I shouldnt laugh at people trying to help but really....

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Chirimoya

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Dec 9, 2002
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Depends - if they really do it for them it is useless and only serves the volunteers' needs.

If it is a situation where volunteers and beneficiaries work together on projects that the community members have selected as priorities it is more constructive. Working in this way empowers the locals and gives them a sense of ownership of the project, which they are much more likely to take responsibility for once the volunteers have left.
 
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BettyDiamond

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I would agree its better if everyone gets involved in a project to help their area

is there some sort of register for these organisations?
 
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I think it is also a way to teach some skills to the students, who probably don't know a whole lot about construction projects.

If it is done properly, and the volunteers are working as part of a cooperative partnership within a community, then everyone involved is in a position to benefit.
 
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minerva_feliz

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rolling my eyes...

Sos?a-News


teenage girls in tank tops building houses for Domincans who are perfectly able to do it themeselves if they are given the materials....am I being mean?

Laugh all you want, I'm rolling my eyes. Reminds me of the time I saw girls in booty shorts mixing cement for floors, with the perfectly capable Dominicans sitting in plastic chairs in the shade watching them.

They just want an excuse to feel good about themselves while going on vacation, and building something to "help" someone is the easiest thing to do. They think they are helping, and while they might have good intentions, they are enabling people to be lazy and fatalistic. They are encouraging dependency and the "dame algo" mentality that has practically ruined most hope for real development and progress in this country. I laugh about all the expensive latrines that have been built by foreigners to "help" the poor Dominicans that were subsequently dis-assembled and the parts used for house repairs and all the sand water filters sitting around collecting dust. I'm doubling over thinking about that abandoned clinic near Mena in Barahona built by the U.S. military a few years back, which has been completely stripped of anything valuable and never even had running water installed. People don't care about things that are given for free without effort on their part.

I promise there are capable Dominicans and institutions already working in this country, so people who want to "help" should at least do it through them.
 

Chirimoya

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I'm doubling over thinking about that abandoned clinic near Mena in Barahona built by the U.S. military a few years back, which has been completely stripped of anything valuable and never even had running water installed.
As predicted at the time on these very forums, but no-one wanted to listen to real life development workers who know from first-hand experience what happens when there is no consultation with the local community.

People don't care about things that are given for free without effort on their part.
Sad but true, yet well-intentioned people keep coming back and doing these things. They get a warm fuzzy feeling, but ultimately nothing is achieved, and by the time this is evident they are long gone.
 

pedrochemical

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Aug 22, 2008
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Laugh all you want, I'm rolling my eyes. Reminds me of the time I saw girls in booty shorts mixing cement for floors, with the perfectly capable Dominicans sitting in plastic chairs in the shade watching them.

Often very critical of the Dominican work ethic, I would find it hard not to sit there, drink a cold beer and admire the spectacle myself.

And I love the idea of girls in booty shorts making cement floors too.
 

MikeFisher

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sound's not that bad of a construction site to me neither, lol.

the 'doing' often fails b/c of leak of the 'explaining/involvement of the effected'.
it is one of the most usual things on the planet that people do not care much or any about things given to them for free without any effort from their side.
that first touch behavior is very well known by experienced 'volunteers', everywhere.
just to paint the wall of a school or cement the floor of a school yard doesn't mean that anybody learned anything about "do that stuff and do it again to help your community". it just means that some 'volunteers' do it, locals watch it and that's it. nothing done for the future of the barrio, the painting or cement floor will last it's time period and when worn out nobody will realize that it is time to do that again, and if somebody realizes that the Q would be:
where are the Volunteers?

to come over on vacation and 'Volunteer' for such jobs is mostly just 'doing a favor' to the lil community/benefiter, nothing else, aside of a 'volunteer feeling good about his/her action', and all is fine.
reel volunteer's help would be to sneak in a community and connect with the people of that community, to bring up with time 'together' the idea of needed actions and do them together, that's an important point, do that thingy together with the involved/effected people/community.
that's the only way a real learning/understanding process starts which can/hopefully does end in a 'selforganization' of that stuff for a area.
Mike
 
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i would prefer the Brugal in the shadow over wearing a Bikini while preparing cement in the sun.
Mike

LOL. Who wouldn't? Although a frio or two, in a cool shade would suffice for me.

And I would find it preferable if those who doing the work and wearing the bikinis were nice -looking women, and not a bunch of over-weight and over-religious gringos. But that's just me.
 

pedrochemical

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i would prefer the Brugal in the shadow over wearing a Bikini while preparing cement in the sun.
Mike

LOL. Who wouldn't? Although a frio or two, in a cool shade would suffice for me.

And I would find it preferable if those who doing the work and wearing the bikinis were nice -looking women, and not a bunch of over-weight and over-religious gringos. But that's just me.

Nope, it is not just you!!
 

dv8

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Sep 27, 2006
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really cranky post

what really gets me mental in here that many volunteers pay to volunteer. they sometimes have to fork out a thousand bucks or more in order to sweat their fat butts in some god forgotten village in the jungle. wtf?
this money would be better spent on food and supplies for orphanages, schools, hospitals etc. those new houses will be sold and money wasted before those good-hearted fatties squeeze into a seat on their flight back home.
i understand the need to justify their existence of capitalist consumer but there are other ways to atone for their greed. and i am sure there is plenty of poverty wherever they come from.
 

cobraboy

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Jul 24, 2004
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what really gets me mental in here that many volunteers pay to volunteer. they sometimes have to fork out a thousand bucks or more in order to sweat their fat butts in some god forgotten village in the jungle. wtf?
this money would be better spent on food and supplies for orphanages, schools, hospitals etc. those new houses will be sold and money wasted before those good-hearted fatties squeeze into a seat on their flight back home.
i understand the need to justify their existence of capitalist consumer but there are other ways to atone for their greed. and i am sure there is plenty of poverty wherever they come from.
In my experience with Do-Gooders, they are more concerned about making ~themselves~ feel better than the lasting effect of what they are actually doing.

The $2000 they spend on coming here and laying concrete blocks could send 12 at-risk young girls to a good private school for a year*.

Which do YOU think woiuld have more lasting effect?








*This is based on how a $500 donation of the young daughter of my business partner sent 3 14 y.o. girls to the Catholic girls school in Jarabacoa.
 

dv8

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my thoughts exactly, robert. de mello said that altruism is a form of egoism and you can see that with some of those do-gooders.
 

MikeFisher

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exactly right Cobra.
we have here in my house now again company from a 'new daughter', she will soon be 14, poor family, no father, instead of sending money or such to her home which would be spent on beautysalons or new cellphones or such we just 'adopted' her and after the summerbreak she will be at the same private scholl where my boy is, costs for her school are 33K per year plus uniforms and books, of course she has to eat here, too, lol, transportation is no big deal, we live just 10 driving minutes from the school, so i bring both and pick them up afterwards.
that way the poor family has no costs to cover for the daughter and the Gal get's a good education and will finally hopefully get a good job to support that family.
totally agree with your description/calculation of doing good.
Mike
 
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