Presentations by Eric and Stephanie N
Like this:
Be the first to like this post.
Tags: Class Topics
This entry was posted on November 2, 2009 at 5:56 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
November 3, 2009 at 7:22 am |
I left this class conflicted about my thoughts towards ISL/Volunteering and Interning, can it be done well? If so how? Then I wrote my essay and marked essays which got me thinking about guidelines. Is it possible to define a universal and ethical set of standards for volunteering abroad? I would like to propose a few, what is missing? Are any of my guidelines problematic?
1. First and foremost be realistic about who benefits. I don’t necessarily think its bad for students to go overseas to enhance their resumes, I do have a problem when their travels takes a job away from a local and justifies the development of a saviour complex. If you go be realistic that you greatly benefit from the experience and be humbled by this; allow it to define how you relate to your host community.
2. Recognize that you will not save anything or anyone. Recognize that there is a bare minimum time required to ‘make a difference.’ Recognize that the problems (as in the biggies concerning development: conflict, unsustainable livelihood, lack of infrastructure, government corruption etc.) are incredibly complicated and require a lot of time to understand.
There is a disturbing tendency within the development movement to dumb down development/conflict issues, this is concerning because it in turn impacts how people respond to the ”problem.” Quick examples – women are not all victims, poor people are not all helpless, Darfur is not a war of Christians against Muslims and what is happening in the DRC is not a genocide. It takes time and effort to understand a community’s particular development challenges and even more time to figure out what policies can help affect change. Anyone considering going overseas should ask themselves if they have some sort of grasp on the issues – do they understand what their host organization wants them to do and why? Do they understand how to gauge if the project is sustainable?
I focused on reflective guidelines. Can anyone suggest general rules for a project (i.e. length of time overseas required, training required, etc)
November 5, 2009 at 3:15 am |
Volunteering abroad is a really interesting topic to discuss, as it seems to have become trendy enough to garner criticism…and cynicism. It’s created an entire social group of left-wing students who return wearing kitangas and coconut earrings, hemp bracelets with rasta-coloured beads, and refuse to purchase anything that isn’t fair trade. I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing. In fact, I sewed a kitanga into a pencil skirt for an internship in Ottawa so it could be “business-casual.” I think a lot of the backlash towards international volunteering is grounded in racialization and identity politics. I volunteered at an inner-city school in Vancouver for years, busing through the Downtown Eastside at 7am twice a week and spending four hours in a Grade 1 classroom. My apartment was decorated with pictures that the kids had drawn, I regularly perused the Dollar Store for novelty erasers, I worried when one of them wasn’t at school – it was a significant part of my life. I have also spent two summers working at a centre for street children in Northern Tanzania, where I did very similar activities – arts and crafts, sports and games, reading projects, beading, etc. However, rather than living in an apartment near UBC, I was living next on a small farm at the foot of Mt. Kilimanjaro.
For some reason, people are either far more interested about the work in Tanzania, or far more critical, and I’ve found much of the interest and criticism links back to a very obvious difference: the kids in Tanzania are black. It doesn’t seem to matter that 80% of the class in the Vancouver school was East-Asian and spoke limited English, because while being labeled a visible minority, it is a visible minority that Vancouverites are familiar with. No one has observed that I speak far more Swahili than I do Mandarin, and was thus better able to communicate with the Tanzanian kids in their first language than the kids in the inner-city classroom. International volunteering is profoundly linked to “othering.” Axel Honneth wrote an excellent book titled The Struggle for Recognition in which he discusses the need to recognize the distinction of the “other,” but also recognize that the “other” is part of “us” – we are all distinct yet mutually dependent.
That’s not to say that international volunteering is without some serious ethical flaws, but I think we should be mindful of the stigma that has been attached to it because of “othering” and racialization. For example, I would not ever have posted photos of my Grade 1’s from the DTES on Facebook – in fact, when entering a Vancouver public school, volunteers sign a contract stating that they won’t release photographs, as it is illegal. I took that policy and applied it to the centre I worked at in Tanzania – posting photos of children on the internet seems to have a whole host of ethical connotations I’d rather not deal with. I think that operating by the same ethical standards you uphold in your home community when you are visiting another community is an important thing to remember. Interestingly, I have a photograph of a friend I met in Tanzania and I in my living room, and everyone’s first comment is, “oh, is that one of the orphans you worked with?” He’s black, I’m white, and many people jump to the conclusion that the relationship was forged in an institutionalized setting of “giving help” – they struggle to realize that people are people, and friendships can exist across cultures or countries. Anyway, my thoughts are difficult to gather on this topic as I’m finding that constructing racial stereotypes creates barriers to human progress in many areas in society.
