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International Volunteering: choosing a sustainable and impactful project
Alice Robinson, International Development coordinator for
Student Hubs
1. Potential issues, negative impact and debate
2. Where do I start? 3. Where to go from here?
1. Be inquisitive2. Get experience3. Get informed
4. Questions and discussion
About Impact International
• UK-wide, Student Hubs programme supporting student led overseas ‐volunteering groups and the work they do.
• How?– Resources– Opportunities for training, collaboration and best
practice discussion. – Connecting student groups to each other and to
the wider development sector
1. Potential issues, negative impact and debate
2. Where do I start? 3. Where to go from here?
1. Be inquisitive2. Get experience3. Get informed
4. Questions and discussion
“What’s wrong with volunteer travel?”
A short video by Daniela Papi
“In the 21st century we should not still be thinking that people from abroad can arrive in a country whose language, culture, lifestyle, economics, education, politics and climate is totally different from their own and expect to contribute something useful and worthwhile in a matter of weeks or months. The implicit assumption is that foreigners can achieve what Indians have not been able to do for the last hundred years.”(Individual interviewee – Indian Volunteers for Community Service (IVCS) (From a research study by VSO).
http://www.affp.org.uk/sites/affp.org.uk/files/Research%20report-%20Paropkaar.pdf
After 34 years of facilitating overseas “volunteers,” IVCS now refers to volunteers as “project visitors.”
Risk of negative impacts…
•Impact on local jobs•Cost to host communities•Impact on children
1. Potential issues, negative impact and debate
2. Where do I start? 3. Where to go from here?
1. Be inquisitive2. Get experience3. Get informed
4. Questions and discussion
Where do I start?
• Think about your area of interest, skills and experience, over location. Google more specifically based on this.
• Look around you- who is nearby? Who could you meet? Get involved.
• Time commitment
Your area of interestHealth: Nutrition, health education, HIV/AIDS, sexual health, sanitation? Education: children's education, adult education, vocational training. Languages, medicine, engineering? Human rights: Women's rights, Child rights, Counter-trafficking, disabled rights, legal services for vulnerable groups, Refugee rights, Detainee rights, Street children, Migrants and workers rights, land rights? Economic development: Sustainable livelihoods, Fair-trade & enterprise development, Micro-credit, Income generating activities, Eco-tourism?Environment: Protection of natural resources, Environmental education, Energy, climate change, green economy, food security?Politics: corruption, political accountability, international law and tribunals, UN work, democratic governance, fair elections, peace and security, conflict resolution?
Choosing an organisation
• What type of organisation? • Costs. How much can and should you pay?
Who will be providing for you? • The way the organisation presents themselves
and their projects• How much training will you get for the role?
This can also say a lot about an organisation. • Volunteer checklists and charters
“It may make the person feel good about themselves…but it doesn’t make the community feel good about themselves, because they’re being objectified and only being seen as having problems.” -Mireille Mather
1. Potential issues, negative impact and debate
2. Where do I start? 3. Where to go from here?
1. Be inquisitive2. Get experience3. Get informed
4. Questions and discussion
What key questions could you ask of a potential organisation?
About their projects and partners
• How do they choose their projects? • What is the involvement of the host
community in planning the projects? • How is the relationship with the host partner
formalised?
Longer-term plans
• What are the long-term goals for the project? And how does your work fit into this?
• What happens after you leave?• What is their longer term involvement with
and commitment to the community? • How do they monitor and evaluate their
projects?
Other suggestions
• Can they provide you with health and safety or child protection policies?
• What work does the organisation do in the UK (e.g. Global citizenship)
1. Potential issues, negative impact and debate
2. Where do I start? 3. Where to go from here?
1. Be inquisitive2. Get informed3. Get experience
4. Questions and discussion
“Omprakash has evolved in response to the popular model of “voluntourism” in which foreign volunteers visit underprivileged communities for short periods of time and sometimes inadvertently patronize the very people they are trying to serve. A central principle of the Omprakash ethos is that volunteers should humbly attempt to live and serve in the same community for at least a month, and should approach volunteering as an opportunity to learn from and with their host community.” – Willy Oppenheim
Engaging with international development more broadly:– Conferences: www.studenthubs.org/idconferences– www.whypoverty.net– Guardian development blog - http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development – World Development Movement (some particularly good research documents
and reports)- http://www.wdm.org.uk/ – Overseas Development Institute - http://www.odi.org.uk/– Institute of Development Studies Mixcloud- http://www.mixcloud.com/ids/
(recordings of interviews, seminars and podcasts). See in particular http://www.mixcloud.com/StudentHubs/ for podcasts of recent conferences.
– Generation Development – an online development forum which connects young people from around the world to shape international development policy
– World service enquiry for jobs, experience etc. in development- http://www.wse.org.uk/
1. Potential issues, negative impact and debate
2. Where do I start? 3. Where to go from here?
1. Be inquisitive2. Get informed3. Get experience
4. Questions and discussion
About your trip and training
• What training will you get? – Before, during and after. What support will be
available? – How else can you prepare?
• Your role within the project• Global citizenship
Preparation
• Training– From the organisation– Impact International– Find other options- e.g. TEFL courses
• Experience– Volunteer locally– Volunteer onlineTwo links to get you started:
www.thesite.org/workandstudy/volunteering and www.onlinevolunteering.org
Campaigning in the UK
• Actionaid• AEGIS• HART• Etc…
Student Hubs Ethical Internships
studenthubs.org/ethicalinternships
1. Potential issues, negative impact and debate
2. Where do I start? 3. Where to go from here?
1. Be inquisitive2. Get experience3. Get informed
4. Questions and discussion
[email protected]@impact_intl
www.studenthubs.org/impactinternationalwww.facebook.com/impactinternational1
