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

[tk toronto]

Thanks tk - at least some here did make a distinction between different ways of approaching volunteering and fell short of dismissing it outright.

It's really good to have so many points of view and I'm sure it's helped several people look at things from different angles.

Who said that this thread was boring because everyone was in agreement?

I'm glad there were some that didn't outright dismiss volunteering as well. I believe that volunteering is a good thing when done in the right way. It's the volunteer's responsibility to make sure they are informed about the organization and what they do and know that a volunteer project that helps the community by making it sustainable is most important.

 

[las2137]

If they are going to do it anyway, for whatever motivation, what are some simple things they can do to improve their service trip? ...

I think these are good suggestions. I'd like to add one more:

-Whenever possible, purchase supplies locally. Invest in a Pricemart card- or find a different wholesaler- and buy your supplies in bulk. This will help the local economy in a number of ways, even if it is an international company (even if it is owned by Walmart, Pricemart hires Dominicans!).

I understand that some things are not available locally (in which case an organization should ask itself if they are providing things that will create a dependency on goods not available available once they leave). But for things like school supplies, basic hygiene items and food/snacks among others, I suggest pumping a little money into the local economy.

 

[domilinguist]

This topic is a complicated one.

Another factor to consider is that many of the non-religious volunteer programmes are run as businesses and the more paying volunteers they are able to send abroad, the higher their profits. They offer students, who maybe have never travelled before and are not very world-wise, the chance to experience something very different, but always at a price.

From my experience, I have seen that taking people out of their comfort zone and introducing them to a way of life that they have never experienced before can have its benefits. The concept of paying to volunteer has always seemed a little strange to me. However, most of these college kids come from very wealthy backgrounds and are from over-protective U.S. families. I believe that any shock to the system for these kids, something that gives them another perspective on how they live their own lives, can be very positive.

On the other hand, the companies that run these programmes are more concerned with the 'image' of their volunteer experiences, so that their clients (i.e. the students) are happy with their product (helping the poor and needy). One of the best complaints I ever heard from a volunteer was the disappointment she felt when meeting the children and the community, as in her opinion they weren't 'poor enough' for her due to the fact that her parents had paid a lot of money so that she could experience 'real poverty'!

People should be a little wary when paying for these programmes and shouldn't be under any illusions that they are working for the U.N. or contributing to changing the world dramatically.

Is it, however, such a terrible thing to take these kids away from their comfortable lives and introduce them a little bit to the reality of how most of the world's population lives? If even a few of these students change their outlook on life and decide to live a little differently in the future, then I see this as a positive thing.

 

[tk toronto]

Just a different perspective

The concept of paying to volunteer has always seemed a little strange to me. However, most of these college kids come from very wealthy backgrounds and are from over-protective U.S. families.

Domiliguist,the concept of paying to volunteer also irked me before (and I paid over $4,000 and am NOT wealthy or American) There are other volunteer programs that are cheaper, but you still pay. You're not "paying to volunteer", but you're paying for your board, food, lessons in the language, and activities they take you on, if any. You're also paying for any guides you have throughout the trip. For example, leaders or country coordinators that are ensuring your safety depending on where you're volunteering and letting you know what's what.

If you think about it, when you're volunteering and eating the food of the community and drinking their water, who is supposed to pay for it?

Some volunteer programs offer homestays rather than dorm-like accommodations. The host family needs to get paid in order to feed you and allow you to sleep in their house. (Kind of like a tenant)

There are free volunteer things, but they're long term (like, 6 months at the LEAST long term) and you have to know the language of the country and you're more independant. You don't have anyone really taking any responsibility for you, you're responsible for your own well-being and safety. Some are free, but one I looked into in Colombia gives you a place to stay and you buy your own groceries (which is not what everyone wants to do)

I'm not saying that there aren't volunteer programs that are just out for lots of volunteers for lots of money, but it's a little unrealistic to not have to pay anything in some instances.

 

[cobraboy]

I'm not 100% sure this whole "volunteerism" thing is aimed at the goal of "results" in helping folks, and not at making themselves ~feel good~.

