Irresponsible Tourism: Who is serving who?

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   The issue of volunteering holidays is complex, and the many voices in previous threads bears testimony to this.

The success of a volunteer programme is dependant on the intention of the programme. The underlying reason for its existance. I have been approached in South Africa to set up projects, "because its a booming market you know, AND WE WANT TO ENSURE WE REMAIN PART OF TOURISM TRENDS" So a volunteer project set up to serve the already irresponsible mainstream tourism industry of the developped world is for us, a non starter.

We run a volunteer project. It was set up on the basis of working with  and developing poor communities already. It was created out of an agreed need. It was based on the idealistic notion that developed world skills could be useful. 

What a minefield to navigate. Our intention is good, but to find volunteers who come to serve and share our ideal more difficult. The problem lies with the gate keepers, the agents selling the trips. Our experience has been that they are in the business of "remaining part of tourist trends" If the next big thing is trips to war zones - thats where they gonna go. 

Market demand alone does not sastify the needs of those we try and serve through authentic volunteer programmes.

If you work with children in the UK, you get screened. But we must accept unscreened volunteers. Paedophiles welcome - vulnerable children available should be the banner add of some of the big wholesalers of volunteer programmes!

We thought disclosing where the money goes would be a good way to work with consumers. Only one placemenmt agency does this in our experience. On the lie of serving vulnerable communities, as a consumer you loose your right to know where your money goes. Or it is explained away on the basis of operational costs? WTF!!

We thought it reasonable to know what our product would be soid for in the yield market. We feel we have the rifght to know how much our experience is marked up. Draw a blank on that one every time.

We thought it would be prudent to find out what the responsible Tourism policies of the agents were. Many have RT managers, but what on earth do they do?

We thought it important to put project management teams in place to ensure capacity and sustainability in the projects served. Seems this is not cost effective - it implies a flow of money to the host community!

So after two years in this polluted market, we have found very few partners who we can work with. In fact only one agency was prepared to screen volunteers, was prepared to take some responsibility for who ended up in the project, was prepared to disclose how money was spent, was prepared to work as partners towards sustainability in the projects.

The rest are paedophile magnets. Including those big ones we all know. Rule of thumb - if its required at home in the UK, its should be required in host community! Yeah 19 year old lager louts teaching in Ghanian schools!  
We have had wonderful volunteers. People who came to serve. They found our one partner in the UK called People and Places. They came prepared. They came with dedication. They came with an understanding of them serving vulnerable communities. They came knowing where there money was going., They came understanding why managment teams facilitated between them and community based projects. They came knowing the needs of the project they were serving. 

They came, served, and showed us our idealistic goal was achievable. Because its design was good. Because it was born out of need. They left much richer as people, fulfilled, satisfied, jubilant in their achievments.

And yes, it is possible for us to run a bussiness which is sustainable on this basis. We serve the poor, but believe profit in a businbess can be benign. We do not exploit. We do create jobs. We do post profit. It is possible.

If the original design is good.

We hope the boom in volunteering and Gap year rights of passage will end soon. We hope Gap years will find some other trendy thing to do instead. We do not need or want most of you. Stay at home, serve your own community. We are sick and tired of being your poor playground. 

We will continue to work with young and old volunteers, who come with the intention of our projects - to serve the poor and vulnerable. We believe as the gift of humanity grows in individuals in the developed world, the want to express themselves through service of of the poor grows, the conciousness of the interconnectedness of humanity grows, we will always have enough volunteers to help us build our vision of communities empowering themselves.

So if you plan to volunteer - seek out answers as to the original design. Is this just another product that can be packaged and sold along with resort holidays and cruises, or is it sold out of a commitment to serving.

snoopy