"I'm Helping, I Really am"

In a small village of Ralapanawa, Sri Lanka, there sits a class of young students in a bare classroom, paying close attention to the film they are being shown. The children, ranging from the age of 7 to 12, listen intently to what their teacher is saying: this is English class, and they haven’t had a teacher that has stayed for a month in a long while.

But nevertheless, the teacher would be leaving them in a month, and the students aren’t expecting to see her again.

This was the story of the French undergraduate Laurie Kühne, 20, who taught English at Ralapanawa for two months. The teaching experience fulfilled her internship requirement for her degree, even though it is advertised as volunteer work.

Ms Kühne had found this opportunity on a French volunteering website, L’abeille Asso, which linked applicants to various work experiences across the globe. Teaching at Ralapanawa is L’abeille Asso’s partnership with Sri Lankan organisation, Horizon Lanka Foundation, which had schools around Sri Lanka that provide free education to local children through international volunteers.

L’abeille Asso is just one of many websites around the world that provide similar experiences: in what is known today as ‘voluntourism’. A combination of the words ‘volunteer’ and ‘tourism’, voluntourism represents the act of travelling to another country – often a third-world country – to offer aid in any form, while being able to travel at the same time.

This form of travel is becoming increasingly popular amongst millennials. This is because people constantly want to try something new, while becoming conscious of giving back. “The time spent becomes an exciting and fulfilling vacation because you get to immerse yourself in another world while helping those in need,” said voluntourism website, Serve the World Today.

Indeed, many volunteers emerge from their voluntouring experience positively. “It was one of the best experiences of my life,” said Ms Kühne.

Its positive reviews also contributed to why many millennials are interested in volunteering outside of their home country. “It’s great that you can travel and help locals at the same time,” said undergraduate Nina Viljanac, 22.

Volunteering is not foreign to Ms Viljanac – she is an active member of the Erasmus Student Network in Croatia, where she organised cultural activities for students.

Voluntouring, however, would be totally unlike what she is used to. “I’ve never been outside the EU, so it’s going to be different from what I do at Erasmus, but it is still a good idea,” she said.

But not everything is sunshine and rainbows – since the increase of interest in voluntourism, many of its negative effects have come under scrutiny of human rights associations.

Voluntourism has been accused of being a money-making industry for institutions, such as orphanages, according to journalist Tina Rosenberg from The Guardian. Voluntourists pay orphanages to volunteer, resulting in parents putting their children in orphanages to get better living conditions.

In fact, Ms Rosenberg discovered that money is more often than not used to improve the volunteering experience instead of the lives of the beneficiaries, just to attract more voluntourists for the income.

The result is an endless cycle of poverty for the beneficiary country, and a sea of voluntourists who think they have done good.

This is why there are millennials who reject the idea of voluntourism. “If you're doing this for the experience, then go on a holiday,” said English student Joe Scotting, 22. “The same money used to get you overseas could be used in one big donation, and it can help far more than just rebuilding a small orphanage or school.”

For some, however, they encountered voluntourism because of education. Some schools provide overseas volunteering programmes, such as the Li Po Chun United World College (LPC-UWC) in Hong Kong. On these trips, students were exposed to lifestyles that they do not encounter in their society.

“I came home and cried afterwards, because it was so awful and so hard to relate to,” said Danish student Laerke Boeggild Soerensen, 24, who attended the LPC-UWC. “That was the first time I saw actual poverty.”

Ms Soerensen volunteered with her school overseas thrice: in China, Cambodia and Thailand. These trips were spent helping locals renovate orphanages or build playgrounds, and playing with the local children.

Although there to help, she felt that the volunteers received more than they gave. “The eye-opening experience was definitely beneficial on the end of the volunteers, but I can’t say if it’s beneficial on the other end,” she said.

After graduation, Ms Soerensen also signed up for a 3-month travel package that includes volunteering in Nepal.

“I’ll become a bit more of a volunteer the next time,” said Ms Soerensen as she thought back on her multiple voluntouring experiences. “Most importantly, you must have awareness. You're not there as a great gift to the kids.”

This was a topic that Ms Sorensen discussed often with her schoolmates at LPC-UWC. “None of the projects I went on contributed in the big picture,” she said. “We’ve been only there for a week.”

These short trips make up the main concern of the voluntourism fad – the lack of continuity. Volunteers only stay to help for two to three weeks, and then they leave, uncertain of whether someone will come down to continue their work.

In the two months when Ms Kühne was at Ralapanawa, she saw four voluntourists come and go. One of them even left without completing his three weeks of volunteering, because “life in the village was too quiet for him”.

“After I left, I was wondering if there are any volunteers left when I'm there,” said Ms Kühne. “The villagers need the continuity to believe in the project. They lose motivation after two to three weeks of having no one.”

Because of this, Ms Kühne vows to return to Ralapanawa. “I know I will go back,” she said. “I want to see the family and the children again.”

But one volunteer will not solve the problem of voluntourists who don’t see through a project. Hence, some volunteers have initiated structured overseas volunteering experiences that provide tangible benefits.

"Most importantly, you must have awareness. You're not there as a great gift to the kids."

Singaporean undergraduate Edwin Chan, 23, is one of these volunteers. The chair of his Overseas Community Involvement Programme (OCIP) team in school, Mr Chan, together with seven other OCIP teams, will be embarking on a three-month long programme to help build a school in Savannakhet, Laos.

“There are multiple layers when planning. Most importantly, we need constant communication by sticking as close to the source as possible,” he said. “People living there know more than we do.”

Mr Chan’s OCIP team has been serving in Savannakhet for at least five to six years. There, they engage a local liaison, Peter, who talks directly to villagers about their needs. From there, Peter found that villagers of Nonximay, Savannakhet were requesting a new school, sparking Mr Chan’s project.

At Nonximay, Mr Chan’s team will provide construction aid and teach English. Cultivating a good volunteer attitude is top priority for Mr Chan, which is why he still wants his team of students to get their hands dirty and help with the construction. “It's true that we are slowing down the process,” he said. “But if you commit yourself, regardless of skill level, you get a sense of ownership on your project.”

To encourage continuity, the eight OCIP teams are also creating a syllabus for their English class. In fact, they are in the talks of running a long-term education programme in the school they are building.

“Helping others is a mighty cause that comes from a good place. That is why it needs to be well-managed and well-planned,” he said. “We should do as much as we can without disrupting lives.”

(first published in HdM Stuttgart's magazine, Laufmasche (SS19), by the VielSeitig student writing club, Jul 2019)