November 8, 2009 at 10:46 pm |
Just to comment on Kyla’s post.
The Self and Other dichotomy goes back even further to Georg F. Hegel, a German philosopher in the late 1700s-early 1800s.
His theories on the struggle between the Self and Other, and how the only way to reconcile this struggle is for both people to recognize the other as a part of himself and his equal, are fundamental to Identity theory. He essentially imagines what is would happen when the Self (which we can imagine as ourselves, only capable of thinking about the world from our own point of view and according to our own interests) comes across another person for the first time. Hegel hypothesizes that the two people fight it out and whoever wins becomes the master, and whoever loses becomes the slave. The two people fight because they want the other to recognize himself as the superior being, the lord of the universe. But what happens in this relationship that the master only receives a false sense of superiority from the slave, because the slave never voluntarily recognizes the master as his equal/superior. The master is dependent on the slave for recognition and the slave is dependent on the master for recognition but neither can receive it while in this relationship. Eventually Hegel argues that the only way out of this is for each to recognize the other as an equal human being; essentially the Other is eliminated and becomes part of the Self.
Ever since reading Hegel, it is impossible to see the world outside of this dichotomy. It seems that we constantly create or reinforce the differences between ourselves and others, but in the end there are no real differences; they are all fabricated. The key to universal peace, and yes I am aware of how lame this sounds, is for this separation between the Self and Other to disappear as people recognize every person on this planet as all in possession of humanity. As long as we reiterate the differences between our family and others, our friends and others, our country and others ect, as long as we separate ourselves by false boundaries, then we have no hope for acting responsibly towards others because we cannot see the connection between us.
However, I don’t recommend reading Hegel unless you want to go to the source. He’s very difficult to read in his philosophical, german way.
Charles Taylor is also a good source for reading up on identity politics, if any of you are interested, and he’s an easy read.
Anyways, I did like the idea that we discussed in class about an ethical framework for Service Learning Projects, although implementing such a framework would involve not only the host country, but the country from which the volunteers come from, as well as the so-called voluntour company. In a sense it would involve something like what Ethiopia did to regulate the NGOs within its territory. However, most of these developing countries probably won’t be able to afford a panel to review the ethics of NGOs within their borders, and I feel like the ethical framework idea would only work in a consumer-capitalist way. I think it will be mostly up to the volunteers themselves to choose ethical companies: consumer choice capitalism. For example, there are many adoption companies around the world, some more ethical than others. My aunt chose to work with one of the ethical companies, which took alot longer, but it was a choice that her conscience was comfortable with. People have to be made aware of which projects fall into an ethical framework, and I think this review should be performed by both our own country’s government, and also peer-volunteer review.
November 15, 2009 at 8:03 pm |
Before I share my own views I just want to add that Tanja and Kyla- I believe both of you isolated some very important issues. Tanja- I most definitely share the same conflicting thoughts and Kyla- I love how you addressed many of the assumptions that individuals make that create more barriers than break.
I strongly agree, with Tanja’s, statement that she doesn’t have a problem with individuals who want to go overseas to enhance their resume and gain experiences. Humans often want to (sorry to bring in this econ term) run a mixed portfolio- so anything that offers them win-win optimal situations (i.e go travel and do a little charity work at the same time) is rationally acceptable.
My belief is that the key thing is to separate the “volunteering” with the international service learning. Furthermore, it is then crucial to separate “volunteering” into volunteering that requires specific skills (using Canadian examples- not everybody can volunteer on Kids Help Phone or at VGH, but most people in volunteer at a bake sale or at a sports event)
I believe too that many of these businesses that are advertising service-learning through tourism- need to (and should be forced to by ethically aware students) to choose one over the other. If they are a volun-tourism organization- state it. Don’t pretend to sweeten the pot and say that you will be saving lives. Others are allowing you to enter their lives to provide a mutually enriching VOLUNTEER experience.
