>You use your own money and time to volunteer
>Time abroad should be spent travelling
>Volunteering in some shit-tier village is probably not very fun
>Living standards in the middle of nowhere is probably not very high
It also gives those little shits an excuse that the
"at least are doing something about the world" mentality. These people need to fucking die
>>1109117
>You pay money to do a job for free that a local could do and be paid for.
>ego boosters
> paint a mural on a wall only for it to be whitewashed later for the next group of volunteers
>>1109117
Basically it's only done for personal gain and nothing more. People do it to feel better about themselves. They do it to fool themselves and others into pretending that they're helping the world. They do it because they think the world is a good place filled with good people. They do it for their careers, to pad their resumes and to impress employers with how worldly they are.
Many people are naive, especially in western countries where they haven't experienced hardships and don't understand how some people in the not so well off places will do anything to get ahead (like take the rich foreigners money and give them some menial volunteer task).
>>1109286
Yeah, this is pretty much right. I work in int'l dev and have seen loads of well meaning westerners doing this kind of thing. I wish I could say it did any good at all.
One possible exception is the US-funded 'farmer to farmer' program which brings people with agribusiness experience (broadly defined) out to a client for 2-3 weeks on a specific assignment for which the volunteer is well qualified. The program pays all expenses and a per diem. Implementers are ACDIVOCA, CRS, CNFA.
Volunteering makes you a better person. I have volunteered on Turtle Farms in Costa Rica, and on Construction Sites in Papua New Guinea and in Orphanages in Belarus.
Every single one made me a better person. A better person than my previous self and a better person than you. To do things- for no personal gain- that help hundreds if not thousands of people is something I can tell nobody on this fucking degenerate board has ever done. You go abroad to fuck prostitutes and attend anime conventions. I go abroad to fuck brutal dictators, fuck them hard with a dick made of concrete, wood and brick that I use to make homes for poor people. I don't attend conventions. I TEND to local peoples TENSIONS by giving them advise and letting them know how to be a better person.
One volunteering experience I'll never forget.
I was working in Port Au Prince Haiti after the Earthquake that devastated the city in 2011. I volunteered to sweep the dust from the road so that the cars could get through without the windows getting dirty causing the drives to crash into the rubble of the magnificent Haitian skyscrapers that used to decorate the worlds most underrated tourist hotspot. I managed to clear the entire roadway by myself in 20 minutes. As I looked around me I saw happy motorists driving by. They looked at me through their windows and smiled as they went back to work. I heard that the country saw its employment rate rise by 1% that day just because of my hard work and effort. So fuck off you arrogant bastards.
>>1109394
>I have volunteered... in Orphanages in Belarus.
>Every single one made me a better person
I'm almost positive those kids are far worse off due to all those volunteers coming in and befriending/making them become attached for a few weeks/months, and then leaving.
There is evidence to prove that:
http://globalsl.org/why-unicef-and-save-the-children-are-against-you-caring-for-orphans/
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/nov/14/orphans-cambodia-aids-holidays-madonna
Are you happy that you are better off now at the expense of those kids?
>I go abroad to fuck brutal dictators, fuck them hard with a dick made of concrete, wood and brick that I use to make homes for poor people.
>I TEND to local peoples TENSIONS by giving them advise and letting them know how to be a better person.
That almost always just helps prop up a dictator -- the Peace Corps is very much guilty of that in Swaziland, among other countries.
I hope that post was a joke.
>>1109394
>you took a paid job opportunity from a local in Costa Rica
>you took a paid job opportunity from a local in Papa New Guinea
>You took a paid job opportunity from a local in Belarus
Didn't read the rest
>>1109394
10/10
Anyone seriously interested in voluntourism should talk to literally anyone who has studied development for more than thirty seconds. 98% of the time, you're doing more harm than good.
>spend thousands flying to 3rd world shithole
>pay more money to western company for the privelge
>build houses using your skills as a sandwich artist
>meanwhile unemployed local workforce sends their kids out begging
it shouldn't be that hard to comprehend
And orphanages, fuck me blind
>cuddle black kids for three weeks
>niglets become attached
>leave the country, taking hope of being loved with you
seriously you wouldn't do that to a shelter animal
depend on what you do. i wouldn't recommend anyone go dj in haiti or anything, but when my wife was in nursing school she spent 5 weeks in a medical clinic in the phillipines. she enjoyed the work, she got shitloads of experience doing all kinds of stuff she wouldn't be able to do as a student in a clinic here in the u.s., it boosted the hell out of her self-confidence, and it looks good on a resume
Voluntourism also ends up hurting the communities it visits more than it helps them because it's all wealthy white kids digging wells and depriving local laborers of those jobs and the income that would provide for their families.
Real volunteer organizations don't make you pay to volunteer and require you to use your expertise rather than just be dumb labor.
>>1109394
>and a better person than you
still have some self-improving to do if you feel the need to write stuff like this
>>1109394
>the country saw its employment rate rise by 1% that day just because of my hard work and effort.
deluded
>>1109394
>volunteering makes you a better person
So do it in your local community? You can take on properly long term projects at home and make a genuine difference
>>1109404
Actually
http://www.theguardian.com/voluntary-sector-network/2015/may/21/western-volunteers-more-harm-than-good
>>1109431
This
Groups like Engineers Without Borders or MSF are good, it's the tards who think that somehow their white skin and superior western education will somehow cause them to save the brown man that are the problem.
Volunteering's only useful if you're taking something that they don't have there already. They don't need labourers.
