over certain issues. Even the smallest, most trivial issues such as how to screed cement in a different way could create tension. I feel it is important to keep our ideas to ourselves in some cases however difficult that may be. This was something that several of the volunteers I was with struggled with throughout the project.
The second comment that I really liked was that ” productivity is to a significant extent luck of the draw.” This was key to my own volunteer experience and I think it is representative of a variety of experiences. But I think that to make the volunteer experience more meaningful and to help maintain contact and support after departure what Jodi commented on is key: as a volunteer you must be passionate about what you are doing abroad and engaged in the topic/issue at hand. I think without that personal connection and devotion you will not realize your full potential in your host country and they will not benefit from all you have to offer.
This article that Hal Whiteman wrote definitely made me think. I do agree with the overall basis of the article, but a few of his details and opinions on student volunteers I perceive to be a race to judgment. He definitely makes good points about the three different types of volunteers, long-term, short-term, and student, and how the long-term volunteers are fantastic people who do not see what they are doing as their job, because it is just their way of life. But, were all of these long-term volunteers always in the position they are now? Even in their years as a student? I believe that the creation of a long-term volunteer comes from volunteering as a student or as a short-term volunteer.
I am definitely not saying that Whiteman expresses a cavalier attitude, but his comments on student volunteers as a whole surprised me a bit. The limitations on student volunteers, “little sense of or interest in the longer term impact of their presence here, no interest in gauging the success or failure of their mandate…generally not sufficiently motivated (or perhaps confident) to take independent initiative…work short hours, negotiate three-day weekends…” might be correct for many student volunteers, but why might this be? For many student volunteers, at such a young age it might be the very first time they have had the opportunity to leave their home country and explore a different part of the world. Of course these students are going to want to see it all and soak up all of the experiences that they can. For some, a volunteer position might be the only comfortable way for them to do this. I believe that through good experiences and learning in short spurts of volunteering, fabulous long-term volunteers will be shaped.
On a side-note, I do agree with Whiteman’s comment saying: “We often judge the customs and traditions of others without recognizing our own cultural biases.” I think that if students can recognize that their own customs and traditions will be different from that of many other people around the world, the judgments will not be expressed and like Saida Rashid said at the “Talking Back to Cultural Competence” meeting, the students will start to question their own morals and begin to teach others to question theirs as well.
While I feel that Hal Whiteman’s comments are an accurate portrayal of many student volunteers abroad, and I find his advice and experience highly valuable to students looking to participate in international volunteer programs, I also feel that it’s important to consider the context in which many young volunteers participate in such programs. As Victoria (comment above) mentioned, volunteer opportunities that are geared towards students are generally short-term, and emphasize the fact that they provide the ability to contribute to a community and the chance to visit and explore a new country and culture – important criteria to keep in mind when assessing why and how students participate in international volunteer opportunities.
Whiteman mentioned that he is a semi-retired, short-term volunteer in his 60s, with specific, developed knowledge useful to a specified volunteer position – a situation that is very different from many students, including myself and many in our GRS class. Is it possible that these student opportunities are not only geared towards students, but are more appropriate for students as well? I certainly appreciate Whiteman’s attitude towards student volunteers, and as I already mentioned, I agree with his comments and find them fairly accurate. As a student myself, reading Whiteman’s description of the actions and behaviour of the students he came into contact with was upsetting – I feel confident that if myself or my peers were placed in a similar situation, we would not make the assumptions or replicate the behaviour that Whiteman’s students did. That said, I feel that students should be granted the allowance to experience a taste of volunteering before signing on to a life of volunteer work, and should be cut some slack when only participating in a short-term project.
At the point that he is at in his life, Whiteman already seems to possess an adequate amount of time combined with the appropriate skills and mind set required to commit to a meaningful volunteer position – attributes that the average student, myself as an example, is lacking. At this time in our lives, we may have more school to complete, skills to refine, and opportunities to pursue before being able to commit to a long-term project. Giving students a chance to explore a new country and participate in a short-term volunteer position will likely provide them with a gateway into a life of positive, constructive volunteering, providing they go about their travels in an open, and respectful manner.
