Those of us who are able to engage in international leisure travel are a privileged bunch. It's a privilege I do not take lightly, and I suspect you don't either. It stands to reason that some of us would like to have the opportunity to contribute in some way to the destinations we visit.
We are often asked about volunteering as a way to give back to the communities we visit as we travel solo around the world. It is a complex subject fraught with issues, especially in the wake of the rise of volunteer tourism or “voluntourism”, which has become a multi-billion dollar a year industry.
There are many, many volunteer travel options out there today. The big job is narrowing them down, discerning the ethics and sustainability of the projects, and choosing one which will first benefit the local community in a meaningful way and second provide you with an opportunity to learn from and about the culture and contribute skills and labour in a way which is meaningful for you without taking job opportunities away from locals.
Ethical Considerations
The following is very lightly adapted from a tool developed by Toronto Metropolitan University for students who are thinking about volunteering abroad. I think they are valuable questions for anyone to pose. They suggest working through these questions when you are doing your research into volunteer travel opportunities, in order to minimize the chances of getting involved in a project that will do more to harm than to help.
- Will you be participating in an activity or conducting work that you are qualified for (i.e. teaching, construction, healthcare, etc.)?
- Will you be undertaking work that may be taking away employment opportunities for locals (i.e. your free labour means that a local teacher does not need to be hired)?
- Will you be staying with local families or communities? How will you be sure you respect and honour the relationships you develop?
- How will you be honest and transparent about expectations? How will you ensure you understand and respect the expectations of those you will be visiting?
- If an intermediary organization is planning your volunteer experience, how are they accountable to diverse stakeholders in the region or community? Are their practices transparent? Do you know how much of the fees you are paying will go to the individuals and communities who will be hosting you?
10 Tips for Successful Solo Volunteer Travel
Shannon O'Donnell, author of The Volunteer Traveler's Handbook says that as a solo traveler interested in giving back on your travels, you’re in a unique position because you can truly lead by your own interests and find a volunteer experience that fits exactly with how you want to spend your trip. Here are her tips for a successful volunteer trip.
Learn the basics about development and aid issues. Important for every potential volunteer is understanding and adjusting expectations. Before you even begin searching for potential volunteer opportunities, read relevant books about aid and development so you have a better grasp of the core issues you’re trying to address by your volunteer service.
Pick a country you feel a connection to already. One of the great benefits of solo travel is that you, alone, are at the helm of your volunteer placement decision. So, perhaps you love a country because your best friend emmigrated from there or you had a childhood dream to travel somewhere? Your strongest personal benefits in international service often come when you pick a volunteer experience in a place that inspires you, or on a topic to which you have a close connection.
Read good books. Much of your excitement for volunteering will stem from the wonderful travel books you’ve read over the years. These books share insights into other countries and cultures, and reading about a place you’re about to visit helps you connect more deeply and understand different points of view, cultural norms, and their history.
Ask your organization a lot of questions. Once you pick a potential volunteer organization, you want to make sure their model for volunteering fits with what you’ve learned about aid and development work. Always ask for a breakdown of any volunteer fees so you know exactly where and how the program fee is used.
Be humble. Your attitude when you arrive and work at your volunteer experience will be the strongest indicator for success on your solo volunteering trip. Arrogance has no place in volunteer work—you are there to learn, support, and assist other communities.
Show up ready to help in any way you can. Set no expectations for what you will do and be ready to offer whatever type of help your volunteer placement needs, even if it is not exactly the way you expected things to be. As a solo volunteer you should have the flexibility to go where they need you and do what they need you to do. As a volunteer you are there to help them, period, so be open to provide the help they actually need once you arrive—needs change and flexibility is a must in volunteering!
Make friends and travel the region. Volunteer placements are a perfect way for solo travelers to make new friends and connect with people you might not usually befriend if you had a travel companion. Be open to the new friendships and then use your time off from volunteering to visit local areas of interest. These bonding experiences with your fellow volunteers can lead to strong, lasting memories.
Respect new ideas and differences at your volunteer placement. Some volunteer placements will jolt you out of the familiar as you adjust to new cultural norms, traditions, and ways things get done. Business policies, economies, local governments, and cultural attitudes are very different in some places, so respect other ideologies and be willing to learn new ways of interacting and accomplishing needed tasks.
Fundraise for your cause once you return home. You owe it to the people and community you worked with to become an evangelist for that cause, and it’s a great way for you to overcome reverse culture shock while sharing the experience with the friends and families you left behind.
Be flexible. Though we touched on this in other tips, it really is a huge factor in volunteering—be willing to expect the unexpected. Traveling can be wacky, unpredictable, and stressful and this holds even truer for volunteer travel when you have obligations, expectations, and countless other factors weighing in on the experience. Take the experiences as they come and be willing to accommodate the new realities you face on the road, and at your volunteer placement.
Volunteer Travel Organizations
As I have no personal experience with these organizations, I make no claims or endorsements, but they have been recommended by members of the Solo Travel Society, our Facebook community.
- Volunteering opportunities in Wales, including restoring canals or off-grid hikers’ shelters, helping out on farms, working at heritage railways, managing a hostel, marine or wildlife conservation, and more.
- Global Volunteers “We support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals on safe, meaningful, impactful, service-learning projects, and have earned the highest possible ratings from external nonprofit evaluators, validating that Global Volunteers acts with integrity and transparency, is highly effective, and exceeds industry standards across virtually all areas.”
- HelpX is an online listing of host organic farms, farmstays, hobby farms, lifestyle blocks, homestays, ranches, lodges, backpackers hostels and even sailing boats who invite volunteer helpers to stay with them short-term in exchange for food and accommodation. HelpX is provided primarily as a cultural exchange for working holiday makers, who would like the opportunity during their travels abroad, to stay with local people and gain practical experience. In the typical arrangement, the helper works an average of 4 hours per day and receives free accommodation and meals for their efforts.
- WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) is a worldwide movement to link visitors with organic farmers. Their goal is to provide individuals from all around the world the opportunity to gain practical skills in organic farming and gardening, experience rural living while sharing in the everyday life of their host, further the organic and sustainability movement, and participate in a cultural exchange. You can read about a solo traveler's experience in WWOOFing for Solo Travelers: A Unique Learning Opportunity.
How to Get it Right
Claire Bennett is a co-author of Learning Service: The Essential Guide to Volunteering Abroad and co-founder of LearningService.Info. She generously shared her time with us to discuss how volunteer travel can go wrong and how to get it right. In the video below she shares stories of actual volunteer programs and how they worked out.
Although it's easy to see how programs can fail the local communities, Claire makes the point that “poorly planned service programs also fail the volunteers themselves.” Travelers can sign on to projects with the best of intentions and be misled by the companies running the programs or have their expectations dashed because they didn't do their research before committing themselves.
As Shannon says, “There is no surefire recipe for crafting a good-fit volunteer experience but making sure you’ve chosen an ethical organization, abandoned your fixed expectations, and learned a lot about your host country sets the stage for success.”