For service learning, one that many in the class such as Andra mentioned is not doing service learning until they have the professional qualifications to do so. I think, more importantly, it should be the organizations that require these professional qualifications. I think that tangible work and volunteer experience in Canada should definitely hold more weight than a cover letter expressing desires to change the world.
Being realistic (as Idealistic as many of us are) is the first key step.
November 29, 2009 at 9:13 am |
Furthering your point Will,
I think that some of the most disturbing incidences of volunteering gone wrong occur in the medical field. Why does this happen, because students are insanely desperate for experience to get in.
Two options that I see
1) an med-school wanna be oriented agency. It would probably cost a lot. You volunteer and get hard skills. But it undergoes an ethical review. So while you might get to watch procedures, discuss with doctors and patients but you don’t touch (an open body on the operating table especially). Perhaps the money funds the hospital and it works like any other teaching hospital.
2) ethical training for Canadian students from their first day of kindergarten. Nip the urge in the bud.
Which is more feasible? Change the attitude or make the attitude work for you?
November 30, 2009 at 10:44 pm |
I’ve never done a volunteering program abroad before and although I have considered it extensively in the past, this presentation has really brought some extra concerns up for me.
I can’t give my opinion from first-hand experience, but I will say that a lot of these ISL programs and other volunteer programs are really negligent in how they are setting up local resources, community and service programs. One of the programs that I felt was the most disconcerting was the medical program. Although there are some very loose requirements for students who want to do a med program through ISL, the majority of other volunteer companies out there have little or no prerequisites for medical experience or knowledge for their volunteers. Now I have a HUGE ethical issue with this. It is NOT right and can be, at times, very dangerous for both the volunteer or patients to be accepting or gving even basic medical advice from someone who is not trained AT ALL.
Also, being in a medical clinic, even as an assistant or whatever, I think it’s very important to be trained in some basic medical terminology, bioharzardous waste disposal, sanitation, etc…. Cause you never know what can happen and volunteers should be prepared for their own sake and for the sake of patients.
Of course, what I just said above is probably just steps people can take to be prepared in worst case scenarios and more than likely, most medical programs are less intensive than what I seem to be imagining….
Anyway, I do think it’s important to consider the sustainability of a volunteer program and its impact on communities as well. Is it a concern of volunteer companies that whatever resources set up by volunteers can be carried out and continued by locals when they leave? If not, how can they take steps to ensure long term sustainability and adequate training for locals in the community?
December 1, 2009 at 8:13 am |
Excellent discussion happening here.
Kyla, I really enjoyed reading your entry. Very thought provoking.
I wanted to comment on voluntourism – I personally think that it isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it can be a good thing. The problem I have with it however is that often volunteering comes 1st and tourism comes 2nd. The other problem is the short time that volunteers spend in the communities. Tanja mentioned this a bit as well. 2 wks just isn’t enough. 1 month isn’t enough either. Yes, people say, well, some people don’t have much time to take off from work/school to do these kind of things, well, then I say, don’t do it. Volunteer in your own communities, and leave volunteering abroad to those that can give it the time that it deserves. I think that being a tourist in a country and travelling in it for some time can give you a good perspective about the environment before you actually begin to work there. This doesn’t mean that volunteers should not be educated about the community’s history, culture, etc. or trained in ethical issues before they go. As a matter of fact, I personally think that even travelers need to be ethically trained. I know this is extreme and isn’t possible, but I think it’s important.
December 1, 2009 at 9:47 am |
Reading all the different opinions regarding ISL I think I’m a little torn as to where I stand. Much of the discussion seems to be focused on the individual who has chosen to volunteer abroad, but I think that more responsibility should be placed on the organizations which make this connection between volunteers and the recipient community. As Alice discussed, often times these organizations give the impression that minimal skill or education, let along education on the ethics of entering a new community, is needed in order to participate in such trips. As the link between volunteer and recipients I think that ISL organization have a great responsibility to the communities they have established contact with to ensuring the quality of the volunteers they send.