Even though it is much more entertaining to write a critical antidote, I cannot help but sing praises to this article. There are several points that specifically drew my attention. First of all, I whole heartedly agree that younger students have a very small time frame through which they think about their life. At this age our lives change so fast, we are used to consistent transitions and are often even scared to think more than one of two years into the future. While students are highly motivated, their interests change so fast they end up dabbling in a huge array of fields, building up their repertoire of “life experiences.”
Though I agree, I was saddened by the discussion about the dismal work ethic of student volunteers. Our instant gratification, entertainment based society has created a generation of individuals missing the drive and concept of truly hard work. Last year I visited a nursery whose owner lamented this same topic. He admitted that based on previous experiences, he never hires new employees below the age of 40, and he wonders who his nursery will be able to hire in a couple decades.
I was enlightened by the fourth bit of advice, to ask questions of fellow volunteers, but I would extend this advice to say that we should ask questions of everyone. I constantly notice how much we humans love to talk about ourselves. What is the point? Why regurgitate information you already know, when there is such bountiful knowledge to be had around you. Plus, when you ask questions you foster a feeling of respect towards the person you are addressing. By expressing interest in someone else, the respect and trust you can develop are so much stronger than if you had simply spent the conversation talking about yourself.
I am grateful for the response of a more mature volunteer with regards to this issue. I agree that many volunteers have little idea about their own cultural biases before participating in International Service Learning Projects which leads to some less fortunate circumstances. I also think that especially student volunteers, who often have little capacity to build on in such programs, should really think about the motives before diving into projects. As a short-term volunteers, which, as Victoria pointed out, we usually are, do I really feel like I have significant, condensed knowledge that I could share with other people? Let alone people with whom communication may even be harder? Would I do something like this in my own community? Sometimes we do, sometimes we don’t. We should,however, keep in mind that we are then disillusioning ourselves at the cost of other human beings, other communities, other peoples relationships.
Secondly I would like to add that International Service Learning should be a communal thing. The responsibility to create an ethical project lies with the volunteer as well as with the domestic and host organization. As much as we would all like it, we have to accept that the organizations in the country the volunteers are from as well as in the host country may think as little about the impacts that volunteers do, and may care even less.If you have an organization that aims at attracting volunteers, with their supposed intention being to provide a space for international service learning but with their main objective being revenue, then this issue will continue to persist and be extrapolated.
It was interesting to read Hal Whiteman’s view on how volunteer experiences can make or not an impact in the country visited. I feel that any type of volunteer work should be associated with a local organization in the country where the volunteer experience takes place. This is the best way to get a real sense of what the local community really needs by having direct contact with them. Often I think that international organizations create projects to help the needed communities without actually consulting the projects with the locals and making assumptions on what would be best for their communities.
This reading reminded me a bit about the speech from Dambisa Moyo when she spoke about how international aid for Africa hasn’t really changed the poverty status in the continent. Africa has received sufficient financial and volunteer help to reduce poverty but yet it is still one of the poorest continents. Dambisa Moyo explained that the reason might lie in the fact that the people helping overlook other issues in the country that need to be resolved before the help starts to be beneficial. She explained that Africans needed to be taught how to be self sufficient and learn how to financially support themselves without any aid. Issues of this kind are better understood when volunteers have studied the issues of a region, the culture and the needs of the communities where they are going to volunteer.
I feel that it is important to educate volunteers going on these experiences so that they understand the history of the region as well the current issues. Also I feel that volunteers should have a long term commitment for any volunteer experience that include continuing following up with the project after the experience in the country has ended. This gives the opportunity to the volunteers to see the progress of their project and make reflections on what needs to be improved. Volunteers need enough time to go through the normal stages of cultural adaptation. I feel that short term volunteer opportunities do not give enough time to insight about the work that is being done and it also does not give enough time to do it properly.
I found reading this article and the comments that followed really enjoyable. I also found it interesting to think about what motivates people to go volunteer, and the impacts that motivation has on the outcomes. I agree with Jodi that “if you are extremely interested and enthusiastic about your involvement in a project, following up with it is something you shouldn’t even have to consider.” Victoria (above) mentioned the ‘carrots’ volunteer organizations use to motivate students to volunteer, and it’s definitely something I’ve noticed in flyers handed out in classes, etc. and wondered about in the past. Hal Whiteman pointed out the “mixed motives” of student volunteers and how that tended to result in a lack of hard work on their part.