They come here to do manual labor when unemployment is over 15% and folks want jobs.

They spend $$$ on their stay when people can barely put platanos and a scrap of pollo on their plates.

Dominicans have plenty of skill to plan and build about anything they put their minds to. The corners they cut are mainly due to finances, not intelligence or planning (but not always...).

If parents want to send their spoiled kind to the Third World on a Poverty Tour to see how the other 90% of the world lives, great. Call it that. But don't say it to help the poor, unfortunate natives, when it's really not.

I know a great number of foreign folks who live and work here full-time with poorer Dominicans and exist on $RD10,000 a month. I admire them greatly, and have financially helped some when they hit a rough patch. But I tend to be very sceptical of the motives of the Parachute Volunteers, and I've met a BUNCH of them, too, here in the Cibao mountains, in the southwest and in Samana.

"Sustainable" results come from folks helping themselves. Financial donations and loans would be much more beneficial than coming to live with them for 1/2/4 weeks. What is spent on bureaucracy and travel-airfare, food, lodging, supplies-to support one volunteer could have material impact on a project and give an unemployed worker a job. Multiply that by thousands of volunteers a year, and you can make a huge difference.

I am further sceptical of 90+% these "volunteer organizations" and various flavors of NGO's. Bureaucracies focus on the ~process~, not results. And to me, an eeeevil capitalist, the process ain't diddly: only results matter, period.

Frankly, I see more results coming from folks like Hillbilly here adopting so many children over the years turning them into Solid Citizens, J D Sauser's success with his support and mentorship of Melani and Nicole, and MikeFishers virtual adoption of his young girl than any anecdote about some NGO or charity sending folks to hekp the poor natives. Direct, tangible, measurable results. I hear great things about a couple of ex-pat charitible organizations in the North (Rocky and tflea come to mind, and I am sure there are many, many more.) Mi esposa's family has the Fundacion Belarminio Ramirez group. THESE are folks who make a difference much more so than Parachute Volunteers. Real people doing things for others without concern for themselves, bureaucracy or the "process.".

IMO, a dollar given to the folks I just mentioned goes a LOT further in the actual lives of folks than sending a kid on a Poverty Tour under the guise of "volunteerism."

IMO, a dollar given to a microloan group can have a huge impact on "sustainability", since wealth creation comes from entrepreneurship.

A dollar given to an NGO or official charitable group get sucked down into paying for "the process" and travel, and only a fraction gets to actually help folks.

Buy, hey, I'm not professional...

 

[bob saunders]

Years ago when I decided to help from afar by donating money I decided to do some research. After watching all the different info-commercials on TV and doing the research I decided that Children International was one of the better NGO to donate through. Money donated was going mainly towards childrens health and education, with the money making a difference in the lives of the two girls I sponsored in Chile. They also employ mainly local people to run their local organization. My wife's cousin worked for them for several years.
Is there a lasting beneficial effect on the children that are helped this way- I'd like to think that money didn't go to waste.
As far as volunteering; I agree that it is a little silly to send teen aged girls to build houses when there are unemployed local construction workers that can do the job better. My brother has gone on and organized many church related volunteer groups to Cuba to build churches, houses....etc. He takes around 10 volunteers each time and before he goes the volunteers are told exactly what they are providing in term of help. His group are normally farmers, mechanics,(workers) not students. Everyone has told Neal on return to Canada that they learned more from the Cubans than they taught them; also made them feel good as Robert suggests is one of the main goal of volunteers. I've had many "discussions"with my brother about the motivation behind these Christian good works. The Cubans lack two things: material resources and organizational resources. This is I think true to a lesser extent in the DR. When people are struggling day to day just to feed themselves and family, it is often hard for them to pinpoint a community based project that will have a lasting positive impact on the lives of their families. This is where I think international volunteers have to do careful research on planing their help. Sponsoring a child in school, donating books, building a library( and stocking it), teaching a marketable skill, literacy classes....etc. Small things can make a difference. So in the end if the volunteers feel good about themselves regardless if the help they provided was not as effective as it could have been, is that a bad thing.

