Courtney Sell

     When we hear the word “volunteering”, the first thing that comes to mind is helping and doing your part to be an active citizen. You would never think that it could ever possibly mean anything bad or be criticized in a negative light- the word itself rings with a positive connotation. Although this is how most of us see volunteering, it isn’t always the case. Volunteering, as good as it sounds, can actually have some very harmful side effects that could leave the person or organization that you were trying so hard to help worse off than they were before.

     One of the biggest mistakes of volunteering is doing so abroad. It may sound like a good idea and that you are going to make a huge difference but you have to make sure you are doing it for the right reasons. Volunteerism is a growing industry that keeps causing more and more harm by the day. People are going overseas to help people in need for to make them feel better about themselves and like they have accomplished something. Of course no one will admit to that because most people do not believe that that is the reason that they are doing this, but deep down satisfaction plays a huge role in to why they are going to a different country to help others. They are also excited to be able to travel while doing this service and travel to places that they otherwise would never get the chance to. It’s a win-win scenario right? Wrong. This is absolutely the wrong mindset to go into service with, especially service abroad. When people go into service like this, they don’t truly have the people’s best interest at heart.

     Adding on to this point, another downside to volunteering abroad is that there is usually little to no communication. I have heard many stories of people going abroad to serve others and they decided to surprise them by bringing them items that they think that they will need. Although this sounds nice and all, sometimes the people don’t actually need what you are trying to give them. And in all honesty it is very demeaning to these people when the volunteers come in with a mindset that they are extremely poor and need all the help that they can get. Or, in another scenario, these people could have a surplus of certain items but be extremely deficient in others. This applies to all types of service as well. If you are planning to go and help build roads or bridges or even help educate, you need to ask and see if that is something that they need before you set the plan. Just because you think they need something to need to be educated about something doesn’t mean they do. If you just assume that the people need something that they do not then you are coming over to do something that will be of no use to them- you will just be wasting everyone’s time. This is why it is always best to set up good communication with the people that you are going to be serving before you jump right in.

     Another common downside to volunteering, especially abroad, is that most of the time it is only a short-term fix. As volunteers we are only able to give up so much of our time, especially when we go abroad. Most of the time trips abroad to serve others only last for a week which only gives you so much time to help. We do what we can to help as much as we can, but how long can that last? We see the difference that we are making at the time but usually things go back to the way they were before within a month or so depending on the service that was given. Its sometimes difficult because the easiest thing is usually to go for the short-term fix and it seems to work great at face value, but it really doesn’t help the community that much and sometimes it can even hurt them more. If these people become more dependent on this short-term fix, it will hurt them even more when it is not available to them anymore. Most the time we do not see this when we are trying to help because we only see how it helps at the time, but without follow-ups, we never know how much it hurts them after the resource is of no use to them anymore.

     One of the last downsides to volunteering is that in certain circumstances it can actually be very harmful to the environment. One example that I think of in particular is when I participated in Renew the New, we cleaned up trash on the side of the New River. It was a great experience but when I would pick up certain pieces of trash I couldn’t help but think that I was doing more harm than good. There were animals and plants that had grown used to this and even made homes out of some of these pieces of trash. They had become dependent upon these items and now I was taking that from them. When I reflected about what I did that day I knew I had made a difference because the River looked a great amount better and I’m sure it was going to save a bunch of animals from dying or getting hurt from the trash that had just been left on the side of the river, but I still couldn’t help but think about the slight or possibly even major negative impact that I had made that day.

     All of these criticisms of volunteering are very hard to read about and understand because we believe that we are doing our best to help and most of the time our intentions are pure, but that still does not make everything that we are unknowingly doing right. Even though its hard to do, we need to reflect upon the negative sides of what we are doing to better it in the future. One of the biggest concerns that needs to be brought to everyone’s attention is the idea of voluntourism. Voluntourism is one of the biggest problems facing volunteers that are going abroad. The only thing that is going to help this problem is making sure that everyone is aware of what it is before they go abroad and making sure that they are aware of the harm that it can cause. Educating volunteers about voluntourism is going to be one of the biggest things that could contribute to making volunteering live up to its name. Another thing that we can do to help bring volunteering to its full potential is think more about long-term fixes instead of just short-term. Before you start to make a plan for what you will be doing to help, you should consider all of the options and try and come up with one that will last the longest and be of the most use. Sometimes it’s easier to just go to Walmart and buy water, but isn’t building a well that a neighborhood could use for a long time a much better solution? Sometimes it just takes a couple of different ideas to come up with the best solution to a problem which is what we need to do before we embark on our volunteering.

     In all volunteering can cause a variety of problems and complications, but in the end we are doing a great thing. I believe that most people just need to be more aware of they are really doing before they set off to help and then reflect afterwards to see if there is anything that they could have done better. Volunteering is never going to be a perfect process but we try to do what we can to help our community and most of the time we are making a positive impact on our and others communities.