I obviously joined Serve for a reason, that I love giving back to the community and helping others. I personally never did community service in high school just as a resume booster - it turned out being an activity that I loved doing and it became a passion of mine. I always wanted to and still try to get involved in anyway possible when people are in the need of help. Those are some of the characteristics and goals of service that I had on my mind when I enrolled here at Virginia Tech. I also wished to go and serve abroad during my time here too. I have always thought that service to others was good and beneficial. After this past unit on the criticisms of volunteering, I was introduced to a side of volunteering that was eye-opening and a side that I had never even thought of beforehand; which was a really neat experience that I am thankful for.
Volunteering is beneficial; but it can also turn out to be very harmful if it is not done right. There is also many truths that become evident when we closer examine the effects of volunteers on a specific community. One example is that the volunteers might not know the conditions of the country or town they are going to work in. They wouldn’t know what the area specifically needs without prior communication. Coming from that communication aspect, volunteers might not know the languages of the natives and citizens that live there or not know them well enough to communicate sufficiently. Thus they won’t know what is needed by the community and might put the focus in the wrong aspects of the society such as building and reinforcing homes when the town really needs better sanitation and has a poverty issue. Another issue that comes forward is that volunteers might not know the cultures and often use stereotypes (sometimes unknowingly). One of the articles in class exemplified this as they brought a bunch of unused clothes with them to a school in a country that was on the poorer side; but then watched the clothes be dumped into a closet along with piles of other clothes. Volunteers with good intentions just assume that the citizens in these countries and areas don’t have clothes or other basic necessities. This stems back to the lack of communication and planning that sometimes happens between volunteers and a corresponding group about what is needed. Waves of volunteers also may go abroad or to a new area to teach children there. The students obviously mean good by doing it; but some articles in class mentioned that new groups of students would come in every few weeks and then leave shortly after. The few things that they did teach the kids usually were the same basic things such as the ABCs or learning the names of body parts through Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes over and over with each new student group. The kids were not benefiting as they weren’t learning anything to help them better their futures and education. Another big part of the negatives associated with volunteering is that sometimes the correct reasons and objectives behind the entire volunteering trip aren’t addressed. For example, students typically pay large amounts of money to volunteer services to go abroad and serve; however this money isn’t always all donated and doesn’t end up completely going to the cause or group that it was advertised as going to. Volunteers also may participate as a resume booster and may go to better themselves and make memories. They also seem to document their volunteer work on social media sites, even though they are just doing the projects for a short while (most likely). The citizens of the areas receiving help may also start to lean on the volunteers for help, for example if volunteer doctors come every few months, people may put off paying to go to a clinic and will go to the volunteers for free when they come. Volunteers going into certain places to do manual labor jobs can take those jobs away from the native citizens who actually need them to make a living. After this unit, I think of not carefully planned out volunteering overseas as a circus. The volunteers are like spectators at the circus who go to the circus for a little while the conditions seem bright and happy and that everything is okay. Then the volunteers/visitors go back to their homes and don’t see the circus at night, similar to how badly people have it on an everyday basis that the volunteers are truly exposed to on the surface for only a short period of time. After this unit, I can clearly see the negative truths exposed from volunteers under these circumstances. There are also many ways that I can learn from these criticisms and be more conscientious when volunteering. The biggest thing that I can do is to research prior to volunteering. Some things to research being the languages spoken, cultures/religions, or other possible barriers. The biggest thing is to make sure that you don’t disrespect someone who has a different background from you, for example Bill gates shook hands with the South Korean president in 2013 with his other hand in his pocket. Due to lack of prior research, he had no idea that it was a sign of disrespect in their culture. I would also do research into the volunteer company if I choose to volunteer with one. I would also learn from the criticisms by working alongside and communicating with locals. That way I am able to see what they need firsthand and build connections before going, I could also be able to choose the correct resources that are needed too. Such as the case with the Dominican Republic trip through VT Engage, we would work alongside the locals on projects that they want and need - so they can also be able to handle the projects themselves once we leave. After looking back on some of my volunteer experiences, I can see some of the connections and how they may have done more harm than we had intended. I had a past experience to Costa Rica where we went and visited a school there and interacted with the children. The kids there performed some dance routines that they must do for all visitors and also we taught them basic english words, of which they probably had learned from previous school trips too. Our company that we went with also assured us that some of the money that we spent on the trip went to helping and improving their school; which may or may not be completely accurate. After this unit, I am able to now see how I can manage my approach to make sure that I do volunteering which is overall beneficial to both parties involved and not just myself. I can also work to get others in the loop and spread awareness to other volunteers to be careful and just to think before they volunteer. They need to be able to realize that changes in places will not happen overnight or over a week or month’s span that they are there. Volunteering is absolutely needed and can be beneficial if it is carefully planned out beforehand. If volunteer experiences are planned out and carried out with knowledge of what could go wrong or be harmful to people, volunteers can truly better and help the intended group that they set out to while also bettering themselves simultaneously.
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Brad LanzaJust a guy with a passion for helping others and making people smile. |