volunteer3

Part 3 –  When you volunteer expect to learn and research before you can help.

Many organizations send volunteers to developing countries such as Cambodia and Laos for so called ‘development work.’ These volunteers are recruited by agencies at home and typically the volunteers do not have the expertise required to work.  Moreover, they don’t have local knowledge.   Why do organizations send volunteers abroad to provide a service when in fact they are learning a service?  Quite often these people are not skilled at what they do and would never be employed in their own country, says Daniela Papi.  “You have to learn before you can help (or you’ll cause more harm than good.”

For example; “Orphanages in Cambodia use their kids to entertain tourists while more than half of these kids have parents.”   It is the tourism that is keeping them in orphanages.  They end up homeless as a result of the so-called volunteer program that trains kids to perform. 

“Development work is not easy and to say anyone can just come and do it is nuts.  She calls this sympathy tourism, feeling pity toward others

Questions

1.    According the article, what is wrong with development work?

2.     According the article,  what is happening with kids in Cambodia?

3.    According the article, would the majority of volunteers gets jobs at home?

4.    According the article,  what should volunteers do before volunteering?