In response to the discussion of ISL projects as reinforcing the function of “othering” people from developing countries, I think that the effects could go either way. Surly the act of deliberately choosing developing countries to engage in ISL projects reinforces us/them power relations, but it can also help dissolve difference. Living and interacting within a community for extended periods of time no doubt creates bonds between two groups of people that were initially considered an “other”. This interaction facilitates exchange of culture and knowledge and ultimately increases tolerance and understanding among people. Furthermore, this relationship is not unilateral, but bilateral in the sense that it is a dialogue in which both parties are able to express as well as listen and learn.
December 2, 2009 at 8:55 am |
Yeah, Kyla, I really enjoyed reading your comment. I think it raised some very good points and key issues >> “I speak far more Swahili than I do Mandarin, and was thus better able to communicate with the Tanzanian kids in their first language than the kids in the inner-city classroom.”
I think it is so easy to forget about how certain topics apply in Canada (>> Vancouver) today.
With regards to ISLs, I think the intentions are good and it creates a globally interconnected world with students and young people interacting more with communities around the world. And I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. Although I can see some negative effects and consequences that may come out of ISLs, but the same things can be said about foreign aid and development projects.
Also, I agree with Tanja that it isn’t necessarily a bad thing to use ISLs as a way to enhance your resumes. I mean, when we volunteered back in high school (and now), we would use those experiences on our resumes. But these experiences also taught us life lessons regarding our communities, how to interact with others, team work, and many other things. So, I don’t think ISLs are necessarily a bad thing.
Although, I don’t know what I would say about volun-tourism, I’m kind of on the fence for that one. I think with regards to volun-tourism, it may be better to just go as tourists and boost the economy rather than thinking you may be doing good for the 2 weeks that you are there and then just leaving.
But that’s just my personal opinion =S
December 2, 2009 at 8:56 am |
Kyla – I loved your points about racialization and othering.
Alice also brought up the issue of sustainability, which I think is the obvious ultimate goal for a long-term project. I find that the short time frame is an immense burden on the organization, when taking into account the increased placements, and the time spent orienting, training, and supervising a new volunteer. In addition, the importance of building relationships with the community is paramount to its survival – this takes time – and the ability to do this is severely compromised with a high volume of short term volunteers. I have seen many quotes from Peace Corps volunteers (not that I’m advocating the peace corps) that claim they did not feel like they had any sort of use within the first, if not first two, years of volunteering.
If volunteers are entering a country with little to no skills, I would argue that in most cases, a local could do this job. With high unemployment common in developing countries, foreign volunteers occupying these positions could be undercutting the job market and local development. If aid agencies can afford to pay domestic staff, they can certainly afford to pay a wage in a developing country. Their purpose should be to create, not undermine, a sustainable cycle, and ultimately, volunteers should be striving to work themselves out of a job.
Iran brought up two great points I’d like to discuss as well – volunteering domestically, and traveling as an alternative to volunteering. I think there is a need to recognize that the desire to do good is not enough. We need to be able to recognize our lack of skills/other limitations, and look for other ways to contribute – volunteering abroad should not be our go to outlet for our desire to help! It is hard to solve problems in one’s own community, so why would we think it would be any easier to solve them in someone else’s? I feel like you are much more qualified to help in a community where you share an awareness of its history, a common language and domestic fabric, and thus more students should be encouraged to volunteer internally.
Volunteering is not the only experience open to us, nor is it necessarily the most “beneficial”. There are so many other opportunities to immerse ourselves in other cultures, such as language exchanges, home-stays, au pair jobs, etc etc. I believe that if you’re a good traveler, you can have a similar or more valuable human experience in a country if you make the effort to talk to people, to build relations, make careful ovservations, to ask questions, without many of the harmful ethical implications, and still providing tourism revenue. Although getting off the beaten path has always had a “trendy” vibe, it still remains too intimidating for many who opt for these commodified volunteer experiences.
Tourism is obviously not without its own negative implications, but I feel like with most things, with careful thought and moderation these effects can be minimized or mitigated. My worry with voluntourism projects is that they will create a sort of “resort effect” the longer harmful projects remain in place, with the local population being alienated by arrogant outsiders and becoming resentful.
