Mark Bridge has written in The Times Money Section today under the headline �Gap �year volunteers are charged thousands for �pointless� projects. It is surprising that there has been so little critical coverage of the sale of volunteering holidays in the travel pages, when the criticism comes, it is over more than a page in the main section of The Times. Travel journalists should do a great deal more to help prospective volunteers make informed choices.
The criticism, based on comments from Dr Kate Simpson of ethicalvolunteering.org; an insider at Real Gap Experience (owned by TUI), and from Peter Bishop at Tourism Concern asserts that
� There are significant mark ups on placement costs
� There is significant dissatisfaction among customers
� Volunteers displace local employees
� Volunteers feel that they have been placed for the sake of it � rather than for their contribution
� That the most profitable include those that enable volunteers to �cuddle animals and take photos�.
� There are issues about the transparency about where the money goes.
This litany of complaints will be familiar to anyone who takes the time to look at the adverse comments on blogs. Caveat emptor applies to the purchase of volunteering trips abroad as much as to any other travel experience � and the same remedies for misselling and non-delivery on the promises made in the brochure or on the website apply to voluntourism as to any other form of tourism.
Read more
The Times carried extensive coverage of the issues back in 2006 Read more
Disaffected volunteers should use the remedies available to them and seek compensation for breach of contract through ABTA. The same rules apply to volunteering abroad as do to sun, sand and sea holidays. Complain, make a difference.
A big problem is that what's actually useful is often considered not 'impressive enough' by the TO's. Working with Thailand Community Based Tourism Institute (CBT-I), our team used to get lots of requests to work with communities to set up volunteer – cultural exchange programs. So, we would sit for hours in the communities trying to work out what activities guests could do, when we had no idea how many people would come, with what skills, when, or with how much budget! We tried to get around this by developing a calandar with communities to show what genuinely useful, but markedly non-herioc activities volunteers could help with, from month to month. Such as helping to fix up fishing nets, repair boats, improve nature trails etc. Occasionally a trip would sell, and the feedback would always be amazing. However, people making a very small contribution working on a very small task may be realistic but is not very sexy, so the trips rarely sold! If guests have moderate expectations and come first to learn, second to help with something modest but useful then 'voluntourism' can work ok.
You can read the full article,Here We posted it because it echos what we have been saying all along. Backed up by my own experience also published in an article in the sunday times Here in which I am quoted.
Oliver Bray, Xtreme Gap Year
Oliver I have just sent you a tweet – I admire your stance – and I have just had a rant too – its been that kind of a day – take look at
http://blog.travel-peopleandplaces.co.uk/?p=2411
we started people and places to campaign for change – we like you have had to make some tough decisions – you choose not to offer volunteer trips – we choose only to work with local organisations with their informed consent where we have done due diligence and have reassured ourselves that real skills transfer can happen – this has closed the door to us for much of the traditional “hug a child pat a lion ” market. There are days when i wish we had made your choice! Seriously we are slowly seeing change – yes I am an optimist – but it needs all of us who are trying to take responsibility to become more voiciferous and it need the consumer – the projects and the volunteers to become more demanding.
phew thats quite enough ranting for today