Is volunteering abroad just a glorified holiday?

irishrepeat2

well does it actually make a difference or is it just a chance for the youngsters to change their facebook profile picture to one with the black kids..

Zebra3

A lot of it is getting other people to pay for your trip abroad.

Plenty of charity work at home if people really want to make a difference.

Birneybau

Cheap holiday in someone else's misery?

Awkward Badger

Life experience on someone else's dime.

Zebra3

Birneybau wrote: »

Cheap holiday in someone else's misery?

A friend of mine went and it wasn't cheap.

Charity here creamed a lot of cash out of it.

whirlpool

"Volunteering" abroad is very expensive.

But if randomers are willing to pay for another randomer to go abroad and "volunteer" then that's their prerogative.

If I was to give money to a "volunteer" to go abroad, I'd personally want hard evidence that they're actually making a substantial difference, and they're not just doing it for themselves.

I suspect most of them are doing it to satisfy their own egos, though, than to actually make another human being's life better, and so that they can tell people they did it. If you were forbidden from telling anyone else in the world that you "volunteered," I wonder how many people would still do it.

If you truly want to volunteer, then save up your own money and use that, instead of expecting everyone else to pay for it.

irishrepeat2

Zebra3 wrote: »

A lot of it is getting other people to pay for your trip abroad.

Plenty of charity work at home if people really want to make a difference.

So little to no exceptions:?

Tail Docker

"We're doing a sponsored cycle around Ibiza in aid of African Orphans".....riiight...

pablo128

whirlpool wrote: »

I suspect most of them are doing it to satisfy their own egos, though, than to actually make another human being's life better, and so that they can tell people they did it. If you were forbidden from telling anyone else in the world that you "volunteered," I wonder how many people would still do it.

I'm in the 'charity begins at home' camp, but if people want to volunteer abroad for charity, well you would want them to feel good about helping. You would hardly think they want to go and help people and feel sh1t about it.

Pawwed Rig

Zebra3 wrote: »

A friend of mine went and it wasn't cheap.

Charity here creamed a lot of cash out of it.

It is a revenue generator for the charities. Third world countries do not really need a UCD Arts student to go out there and 'build' houses for poor people. The locals are just as able to do jobs themselves that an Irish volunteer without particular skills can do

LostBoy101

I agree OP. I paid for my volunteer trip to Ghana out of my own pockets and so did the other group of 20 people I went with. Most people go abroad as a "volunteer" so they can put it on their CV and populate their fb with photos to fulfill their ego.

irishrepeat2

LostBoy101 wrote: »

I agree OP. I paid for my volunteer trip to Ghana out of my own pockets and so did the other group of 20 people I went with. Most people go abroad as a "volunteer" so they can list on their CV and populate their fb with photos to fulfill their ego.

so if yeh pay for it urself it is justified:?

whirlpool

pablo128 wrote: »

I'm in the 'charity begins at home' camp, but if people want to volunteer abroad for charity, well you would want them to feel good about helping. You would hardly think they want to go and help people and feel sh1t about it.

No I wouldn't. I solely would want them to help the less fortunate. I wouldn't donate money to a "volunteer" so that they can make themselves feel good. But sure that's a lot of it.

Zebra3

irishrepeat2 wrote: »

So little to no exceptions:?

Yeah.

Mariasofia

My local credit union have been kind enough to sponsor my upcoming trip.....

LostBoy101

irishrepeat2 wrote: »

so if yeh pay for it urself it is justified:?

It was definitely worth it as it opened my eyes to extreme poverty and an experience to live in that enviroment. So yes, it was justified.

whirlpool

irishrepeat2 wrote: »

so if yeh pay for it urself it is justified:?

A lot more justified than if you con lots of people out of money under the pretence that your priority is helping the less fortunate, when often people are doing it for the sake of having "a life experience" for themselves. They'll do it once, put it on their CV and Facebook and then continue on with their self-absorbed lives under the guise of a "do-gooder."

pablo128

whirlpool wrote: »

No I wouldn't. I would want them to help the less fortunate. I wouldn't donate money to a "volunteer" so that they can make themselves feel good.

I wouldn't donate money to them either. Let them pay for themselves.
When I was younger, pre-boom times, I went off to Holland to work for 2 winters. I was 19 and 20 at the time. It was hard work, but it was the makings of me. A great experience. If young people can go foreign, help people out and have a good experience while they're at it, more power to them.

OnTheCouch

I've read a lot of articles on this topic and the general consensus was that yes, those who volunteer are largely doing it for selfish reasons rather than altruisitic ones.

This was not so much about them showing off to their friends at home and pretending that they had made a difference when they were only there for a short period, where the essential reason was to get a semi-holiday in an exotic country and be ostensibly helping those less fortunate, perhaps in an attempt to win more friends or gain favour with the opposite sex.

No, surprisingly enough it was the medium to long-termers who seemingly caused the most damage, say those who went for anything from three months to a year, as if say the orphans really take to them, then when the volunteer actually has to return to their own country, this presented considerable trauma to the children, even in some cases akin to losing a parent. Having someone to work closely with the children on a daily basis, even on occasion living in the same accommodation, can engender huge feelings of insecurity in the child when that person has to leave.

Now I can obviously see two sides to the argument. Obviously the more invested and committed the volunteer is, the less likely it is that he or she is not just doing it for Facebook likes. But then if the children are affected long-term, clearly it's not a good idea either. Bear in mind this is not an au pair situation, these children are often orphaned or from extremely difficult backgrounds, having someone constant and reliable in their lives must be like all their birthdays rolled into one. Then for that person to leave again...not good.

TimeToShine

9 times out of 10 the money spent on the plane ticket and accommodation would be better spent if given directly to the people in need.

irishrepeat2

Mariasofia wrote: »

My local credit union have been kind enough to sponsor my upcoming trip.....

is it justified in your case:?

bb1234567

Looks good on a privileged european kids work CV. It only benefits themselves.

Reindeer

I'm in Ireland on a volunteer visa. It's a good time.

_Redzer_

Oh yeah, I'm going volunteering next year in Santa Ponsa. I just need some donations to allow me get me over there so I can start my charity work straight away!

Capt'n Midnight

Pawwed Rig wrote: »

It is a revenue generator for the charities. Third world countries do not really need a UCD Arts student to go out there and 'build' houses for poor people. The locals are just as able to do jobs themselves that an Irish volunteer without particular skills can do

IMHO it's a complete waste of time doing stuff the locals can do themselves.

Up skilling the locals, especially back in the days when there wasn't easy internet access to things like youtube, instructables, wikimeida , is better.

The best measure is when you don't need to do the same job twice because the locals can now train others to do what you did.

Pump priming and all that.

UCDCritic

irishrepeat2 wrote: »

well does it actually make a difference or is it just a chance for the youngsters to change their facebook profile picture to one with the black kids..

We had a group come into UCD a few years back and I sat in on the presentation about what they do and it was, as you say, basically a glorified holiday.

What skills do students have?

These people were talking about building houses

How the hell would a UCD student have any experience or skill in building a house.

Total non sense

the_syco

whirlpool wrote: »

I suspect most of them are doing it to satisfy their own egos, though, than to actually make another human being's life better, and so that they can tell people they did it. If you were forbidden from telling anyone else in the world that you "volunteered," I wonder how many people would still do it.

If you truly want to volunteer, then save up your own money and use that, instead of expecting everyone else to pay for it.

Agreed 100%

If they go via sponsorship, they're just satisfying their own ego, and making more money for the charity at home than anything else.

But if they go abroad on their own cash, and using their specialist skills that they don't have (eg; doctors, etc), they yeah, that's cool.