December 3, 2009 at 2:16 am |
The discussion surrounding the ethics of volunteering in the medical field is fantastic! I’m going to risk sounding like a stuck record and provide another anecdotal example that I feel illustrates my point regarding racialization and othering…
A friend of mine spent three months working (in an unpaid capacity, ie. volunteering) at a hospital in Kenya. There was some research involved, and the project was sponsored by a professor at his home university, all of which add to the legitimacy of the project. However, while he was there, he performed a C-Section. He is not a doctor, he is not in medical school, and was able to cut open a woman’s body. Furthermore, he was able to remove this woman’s infant from her body and bring it into the world. Two lives at stake, little medical training. The reaction to his retelling of this experience was most often something along the lines of, “what an amazing experience!” There seemed to be a general belief that because he was in Kenya, it was ok that he had performed surgery on someone because people need medical assistance in developing countries. Somehow people seemed to overlook the fact that he was working in a hospital…where trained doctors were also working. Anyway, I didn’t focus on the fact that Kenyan doctors do exist and are better equipped to perform surgery than Canadian undergraduate students, and instead focused on the race issue. If I had walked into that hospital, in Kenya, and required a C-Section, I highly doubt that anyone’s first instinct would have been, “maybe the undergraduate volunteer can try this time around.” This supports the theory within identity politics that “whiteness” can be invisible, but also is closely linked with privilege. He was able to overstep his own boundaries because he was white. I would have been treated with greater care because I am white. He had not given a thought to the fact that race had played a role in shaping this experience, but he definitely did agree that he would not have been allowed to operate on a white woman in the Kenyan hospital. I experienced similar racialized privileging last summer when I took two of the children I was working with to hospital to receive treatment for Malaria. There was a long line up of patients waiting to see a doctor, but the children who were with me were offered preferential treatment because I had accompanied them – I was essentially allowed to jump the line because of my skin colour. How ethical is that? I spoke to a Caucasian American woman who lived in the town I was staying in who said that this racialized privilege caused constant ethical dilemmas. She wouldn’t jump the line for her own medical treatment, but there had been a situation in which one of the children she worked with had been raped and was in need of immediate medical care. None of the doctors in the rural hospitals would see her (examining a rape victim has legal implications and this would require them to testify in court), but she could leverage her “white privilege” to receive medical attention for the child at the hospital in town.
Issues of race and identity are highly problematic, and I repeatedly come to the conclusion that constant self-analysis and critique, situating yourself in your own context/position (for many of us, a position of privilege) is important when analyzing any issue.
December 4, 2009 at 3:34 am |
This was great to read through! I love the personal knowledge that everyone has added to this topic. And I don’t even know where to begin!
A few comments have touched on the issue of ‘standards’ or ‘experience’ when it comes to individuals embarking on ISL initiatives. As I noted in class, I personally have never applied for working or volunteering abroad, this is not to say that I have not seriously looked into it on multiple occasions.
Angela brought up a good point of the institutions which offer volunteer opportunities to implement ‘standards’ for volunteers. I agree with this point, but what will be the incentive for these institutions to implement ‘standards’ for their volunteers when they are working for profit? They’re going to alter their ‘standards’ if they are either:
1) Lead by an ethical-minded group of individuals;
2) Forced by the government through legislation; or
3) Forced by the public through lobbies.
Will either happen when our population is left so largely uneducated on social justice issues upon graduating high school? I don’t have an answer for this. Perhaps internationals standards for ISL might be the way to go, but that would call for yet another international body which steps on sovereignty rights.
This is such a complex issue and I have not yet personally come to a conclusion myself. Nonetheless, is this to say that we should throw our hands up in the air and give up? Should we just say that no one should volunteer abroad if there are so many ethical implications to how the issue is currently handled? Should we just leave it to the communities? We can transfer innovation knowledge across borders, but what is to say they don’t want to make their own mistakes?
I keep thinking to when I was a child (less developed individual). My mom (more developed individual) would tell me to be really careful when I’m walking as to not trip and fall – I tripped and fell a lot. Did I listen to her? No. Did I want to listen to her? No. Do I wish now that I listened to her because all of my trips and falls have led to many-a-time sprained ankles, which now has led to a very weak right ankle? Yes. But, most importantly, did I want to make my own mistakes to learn from? Yes.
