The impact of volunteering abroad

“I never bought into the idea of volunteering abroad. What on earth would an HIV positive Kenyan child growing up on a rubbish dump want with a spotty, white teenager pretending to care?”

Joe Pearson, Marketing Executive at African Adventures, writes about how his perception of volunteering abroad has changed and the benefits of project-led volunteer organisations.

After finishing A-Levels, I took a gap year. A few friends did the same. I worked in a sweet shop and many of them worked too, saving money for a trip to Africa or India, or wherever, to volunteer. I grew up in a relatively affluent area so I was not surprised that so many opted to volunteer abroad. Gap year volunteering was the norm, if you took gap year you travelled or volunteered. Anything else was a wasted year.

Honestly, I never bought into the idea of volunteering abroad – it seemed an expensive way to achieve nothing. What on earth would an HIV positive Kenyan child growing up on a rubbish dump want with a spotty, white teenager pretending to care?

This is a massive oversimplification of problems but some of these concerns remain valid. The uncomfortable truth is that volunteering abroad is a mandatory rite of passage for children of doctors and lawyers that must be undertaken before they persue their true destiny at Oxford or Cambridge. At best they might volunteer again after university, at worst their trip to ‘save Africa’ goes down as just another line on the CV.

“Volunteering abroad is a mandatory rite of passage for children of doctors and lawyers before they persue their true destiny at Oxford or Cambridge”

Yet volunteering in Africa is a changing industry. Faye Egan, a friend in full-time work, recently volunteered in Nakuru, Kenya. Her experience, she claims, could not have been more different. Keen to make a lasting difference, she volunteered with a company called African Adventures and worked at projects near the Hilton Dump site in Nakuru. Travelling alongside Ely College and Ormiston Sudbury she was delighted at the way the organisation, the projects and the volunteers worked with each other to support sustainable projects and make a difference. Ely College’s Group leader, Mark Sirot-Smith, commented on the impact of volunteering both on his students and the children at the projects in Kenya.

“First there was the confidence they gained through the fundraising process. Initially many students didn’t believe that they could raise £1500 each, but they all did – through quizzes, curry nights, sponsored events, race nights and by directly approaching businesses. What they discovered was that many people are keen to help them, but want to see that they have taken some initiative and are not simply relying on others for hand-outs. I think they surprised themselves.”

“Many of the team had never really experienced success before, but to achieve what they did and to be told how well they had done was a real boost”

“In Kenya they had to work as a team, which is very important, but what I think they gained most of all was belief in themselves and what they could achieve. Many of the team had never really experienced success before, but to achieve what they did within a week and to be told how well they had done was a real boost to them.

“The benefit is longer term – all of them have started to understand what they can do rather than what they can’t. They have started to believe in themselves and understand how much richer life can be if you give yourself. I truly believe this experience will be the making of the team. Volunteer in Africa, but make sure you do it with a purpose not simply as a holiday. The extras such as the safari are lovely but without the volunteering it would have been an empty experience.

“Be prepared to get emotionally involved – go as a volunteer and a human being, not a teacher”

“Be prepared to get emotionally involved – go as a volunteer and a human being, not a teacher. Be prepared to muck in and lead by example. It’s a lot of work and there are times when you will think – never again, but the impact of the experience overcomes all these and the high you experience when you see your students achieve great things is immeasurable. I’m totally hooked!”

Oliver King, from Ormiston Sudbury School, who led a similar trip to Kenya, had similar thoughts on his student’s experience. “Eleanor Roosevelt said ‘do one thing every day that scares you’. Wifi, hot water and electricity are all things I no longer take for granted, not just because we went without for a few hours at a time but because we worked with young people every day succeeding with much less.”

I believe travelling is crucial to development. Recently groups from King Richard’s School in Portsmouth and Ross Hall School in Glasgow volunteered in Kenya, both schools from deprived areas of their respective cities. All of the students had to fundraise in order to pay their trip costs and did so successfully. I don’t doubt in the slightest how beneficial this has been for those children.

“Their target market? Well, it’s certainly no longer exclusively individual groups of wealthy gap year students”

Perhaps volunteering abroad is more than just a line on a CV for today’s students. Providers such as African Adventures maintain that they are project led, which is a welcome change. Sustainable projects assisted, but not dictated by, UK run organisations are becoming more common. These organisation’s successes are rightly judged by the successes of their partner schools and projects in-country. Their target market? Well, it’s certainly no longer exclusively individual groups of wealthy gap year students. School, college and university students all attest to the immeasurable value of volunteering abroad. It’s about time. Volunteering shouldn’t be a dirty word and it certainly shouldn’t be seen as some sort of exclusive club. It might surprise many that an awful lot of good can be done by volunteering, you can actually help people and make a difference. Who knew?