A point of interest to me is that I feel I’ve encountered professors in UBC who I feel wouldn’t question students going to other countries with the sole idea of seeing some sites or amping up their resumes. We come from a culture which praises such cost-benefit analyses as common sense and “rational” (i.e. unbiased and neutral). The way I see it, these mixed motives and how “we often judge the customs and traditions of others without recognizing our own cultural biases.” are two sides of the same coin. It’s unfortunate that even our educational institutions perpetuate myths of neutrality such that students may fall under the impression that their cultural background is irrelevant when traveling abroad.
This article offers great advice and points to think about for short-term volunteers. I especially appreciated the five questions at the end of the article. In my experience, it is so important to be aware of your own culture-your beliefs and value system- in order to be able to work with other cultural groups without judgment and bias. We all have our own separate values, but in my experience, the more aware you are of your own, the easier it is to not jump to judgment about others’ values and to avoid misunderstandings. When you volunteer, you are there to serve and learn from the people around you. I feel that being aware of other cultures and just having humility while serving are necessary while volunteering. As well, on a different note, I agree with the author and genuinely admire the long-term volunteers and their effort in developing communities and their capacity.
Okay, I wrote a big, long discussion to add here and due to some kind of random error, it just vanished. Because I noticed that the majority of people are very much in support of what Whitman has to say (and I don’t necessarily disagree with them), I’ve chosen to argue another side and a possible student’s point of view. I hope that the second time around, I can remember what I was onto before it disappeared…
Points I agree with: Whitman’s criticisms of the selfishness of young students is something that I contemplate often and think of as a result of our over-indulgent society. Yes, work ethic can sometimes be lacking, but I think he is wrong to generalize so much and paint everyone with the same brush. Not every young person is allergic to hard work or long hours. In the job I do every summer, I meet countless, young people who love working hard because it makes them feel that they not only contribute meaningfully but also that they really earn their money. Also, I wonder how it does NOT contribute to an understanding of a culture when volunteers go to see a temple or an archeological site? Doesn’t that inform them as much about the history of a people as every other situation?
Yes, we need to consider how we impact the places we go to volunteer. Are we displacing local workers? Would the community be better served to simply employ local people instead of spending their money on hosting, and training, foreign volunteers? By working in their community, are we learning enough about them? Are we offering them meaningful discussion about the pros and cons of our own ways of life? As more and more developing countries strive to be like America, it’s worth starting a dialogue about whether or not that’s what we should be aiming for and maybe looking to communities and lifestyles in developing nations for possible solutions to modern problems.
Whitman doesn’t seem to take into consideration the differences between his situation and the situations of the younger volunteers. He is semi-retired, in his sixties, volunteering for a short time. Is it possible that this is how he spends his holidays? Is it likely that he will return home to a massive student loan that urgently needs to be paid? Probably not. He’s not a young, modern student and he doesn’t face the obstacles that they face.
I don’t know what his situation is, but it’s unlikely that he worries about how much longer it will take to earn his degree so that he can enter the workforce or how taking time out to volunteer somewhere will affect that. If we students are uniquely interested in how we will benefit from our work somewhere, it could be partly due to these pressures. I’m not saying that this is right, and that we can be excused for our myopic point of view – not at all. I’m just taking the devil’s advocate stance here and contemplating why students might think this way.
Could the universities that encourage students to do these volunteer abroad trips be inadvertently adding to the problem by offering students course credits for their work? Perhaps we should make a differentiation between truly altruistic volunteerism and working abroad for credit? Maybe we already do that, but I can’t think where I’ve seen the two clearly defined as separate.
The main point of the article (and more or less of all the articles we’ve read for this discussion) – that we should think about how our volunteering somewhere will affect the people in that place not just positively, but also negatively – is very valid. We must make sure that what we have to offer is unique and needed, not just a way to take both a holiday somewhere different, and a moral high ground. When a community does us the incredible honour of hosting us, sharing their world views and letting us live amongst them for a time, we must make sure that it is worth their while. I hope that we each can be open to what the other has to offer and aware of when we can contribute our own life experiences and insights.