This is a purely theoretical example, with many loopholes and generalizations (one of the biggest being relating a less developed country to a less developed child). The issue is exasperated with crossing borders, cultures, societies, and languages, to name a few. But nonetheless, what if these less developed countries want to follow their own way? But they can’t turn us down because our volunteers come with money? What to do?
I am at a complete loss for words after a 500 word babble.
December 4, 2009 at 6:12 am |
In doing research for our HESO project, I read an article called Volunteering Beyond an Act of Charity. I thought it would be interesting to summarize the main points and see what we can take out of this discussion and apply to our own experience.
- The article focuses on healthcare professionals volunteering abroad (more specifically dentists)
- Contributes to dialogue now unfolding about how volunteering internationally can be made more beneficial for host countries and for dental volunteers and their projects
- Wide spectrum of motives- adventure to religious- sense that volunteers want to do something about situations that are seen as unjust or even shameful.
- Mentions that one of the undesirable effects of volunteering is that its centered around the volunteer, not the community
- Mozambique health professionals came up with a list of how outsiders could best contribute as volunteers or contracted professionals (talked more about certain personal attributes)
Belief in global equity and commitment to redressing injustices
Willingness to work with compassion
Openness to change
Respect for diversity
Openness to mutual learning
Interest in raising consciousness, not necessarily in others but in ourselves
Article talks about thinking globally but acting acting locally (10)
o We don’t have to go overseas to make a difference.
What this paper really opened my eyes too- is that even just for “volunteers,” how much communities expect out of them . It also brings up the question of how can these categories be measured. What the Mozambique health care professionals came up with can all be considered relatively “subjective” categories. Much of these categories also must be judged by the individual themselves.
How can we ensure that volunteers are qualified? What if teleconferencing between the community and the volunteer is not an option (as in most cases)? What happens if volunteers are entering socially/religiously fragile communities?
December 4, 2009 at 8:45 am |
I have volunteered abroad, and I know we’re all pretty well-versed in the negative aspects, but just thought I’d throw in a quick summary of some experiences. Story time with Ang begins. I was initially traveling throughout Zimbabwe, and spending some time with wildlife on a project I had deemed to be ethical. I found the experience to be enriching and insightful, and the benefits in line with my motivations. I wasn’t expecting to save anyone, or anything, and I didn’t. I supported the local economy and a project that has been consistently praised by wildlife organizations and academic reviews, and my presence had (what I perceived) minimal negative impact.
However, from here I was lured into a teaching/sports coaching volunteer opportunity that has completely destroyed any possibility of a positive view of voluntourism. I’m aware I’m at fault for doing little research into this, but I was in Zimbabwe with no internet connection to do research, had heard excellent first hand experiences from this project, an eerily strange sequence of coincidental events, and at the end of the day, I was 18 and not ready to end an adventure. This led to many (often immediate) conclusions:
1. Most volunteers were there (1) to get into med school, and (2) their parents wanted them to have a cool “worldly” experience after high school. I don’t think I heard anyone cite anything other than these 2 motives.
2. Med student-hopefuls were consistently doing things they were not trained to do.
3. Local teachers were far better off teaching than volunteers – the presence of volunteers often led to teachers not coming to work at all.
4. Volunteers consistently did not attend projects due to hangovers, despite a manual referencing harsh punishment if this was the case. There were no punishments.
Disturbing, notable situations:
1. Med-student hopefuls devising plans to make it appear that they are in fact med students, in order to be allowed to work in local hospitals.
2. Med-student hopefuls repeatedly suggesting that they had essentially diagnosed medical conditions they were not educated on (not to mention, not entitled to diagnose).
3. Med-student hopeful being assigned a job assisting the physical rehabilitation of a TB patient, despite having zero knowledge in this area.
4. When touring local clinics as a part of induction to the project, I was asked if I would like to observe a woman giving birth. (Why on earth should I, a complete foreigner and stranger, be entitled to witness this event, that is so sacred to women?)
5. When sports coaching, an overseer requested that I teach netball – I sport I had never heard of and certainly never played. In addition, problematic gender roles were very strong throughout these sessions.
6. When a fellow volunteer was teaching students math, he forgot how to do long division. Later on when he met with the students’ regular teacher, he had to ask how to do it.