>>1109394
>making oneself a better person through pity
fucking first worlders I swear
he's trolling you
c'mon trv, I thought you were smarter than that
>>1109465
Poe's law
We've all met someone like him and take the chance to vent
>>1109482
>I volunteered to sweep the dust from the road so that the cars could get through without the windows getting dirty causing the drives to crash into the rubble of the magnificent Haitian skyscrapers that used to decorate the worlds most underrated tourist hotspot
c'mon...
Volunteering is fine, providing it is not taking from paid labour the locals could do.
For example, volunteering as a vet in aninal shelters, spaying strays etc. Sometimes, even if the task could be done by a local, the charity doesn't have enough money to hire one.
>>1109117
>You use your own money and time to volunteer
If you're a cuck maybe
>Time abroad should be spent travelling
personal belief
>Volunteering in some shit-tier village is probably not very fun
>Living standards in the middle of nowhere is probably not very high
>probably
nothing to see here
>>1109533
lol just to look at how everyone is pointing out how volunteering abroad is for losers
I volunteered on a project in Ghana which was fully funded by the British Government. I was under no illusions about the reasons I was going - I wanted a free trip and a new experience. I do care about people, but my personal belief is that impoverished communities need to work towards empowering themselves instead of relying on foreign aid.
That said, the project supervisors made sure that our work didn't take jobs away from local people. For every British volunteer there was a Ghanaian volunteer who picked up valuable skills. We mostly worked in partnership with local schools delivering extracurricular health education and things like that. Did we change the world? Obviously not. But the kids enjoyed seeing white people, I enjoyed the experience of living in a new culture, and the local community got valuable funding which (hopefully) they will use to create sustainable growth they can maintain to themselves. It's a bit of a waste of money from a UK taxpayer perspective, but I'd recommend any Brit aged under 25 to exploit it if they're stuck for something to do for a few months. Beats working a shitty part-time job for sure.
A bit different to the time so far, but i want to do WWOOFing in South America in the near future. My time would of course cover food and a bed, effectively being able to stay at no cost. It would let me practice Spanish and be in my study area. And I would travel before and after my time there. Thoughts, /trv/?
>>1109394
>hat help hundreds if not thousands of people is something I
forgian-vollinterr-fags actually believe this.
Those build sites? they are funded by a ngo, your logisticals by another, planning by another NGO. You keep the country helpless. You don't actully build anything the country can use, the whole system falls apart without forever on going outside help.
Like when the Africa textile industry went broke because it's actually cheaper to get donated clothes, expect now less jobs.
.
Why don't you volunteer at home? My church in a nice suburb of Los Angeles is always doig missions to nowwhere to build schools they don't need, I keep telling them they should do a mission to fucking Los Angeles ghetto; those posers; it's a waste of resources.
>>1109437
I now right? as if they even can track that on the daily.
>>1109465
could be, but there here are some who hope the b/tards stay in their crib and also have met people who actually believe this "I'm on a mission to save the world" stuff
me, for example. i wrote the bit about farmer to farmer above and have talked with too many do-gooders in the course of my work.
>>1109581
That's sounds really good (especially the fully funded part), which organisation was it with?
>>1109117
It completely depends. For the multi-million dollar NPO's that esentially set up bases and force themselves on the countries they intend to "help" I find that's certainly the truth. Particularly when people pay ridiculously huge amounts to "volunteer".
However, if you are working with a well-established local charity that has no ties with some monolithic money-swallowing giant, you can do a great deal of good and genuinely explore and immerse yourself in a unique culture. For anyone considering doing volunteer work for a certain charity, make sure you do tons of research regarding the legitimacy of said organization.
>>1109458
This- there are local charity groups that simply don't have the funds to employ enough people. I spent a few weeks working at an orphanage for physically and mentally disabled children in Jamaica- even with government funding, they couldn't come close to hiring enough nurses to take care of the hundreds of disabled children already at the site and the steady influx of new arrivals.
It's the borderline charity/vacation "I want to drain this country's resources but still feel good about myself" companies that are the biggest problem
>>1109117
>You use your own money and time to volunteer
That's what gets me, if I could get someone to cover my expenses, I would volunteer just to see the world, but they want me to pay for it now.
hmm coz they can afford it
>>1110888
The overarching program is called International Citizen Service (ICS), and they work with a load of partner organisations who provide and oversee the placements. Mine was with Lattitude, but other partner companies include Raleigh, Restless Development, Progressio, VSO, and more. And they really do fund everything - even travel expenses and hotel costs when you're travelling to and from the pre-departure sessions, travel to the airport, all in-country costs, and even a small bit of spending money each week when you're in-country. They want to encourage people from all types of backgrounds to volunteer and it works - I'm white and middle-class and so were quite a few in the group, but there were also people from poorer backgrounds who had left school at 16. It was a good mix.
The only potential concern is that it primarily attracts very vocal SJW types. Me and one other guy in my group were fairly right-wing but we were very much in the minority and had to bite our tongues a little bit in group discussions (which are frequent, because cultural awareness is as much a part of the trip as volunteer work) as most people were in the 'blame the white male capitalists/imperialists' camp.
So yeah, if you're a British citizen I'd definitely recommend you do it. From the perspective of the taxpayer I don't think it's really value for money, but purely in terms of personal opportunity I think it's a brilliant experience and a more interesting way to travel than the normal tourist stuff. I'm considering going back as a team leader, but I don't know if I could handle 6 months without all my creature comforts.
People do it for that one Facebook album of themselves with a bunch of black children and bragging rights that they volunteered and did something with their lives.
>>1109117
Volunteering itself is for work experience before work