I felt that this article was both very powerful and very honest.
I believe that Hal Whiteman raises some urgent points. After reading his article, some big questions that came up for me were : Why are these volunteers even recruited in the first place? Why are there so many stories about projects that do more harm than good? Why do all these projects exist?
We have all heard of stories of young volunteers going on short trips to “help make the world a better place” and having little or no positive impact on the communities they visit. A lot of what Whiteman says rings true, and I think that it is absolutely pertinent that all volunteers “recognize their duty of care”. Volunteers should recognize that they are responsible for their actions and impact on the well-being of the community they are in, during and after scheduled work hours. It seems that countless projects raise large sums of money and recruit more or less random people to “go and help”. In at least three of my courses, people have visited the lecture and encouraged us to join their volunteer expeditions. They gave extremely vague descriptions of what the projects actually were, and just said basically ‘Come help these poor people in these poor countries! Travel with us! Hooray!’
I think that many times the issue is that the project itself was designed in a short-sighted manner, focused mainly on feeling good about “helping people” instead of actually being practical.
The success of a volunteer’s involvement in a project depends on a lot more than the length of a person’s stay and their age. (I think that some student volunteers can do something meaningful in a community.) It depends on the organization that they are volunteering for. It depends on the project that they are working on. It depends on whether or not the community itself has ownership over the project, or if there was even any consultation as to their needs beforehand. (Why do we think that people don’t know their own needs?) And it depends on whether or not the volunteers have any knowledge about reasons why people live the way they do.
I also really liked what Sarah said:
“We should,however, keep in mind that we are then disillusioning ourselves at the cost of other human beings, other communities, other peoples relationships.”
Like Jodi, a point that really stuck out to me was the one made about confusing happiness and acceptance. “The assumption that easy smiles are tokens of happiness amid the most desperate circumstances (“Well, they may be incredibly poor, but they seem quite content”)” is something that I’ve often run into when groups come together to reflect on volunteer experiences. It’s already a step forward that reflection is happening, but at times it seems too romanticized. I’ve felt that coming back from experiences abroad, there is almost an expectation to speak about how incredibly “happy” people are in spite of poor living situations, etc. Of course, it would be equally wrong to perpetuate stereotypes which victimize people and instill pity (a counterproductive emotion for the most part). Knowledge transfer and capacity-building in cross-cultural communication could address some of these issues.
As a society, I think North Americans (and Westerners- those of use having grown up in large scale post-industrial societies) tend to lack a sense of history of where we come from and an understanding of the paradigm through which we see the world. In university, and in common speech we discuss issues only with reference to Western culture and the Western paradigm (which after reading Wade Davis, particularly stuck out to me). I fully agree with his idea that this limits our ability to understand other cultures and people, which is crucial when traveling abroad and working with people within cultural settings foreign to our own.
Hal Whiteman’s point that we often fail to recognize the difference between acceptance and happiness particularly resonated with me. Truthfully, I have never really thought of that before or pondered the difference. In a way, I almost associated the two together – if one could accept something then they could be happy with it… but is that the case? Therein lies this schism between two very different ways of viewing the world and life – something that admittedly is harder to see or understand than I would have thought.
Thinking about this all makes me strongly believe that it takes not only commitment to a project but more importantly a full commitment to a culture to make any bit of meaningful difference volunteering in a foreign country.
So far, I have not had the opportunity to volunteer abroad and to be honest, I found this article to be slightly intimidating. Although it was very informative it made me feel quite apprehensive about the volunteering experience. It is obvious that if certain precautions are not taken, volunteer work that is meant to be helpful can often do more harm than good.
It also made me wonder whether all long-term volunteers and shorter term volunteers have such a negative impression of student volunteers and if so, how does that limit the students?
On the other hand, I do appreciate the insight of a more experienced volunteer and will definitely take some of his suggestions into consideration when I do have the opportunity to volunteer abroad.