7. Volunteer who befriended some of the older boys at the orphanage, repeatedly getting stoned with them.
8. Missing items were routinely blamed on house staff who, never given an opportunity to defend themselves, were fired.
9. The list could honestly go on forever…
So sorry for the crude and simple way this has been laid out, but I feel like it is honestly more effective at getting this point across. After witnessing these sort of events, I can’t help but feel like voluntourism cannot be ethical, sustainable, or beneficial to local communities under current practices, and without consistent review or monitoring. This particular organization has been highly reviewed in the UK – I would conclude that there must be many other organizations that operate with similar, or scarily, worse operating practices.
As you mentioned Andra – where is the motivation to change these, when profit is being generated? “They’re going to alter their ‘standards’ if they are either:
1) Lead by an ethical-minded group of individuals;
2) Forced by the government through legislation; or
3) Forced by the public through lobbies.”
December 4, 2009 at 9:50 pm |
The class discussion surrounding this topic was particularly stimulating as I remember. The majority of the class had participated in volunteering abroad, and while we discussed the outcomes of this sort of experience, they mostly related to personal gains, rather than overall benefits to the place where we volunteered. I do think also that this is a reflection of our tendency to be highly self-critical, and I agree with Iran that it isn’t necessarily a bad thing. If everyone works at becoming more aware and critical about what they’re engaging in, talking about it with others, and thinking about ways to overcome the ethical dilemmas that are inherent to many of the activities in which we partake, I think that is in itself a valuable outcome. That being said, there have been a bunch of problems, specifically concerning the medical volunteering, that are very concerning. We all have the same intrinsic value as people, and practicing medicine on people in Africa when you wouldn’t be allowed to practice on those in Canada, is highly unethical. Kyla’s discussion of racialization reinforces the racial hierarchy that exists, and that we must be aware of, when working abroad. It is a sad fact indeed.
It is often said that the best way to make a difference is to go as a tourist, spend money, and accept that this is how you will contribute most. Often times we try to help in other ways, but don’t realize the externalities that our actions have. While this harm may be unintentional, it is still harm nonetheless. I encountered this same dilemma when deciding whether or not to visit Myanmar. After reading up on the political and economic situation (not to mention all the human rights abuses), I decided that it would be unethical for me to visit this country. Even though I would try my best to avoid contributing any money to government sponsored businesses, I would more than likely do so, however inadvertently. Even buying a visa to enter the country would be contributing money to the government, which would in turn use it to continue to violently oppress the population. I did want to go, and likely would have learned some valuable lessons that I could take back with me, but I didn’t feel that these benefits would outweigh the costs of the harm that my money would do. This is a fairly black and white example, as the abysmal practices of the Myanmar government are well-known. There are a lot of cases where the situation, and our impact, is not so cut and dry.
Hmm. I appear to have gone on a bit of a tangent. I guess, overall, I don’t think that is necessarily a bad thing to go abroad and volunteer in a village. I just think that we have to call it what it is. You’re probably not really helping out that much. A lot of your money will have gone to administration within the organization, which would have probably been better spent in the village. But, if you’re aware of it, you can probably avoid having a negative impact on the place you are working in. There are definitely important perspectives to be gained from this type of experience, we just have to remember to be aware of what they are, and that we’re probably benefiting more than they are. *Note the inevitable use of ‘we’ and ‘they’. Perhaps not inevitable. Gah.
December 4, 2009 at 10:36 pm |
I’m just so darn confused. I read an article recently about the views of local communities in regards to westerner volunteer projects (this is a rarity, as even in academic literature there seems to be a strong bias towards western ideas and how ISL affects the volunteers rather than the communities). One of the native Mozambican health professionals was asked how outsiders can best contribute, whether as volunteers or contracted professionals. Interestingly, they spoke less about the skills and more about certain personal attributes:
• belief in global equity and a commitment to redressing injustices — in health care, it is not acceptable that some people enjoy comprehensive services while so many others receive nothing.
• Willingness to work with compassion — professionals should attend to patients in ways that demonstrate respect and kindness, and encourage this of others.
• Openness to change — it is important to be inquisitive and receptive to learning, to see things differently through the eyes and experiences of others, and to be willing to do things differently.