 

[dv8]

stone me if you want but...

i still go with robert's opinion. and no, i am not a professional do-gooder either.
tktoronto said she spent 4k dollars to do a volunteer program and "help the community". with a going rate of 10 dollars for a day of work in construction she wasted money that would support 10 dominican families for a month. wtf? why do useless people keep on "volunteering"? only to make themselves feel better.
who do i call useless? people like myslelf - with no trade or education that matters in the third world country. and do not get me wrong, i have MA degree and i speak few languages. a good volunteer is someone who is needed. and what country needs a fat american teen with acne?
third world countries need engineers, doctors and nurses to volunteer. teachers, agriculture specialist, profesionals of value.
but not just anyone who thinks they can "make a difference". you make no difference. go home.

 

[domilinguist]

I think the point that I was trying to make is that sometimes not all volunteer projects are, nor do they intend to be, strategic, sustainable development programmes that are long-lasting and highly beneficial to a community.

However, nor am I suggesting, as Dv8 states, that they should all go home. I am merely pointing out that in my personal experience, usually the people that benefit the most from said programmes are the volunteers, who are taken from their comfort zone and forced to experience a whole new reality for themselves.

I think if that makes one spoilt kid think twice about how they live their life and how privileged they are, than hopefully that can have a positive outcome.

 

[Chirimoya]

Folks, this is going round in circles with people going over the same ground and I'd appreciate it if any further contributions were kept to discussion the pros and cons of volunteering in general terms and not directed at anyone in particular.

 

[tk toronto]

I'm not 100% sure this whole "volunteerism" thing is aimed at the goal of "results" in helping folks, and not at making themselves ~feel good~.

They come here to do manual labor when unemployment is over 15% and folks want jobs.

They spend $$$ on their stay when people can barely put platanos and a scrap of pollo on their plates.

Dominicans have plenty of skill to plan and build about anything they put their minds to. The corners they cut are mainly due to finances, not intelligence or planning (but not always...).

If parents want to send their spoiled kind to the Third World on a Poverty Tour to see how the other 90% of the world lives, great. Call it that. But don't say it to help the poor, unfortunate natives, when it's really not.

I know a great number of foreign folks who live and work here full-time with poorer Dominicans and exist on $RD10,000 a month. I admire them greatly, and have financially helped some when they hit a rough patch. But I tend to be very sceptical of the motives of the Parachute Volunteers, and I've met a BUNCH of them, too, here in the Cibao mountains, in the southwest and in Samana.

"Sustainable" results come from folks helping themselves. Financial donations and loans would be much more beneficial than coming to live with them for 1/2/4 weeks. What is spent on bureaucracy and travel-airfare, food, lodging, supplies-to support one volunteer could have material impact on a project and give an unemployed worker a job. Multiply that by thousands of volunteers a year, and you can make a huge difference.

I am further sceptical of 90+% these "volunteer organizations" and various flavors of NGO's. Bureaucracies focus on the ~process~, not results. And to me, an eeeevil capitalist, the process ain't diddly: only results matter, period.

Frankly, I see more results coming from folks like Hillbilly here adopting so many children over the years turning them into Solid Citizens, J D Sauser's success with his support and mentorship of Melani and Nicole, and MikeFishers virtual adoption of his young girl than any anecdote about some NGO or charity sending folks to hekp the poor natives. Direct, tangible, measurable results. I hear great things about a couple of ex-pat charitible organizations in the North (Rocky and tflea come to mind, and I am sure there are many, many more.) Mi esposa's family has the Fundacion Belarminio Ramirez group. THESE are folks who make a difference much more so than Parachute Volunteers. Real people doing things for others without concern for themselves, bureaucracy or the "process.".

IMO, a dollar given to the folks I just mentioned goes a LOT further in the actual lives of folks than sending a kid on a Poverty Tour under the guise of "volunteerism."

IMO, a dollar given to a microloan group can have a huge impact on "sustainability", since wealth creation comes from entrepreneurship.

A dollar given to an NGO or official charitable group get sucked down into paying for "the process" and travel, and only a fraction gets to actually help folks.

Buy, hey, I'm not professional...