I also really enjoyed reading Hal Whiteman’s article. He brought up really interesting points about the role of student volunteers, and their potential impact they may have in on community. But he failed to raise the point that of who should hold some of the responsibility – the volunteer placement organization. I am personally very skeptical of these types of organizations that promote students and youth to go out and discover themselves and bring benefits to the community they are working in, while they themselves are profiting from this. The call for these organizations to take responsibility to prepare students, and have them critically reflect upon their intentions before arriving at a destination is needed.
I see no problem in students and others wanted to assist in communities, but it must be accompanied by a personal reflection as to the real motivations behind the experience. I really liked when Whiteman said “Our western heritage is a closed book to many student volunteers, one which they have no interest in opening.” This is absolutely the recipe for potential disaster in a volunteer experience. After all, how can you expect to understand anyone else if you do not understand yourself? This is extremely difficult because younger people are themselves often struggling to define themselves as individuals and as members of a certain community. Our education system fails in that we are not often asked to reflect upon underlying assumptions in our own values and expectations. But this can hardly be the student’s fault, as they are student’s, often placed in these communities as teachers. In all, during a volvunteer experience many conflicting moral and cultural judgements are passed by both parties, but creating a safe space for open dialogue upon these issues is the most important and will help to reduce the potential negative experiences of volunteers trying to bring positive things to communities.
Though I really enjoyed the article and agreed with many of the above arguments, the issue I see with students volunteering abroad is whether or not they are even qualified for their positions as well as the appropriateness of their reasons for volunteering.
I’ve spent quite a bit of time in Laikipia, Kenya. Every summer hordes of students travel to the region to work in schools, orphanages, and clinics, and what I can’t comprehend is how they feel they’re experienced enough or qualified to work in these settings? They don’t speak the local language, know nothing of poverty, and in their own countries they would never be allowed to work in these areas without additional education. To be clear, I know that this is not the case of all student volunteer positions. I know that many students do bring valuable skill sets to their positions; however, it worries me that student volunteers may be taking paid jobs away from those that need them. This is something that I myself struggle with at the prospect of being a student volunteer, and for this reason, have tended to shy away from volunteering abroad. I’m a student, not an experienced professional, what makes me qualified to volunteer abroad?
I also feel like it’s important for students to ask themselves their reasons for volunteering. If it is indeed as Whiteman says, “just another one of life’s experiences, not rooted in any particular view of the world or specific ideas for its betterment” then why volunteer? Is it to build up a resume for grad school? A means of traveling? I say this only because so many volunteer agencies seem to target their advertising towards these motives. You see them in leaflets all over campus. Anyway, I’m not sure now where I’m going with this. I just think it’s important that students are honest and reflect on their reasons for volunteering.
I found this article particularly interesting. I usually just assume that any volunteering is good volunteering. It brought to light the notion that a volunteer, especially one who is going abroad, needs to be thoughtful about how they affect the organization. I liked the point that the author made about seeking to learn from the experiences of other, more experienced volunteers. I will certainly keep some of this wisdom in mind next time I volunteer.
Wow, great blog post, Mr. Whiteman!I really enjoyed it – I feel it shed a lot of light and I wouldn’t say it was without warmth.
I want to post a thought I had while reading about the lack of independent initiative you noted in the young volunteers around you. Speaking from my own very limited ISL experience, taking personal initiative while on a short-term ISL placement is such a tricky line to tread.
I worked in Swaziland for 6 weeks through UBC’s ISL program. I was working for a local organization with 2 other UBC students. We were very much immersed in the Swazi way of life – living with local families, working full time, with our lives revolving around our home and work tasks and responsibilities. We participated in very few outings outside of our work, and took on as much as work as possible.
While there, we identified several areas in the local organization that we felt could use reorganizing and restructuring on a level we, as university undergrads, felt we could help with. While our identified changes would have improved the functioning of several of the organizations programs, we encountered a lot of push back when we presented our ideas. I feel that while we were tactful and sensitive, our suggestions were not considered seriously. I believe this may be for a couple reasons:
1)Because of the shortness of our stay, our opinions were not considered worthwhile – we were viewed as visitors with little ability to make well informed recommendations.
2)While the changes we proposed would have improved the organization’s efficiency, perhaps our idea of efficiency is not a priority for this organization. I think it might be difficult for ‘westerners’ to grasp that other parts of the world may prioritize differently.