• Respect for diversity — volunteers should strive to appreciate different realities, the causes and consequences of a new context, and people’s existing capacities; being fixed on single ways of doing things prevents creativity.
• Openness to mutual learning — creating processes for engaging others in discussions can help to situate a particular focus like dentistry in the larger context of health and development and can lead to a wider analysis of issues affecting oral health.4
• Interest in raising consciousness, not necessarily in others but in ourselves — consciousness is the human capacity to analyze, to understand and to change. With heightened consciousness, we are better able to act on ethical values like human rights and social justice.
These attributes seem good and all, but are they enough? From all the horror stories that have been circulated, it seems that it is not merely a matter of weeding out the volunteers who don’t have the best intentions – this seems to be a systemic problem, where volunteers are set free into understaffed health clinics by their organizations and are offered the chance to commit ethical wronging.
I agree with Angela in that organizations are going to alter their standards if they are either led by an ethically-minded group, are forced by the government, or are forced by the public through lobbies. I don’t think we can really count on the first of these – while there are no doubt many organizations that maintain ethical standards, it is doubtful that all organizations will simply follow by example. The second option could work, but would be very difficult. I get the feeling that unethical ISL/voluntour groups who provide valuable foreign money into the economy are going to be a major priority for governments. Perhaps an international organization could take up the task. In the end, I think that all three categories are necessary for this to work in practice.
December 4, 2009 at 11:13 pm |
The paper and debate in class on the “Proclamation for the Registration and Regulation of Charities and Society in Ethiopia” was incredibly thought-provoking and controversial. Although I can comprehend the reason why a country like Ethiopia would prefer to have sovereignty over being influenced by the Western world, I think the figure that up to a maximum of 10% of an organization’s funding can come from foreign aid is unrealistic and suspicious. This becomes especially suspicious when this new law specifically prevents groups from promoting human right and democracy, ethnic gender and reiligious equality, democracy, and conflict resolution. Although this is deemed an “internal issue” by Zenani’s party rather than a foreign-based issue, it makes an outsider question what are the government’s intentions? Looking at the state of Ethiopia, a struggling developing country where women, who can help bring this country out of poverty, are not given a voice or an opportunity to be leaders in their society, one should question Zenani on what he is doing to help these women. Historically, women in this country may have not been given the opportunity to right to have a voice in society, but in the dawn of this new era where investing in women and integrating women into the global market is predominant, it is incredibly important that these women in Ethiopia are given the same opportunity (given that these women would like this as well). Therefore, the bigger question becomes – who watches when the government violates human rights?
December 4, 2009 at 11:14 pm |
Most of the class was in agreement that volunteering should be done in an ethical manner, based on the themes of reciprocity/balance, cultural competence, training/education, sustainability, and motivation) and that there was a great need for the promotion of ethical volunteering within the developed world, particularly targeted toward those who were more interested in enhancing a resume. However, the most thought-provoking topic that came out of this discussion was whether we should consider VolunTourism as something that is considered beneficial or detrimental to the developing world. From my time traveling and working in Vietnam this past summer and the several times I’ve been to Vietnam since the age of 10, I have seen how tourism has changed a nation. Gone are the days of genuine, kind, hardworking individuals; today, when one visits Vietnam, they are overwhelmed by the aggression of the city, the ticket and produce sellers at the market, the marketers who desperately follow you on motorcycles in hopes you will go on an adventure tour, and the children who run around the streets at night trying to look cute and get attention so that a Western tourist will give them money or buy them a treat. Voluntourism is one of the contributing factors for this change in Vietnam’s culture and society (as are the international businesses that have invested in the country). Although the financial aid that Voluntourism has brought to the country has helped lift individuals out of poverty, is the influence of Western society and a need to be Americanized really something that is positive for Vietnam? For a country that has fought so hard to be independence, is this dependency on Western tourists (some of whom participate in short-term volunteering projects) healthy? Another short example, is from the time I spent in northern mountains in Sapa. In this dominantly ethnic community, the way in which these individuals live have changed drastically compared to 10 years ago. The ethnic people try to sell their handmade goods to people, wear ethnic clothes and create little artistic gifts of Westerners in hopes that we can give them money. Is there a way to help people become more independent so that they don’t a need to rely on the developed world?
December 6, 2009 at 2:16 am |
test good