I guess if you would like to assume why everyone volunteers, then that's your perogative. However, I'll tell you that NOT everyone (myself included) does it to make themselves feel good. I do lots of things to make myself feel good here in Canada enough. I can't speak for everyone, but I'll speak for myself because no one knows me better than me.

Also, as I stated in a previous post, ASSISTING is different than doing all the work as some volunteer organizations choose to do. Crossroads is one of those organizations (also in the North) that provides sustainability instead of dependancy.

Not everyone's parents send them on such a trip. I sent myself with the money I've made for myself. Every other trip back to the DR that I've made after that has been from my own money, not my parents. Assumptions again seem to be aplenty on this board. I've met plenty of volunteers whose parents did NOT and COULD NOT pay for their trips. This assumption of the rich North American is just as bad as the assumptions surrounding poor Dominicans not being able to do anything for themselves.

Adopting children is wonderful, however, I'm 24 years old, adopting anyone really isn't in the cards at this point in my life.

I'm sure your post was not directed at me personally, however, as a person who volunteered (and will do so in the future abroad AND in my own country) I feel the need to respond to such an assumptive post.

 

[tk toronto]

i still go with robert's opinion. and no, i am not a professional do-gooder either.
tktoronto said she spent 4k dollars to do a volunteer program and "help the community". with a going rate of 10 dollars for a day of work in construction she wasted money that would support 10 dominican families for a month. wtf? why do useless people keep on "volunteering"? only to make themselves feel better.
who do i call useless? people like myslelf - with no trade or education that matters in the third world country. and do not get me wrong, i have MA degree and i speak few languages. a good volunteer is someone who is needed. and what country needs a fat american teen with acne?
third world countries need engineers, doctors and nurses to volunteer. teachers, agriculture specialist, profesionals of value.
but not just anyone who thinks they can "make a difference". you make no difference. go home.

I won't stone you, I'll just politely let you know that all your (and others) assumptions simply aren't true for everyone.

If you read correctly, I said I would never spend such an amount of money again to volunteer. I volunteered because I wanted to do something to help and the trip was marketed to me as that. Period. It was not to make myself feel better.

You might think of yourself as useless, however, I do not. As a matter of fact, I do teach and have come back to the Dominican Republic to teach English and will be doing so again in the near future for a longer period of time. So, dv8, if you view yourself as useless, that's your business, but not everyone who comes to volunteer in the DR is useless nor do they need to go home on demand of some who believe they aren't making a difference.

I'm 90% sure from your previous posts that English isn't your first language, so I'm sure your post wasn't necessarily meant to be as harsh or sound like it's making such broad sweeping generalizations, but just in case, I've responded not only for you, but others who sit back and make assumptions about people who try to do good to others.

 

[tk toronto]

I think the point that I was trying to make is that sometimes not all volunteer projects are, nor do they intend to be, strategic, sustainable development programmes that are long-lasting and highly beneficial to a community.

However, nor am I suggesting, as Dv8 states, that they should all go home. I am merely pointing out that in my personal experience, usually the people that benefit the most from said programmes are the volunteers, who are taken from their comfort zone and forced to experience a whole new reality for themselves.

I think if that makes one spoilt kid think twice about how they live their life and how privileged they are, than hopefully that can have a positive outcome.

I can't speak for all programs that exist. I can only speak for Crossroads which is sustainable and I think has been there for 20 years or so.

Again, not everyone who volunteers is spoiled, being in the Dominican Republic and seeing poverty wasn't as eye-opening for me as it was for some others. I'm not saying it was everyday stuff, but I wasn't staggering in shock, I knew people in the world lived like this.

 

[tk toronto]

Folks, this is going round in circles with people going over the same ground and I'd appreciate it if any further contributions were kept to discussion the pros and cons of volunteering in general terms and not directed at anyone in particular.

Sorry for all the responses then, but I felt they needed to be said. I guess it is going around in circles with people set in their ways and beliefs here due to living in the DR for some years that now see themselves as experts. I won't be flooding up the board repeating myself over and over again.

 

[Chirimoya]

No problem, tk. I think we'll leave it at that.

Some of these contributions have been truly revealing.