Individual initiative is a difficult thing to take on in a foreign environment. students volunteering abroad are usually not experts in any field (unlike Mr. Whiteman, an experienced professional). Do we really have the right to arrive and start implementing changes? While I’m never content to sit back and do just enough to fulfill the basic responsibilities set out for me, I’m not sure that my taking independent action is not rude, disrespectful and unwanted.
What do you guys think? I would love to hear anyone’s feedback on this.
I would like to thank Hal Whitemen for offering these comments, as well as our professors for introducing these subjects into the dialogue. Sustainability, economic change, empowerment, equality, these are all seem to be intensely difficult aims, for any community much less those who hope to contribute on a global scale, or at least international scale. It seems the aid, development, human rights, NGO “industry” has often supported itself through marketing success stories and ignoring faults. Jacqueline Novogratz wrote a fantastic book called The Blue Sweater (http://www.acumenfund.org/bluesweater/) in which she reflected on these difficulties, these realities, bringing up one founder of a Global non profit (unnamed) who effectively wouldn’t analyze success, asserting the organizations presence as success enough. I think its really hard to balance realism and inspiration in all such ventures, NGO or volunteer work alike, particularly in light of such different perspectives on these issues (Nicole mentioned paradigms, I’m an American, according to Shafik Dharmasi, we have the highest rate of volunteerism, good bad? oi tricky).
For our purposes as potential volunteers I’d like to think Whitemen’s points about older volunteers apply: first your ability to adapt to culture, circumstances, difficulties in communication will largely determine your success. Strive to communicate well, it’ll help you always (haha this comment’s a little long, I communicate with many words, I’m working on it). Second, work hard. I think this translates across most cultures: commit mentally and physically and you’ll probably do alright. And third, try to bring concrete skills to the table. That may be the most difficult part for us students, but take your interests and pursue them, in university and elsewhere, make them useful. For me, that means that I’ve taught myself website design and dabbled in marketing. I think, I hope, that such skills can be useful to somebody somehow. With a little bit of determination, passion to these causes, as well as a realistic, self critical eye I think we can maybe be useful in this world.
The ideal volunteer experience is one that truly serves the community and the volunteer at the same time, serving the community by offering new knowledge or resources, and the volunteer by providing an enriching learning experience where further skills in this type of work are developed. The optimal outcome is an experience that is mutually beneficial on either end, as both sides give and receive. Too often though, as several of the articles assigned for GRS readings, including the above reading, have indicated, the volunteers walk away with a sense of pride and accomplishment and the community is left with a whole host of problems. These volunteer opportunities can indeed do more harm than good.
I really appreciate Hal Whitman’s article because it not only brings to light the roots of some of these issues (mainly those of short term volunteering), but offers advice to student volunteers who, like many of us, wish to volunteer abroad without having any of the potential negative effects. Being fully aware of one’s own paradigm and history is something that strikes me as an incredibly important prerequisite to going abroad. Without acknowledging the values of one’s own culture, how is one to understand the culture of another? It is essential to realize that one’s set of social norms is merely one way of doing things… The world’s vast diversity of cultures contains many more that are equally as “rational” to those living within that culture.
I appreciate Mr. Whiteman’s blunt, yet astute observations about short term volunteerism.
The general message that I got from the article was one of what volunteers can do to make their contribution more effective. All five of the suggested reflective questions are valuable.
Two points which I found particularly interesting in the article:
1) Being able to distinguish between happiness and acceptance…which has been discussed by many above…the main point I would add is to question is whether we can truly judge ‘true happiness’…whether in the West, or elsewhere…as far as I know, self-reported happiness has the same complexities in Canada as it does in Vietnam…perhaps with advanced neurological imaging and neuropsychology we will be able to answer this question more definitively, but that may be getting off topic.
2) How do we find a balance between being culturally sensitive/respectful, and building capacity. In the first instance, this idea assumes that the local culture may oppose some of the capacity building, as laid out by our Western definition of progress. There are the usual cultural relativism dangers in looking at this question, but it must be considered, despite our limitations. There are times where local beliefs and practices will be perceived to hinder the efforts of the volunteer. I may believe that the extended afternoon tea is really hurting productivity. Should I accept this cultural practice, or try to ‘educate’ the receiving population for their ‘own good’.
