You have undoubtedly heard of ecotourism and medical tourism. But how about volunteer tourism? Yes, what is sometimes referred to as ‘voluntourism’ is a real thing. Not only that, it existed long before it became a multi-billion-dollar industry.
Generous people have been donating their vacation time to help others for generations. Some of those people have even gone overseas to do things like building orphanages and providing medical care. The trips are facilitated by local organizations as well as global entities like the well-known Doctors Without Borders.
The thing about volunteer tourism is that it can be both good and bad depending on context. Being a responsible volunteer involves vetting your opportunities to see what they are really all about. It would be a shame to volunteer on your next vacation only to find out that what you did actually had negative consequences.
Lots of Ways to Volunteer
Let’s say you’re interested in a bit of volunteer tourism yourself. How do you get involved? The best place to start is to go online and run a search for volunteer opportunities in your planned destination. According to WGNO in New Orleans, their city is a hotbed for voluntourism in the US. It started in the weeks and months immediately following Hurricane Katrina.
People already planning a New Orleans trip traveled to the beleaguered city and spent some or all of their vacation time volunteering in the recovery effort. Nearly 14 years after the devastating storm, recovery is still not complete. And people continue to volunteer while they are in town on vacation.
Perhaps you are intending to visit a place like Salt Lake City where devastating natural disasters aren’t the norm. Can you still volunteer? Absolutely. Contact local organizations like the Junior League of Salt Lake City and express your willingness to help. They always have at least a few things going on.
If you’re looking to go overseas, there are plenty of opportunities to be had. You can assist with disaster relief, work training programs, food distribution, and on and on.
Do Some Digging First
This post has shown volunteer tourism in a good light thus far. However, remember the earlier statement that it can be both good and bad. For every worthwhile volunteering opportunity, there’s another one that creates unintended negative consequences.
As one example, UNICEF suggests that volunteering to help build an orphanage in some parts of the world may be directly contributing to the purposeful separation of parents and children. UNICEF says that some 85% of all children living in Nepal orphanages are not truly orphans.
Other critics of volunteer tourism cite examples that are not quite as disturbing but negative, nonetheless. There have been instances of volunteers with no construction experience building structures deemed deficient or unsafe. Other complaints suggest that volunteers are coming in and doing work that locals could ultimately be trained and paid to do.
Back in the 1980s and early 90s, donating used clothing to African nations was fairly big. Volunteers would take the clothing overseas and distribute it to those in need. Eventually though, African governments began pleading for the donations to stop. They asked that organizations would instead collect money to help them build factories and train workers so they could make their own clothing.
Volunteer Wisely
Volunteerism is generally a good thing. It stands to reason that volunteering while on vacation is also good. It is, but only if you volunteer wisely. Go ahead and donate vacation time to a worthy cause. But do some research before you choose a cause to get involved with.
