Thursday, October 16th 2008

By unknown

Dining and dancing with a family in their home in Peru. Playing with indigenous children deep in the Venezuelan Orinoco Delta. Discussing the role of religion in shaping the political history of the region in Macedonia. All these are experiences I can gladly catalogue in my mental book of world travel and international volunteering.

In the last three years, every May, I have traveled to different parts of the world with Global Youth Network (or simply ‘Global’), an international non-governmental organization that promotes the formation of cross-cultural relationships. While this sounds like just another tag line, to me it uniquely defines what I think should be the defining boundary between international volunteering and ‘voluntourism,’ which I consider a derogatory term.

I understand where the other side of the argument is coming from. At the surface level, the term ‘voluntourism’ implies that the ‘volunteerism’ and ‘tourism’ part of the itinerary are equal.  At the same time, there is the insinuation that the volunteering part of the journey is simply a means to the end goal of tourism.  In a much broader context, there is the argument that the whole idea of international volunteering implies that North America has the answers to the any and all problems faced by poorer countries, and ‘voluntourists’ are willing to dispense them.

And this is where that defining line comes in. Ever since my first trip with Global, I have learned that it is up to the aspiring international volunteer to question and criticize an organization that they hope to travel with. Keep in mind issues such as sustainability of the work projects undertaken, and that any physical labour you perform in the name of ‘volunteering’ can and most likely is taking jobs away from local workers.

What defines Global, and why I decide to travel with them year after year is that they emphasize and focus on building interpersonal relationships. This means that year after year (Global has been around for about 13 years now), the same countries get visited, using the same local contacts. This allows Global to build and maintain lasting relationships with these contacts. Teams that go down to these countries engage in such activities as doing homestays with local families, visiting and talking to local resistance fighters, NGOs and politicians, and generally, seeing parts of the country and talking to people that are otherwise overlooked on the general tourist’s path. This clearly does not fit in to the general definition of ‘international volunteerism’. The idea is that teams not only learn about the country and social justice issues faced by the people they are visiting, but more importantly, learn about the value of interpersonal relationships.

One of the general comments from team members who have done Global trips is that they come home to a culture of separation, disengagement and individualism, a far cry from the culture they were immersed in for a whole month. But how do we start to change this? By focusing on learning people’s personal histories and why they’ve become the people they are today, we are better equipped to understand the circumstances that lead to the issues of poverty and injustice that people of the world face on a regular basis.

If there is one thing I’ve learnt from all my time with Global, it is that everyone has a story, and everyone wants someone else to hear that story, recognize its highs and lows and realize that at the end of the day, we are all searching for something. Being a part of Global is not just about building a house; it’s about building connections and relationships that open the lines of communication between what we have and what others need.?

To me, this is as far from the definition of ‘voluntourism’ as an international volunteer can get.

- Mavis Vaz