Is this a moving line that we should locate based on each cultural and volunteering context? Or can we utilize absolute principles in determining how to deal with cultural differences which affect volunteering performance? If we take the moving line perspective, we have to balance respecting the local culture, which risks us not sharing the potentially positive and even locally desired aspects of our culture, and using our perspectives all the time, which disregards the local knowledge and perspectives which could help progress, not to mention displacing local culture.
It may be an easy way out, but I suggest the best way out is simply open and honest communication between the volunteers, and those who are they are volunteering with and for.
It seems that, all in all, ISL does more harm than it does good, or at least, has the overwhelming potential to do so. I do not necessarily think that ISL is in itself a terrible thing, but it certainly seems to be a tool misused at an alarmingly large scale.
After reading this and the above comments, one idea comes to mind that would probably vastly improve ISL programs: what if all young / new volunteers were always partnered with senior / experienced volunteers? The latter would serve as a guiding mentor and the former would serve as fresh eyes and extra capacity. If senior / experienced volunteers stayed in a community for the longer term, this would allow continuity of knowledge, and higher trust and credibility of foreigner input (re: Rebeka Ryvola- this would help those fresh ideas of the newer/younger volunteers to be seriously considered). The senior volunteer would also likely be able to speak the native language, further enabling open communication and consideration of new ideas. Etc etc.
I found this article quite enlightening as it brought perspective to ideas that are often overlooked. I agree with the idea that in the case of many student volunteers, their service will be “just another one of life’s expriences,” and that “it will end when their assignment ends.” I believe that to make the most of international service learning, it is important to focus on long term outcomes. We should always keep this in mind and constantly question our motives. Volunteer organizations should also make more of an effort to place emphasis on the long term impacts of the projects they offer to students rather than just focusing on a project’s completion.
I found this article incredibly refreshing as someone is finally bringing to light the problem of short-lived projects. I have always found it frustrating when individuals “go away to build schools” and come back feeling enlightened when, with all due respect, any of them barely got to know anything about the culture/ people they worked with as in their spare time, they were adventuring in nearby towns and tourist hot spots.
Of course, a balance between the two is not a bad thing; however organizations that encourage “travel volunteering” are doing so not to “better the world” but to make big bucks and it is upsetting that individuals who genuinely wish to do good are disillusioned.
I have yet to volunteer/work/study abroad so I understand that my view is limited. Nevertheless, I have been putting it off as I feel like I don’t have much to contribute to projects. Sure, I have a desire to learn and an enthusiasm and passion for global issues…but in terms of soft (and hard) skills? They’re still developing.
I strongly agree with the elements discussed in this article. Unfortunately, Whiteman uses a somewhat “apologetic” tone, almost as if he is avoiding to criticize students volunteering abroad and some programs out there. I think he should not seem hesitant to bring his viewpoint since his experience and viewpoints can help a lot of people who are new volunteers abroad.
I share the author’s arguments that it is easy for western students to ignore cultural subtleties of the countries in which they are traveling. I think volunteer programs should have extensive, prolonged pre-departure sessions (exploring the economic, political, social and geographical aspects of the destination in question).
In addition, I have always been a proponent of local community interactions. I suggest that students be paired up with citizens who formerly came from the country they are going to volunteering in. Western countries (US, Canada, NZ, Aus and Western Europe) have enough immigrant communities who can contribute in making our students aware of cultural differences in terms and ways that can be very effective since both groups already live in the same society. As a student and a former immigrant, I believe that such mingling can be very pleasant and will allow students to get the most out of their time abroad, whether they’re only going for one week or six months.
Implementing such cultural interactions in the students’ country of origin can allow one’s volunteering experience to be much more than just “to contribute/work in a developing country”; it can be an opportunity for learning and human growth for both parties, the students and their host community in the country where they are volunteering. And I say this because I sometimes find ironic that an individual would go volunteer to Vietnam for example, but have had no contact/interaction with members of the large Vietmanese community that resides in the Vancouver region.