Responsible Volunteering: The road to hell is paved with good intentions??

Working overseas as a volunteer, voluntourism, continues to
grow as more people seek the experience of helping others abroad. People
volunteer for lots of different reasons, most of them altruistic. Well
organised and with the right safeguards in place volunteering is a good thing.
But volunteering is complex ? it can have unintended consequences and can be
abused.

There is good reason to be concerned about some of the
potential negative impacts of volunteering ? these two papers from the first
edition of Progress in Responsible Tourism address some of those challenges
from the perspective of an originating market organiser of volunteering
opportunities abroad and from a destination perspective. We share Harold
Goodwin’s concern about both the unintended consequences of volunteering and
the abuses which it can facilitate. We need to demand more Responsible
Volunteering.

Goodfellow Publishing has made these two journal articles
freely available as our contribution to an important campaign. Good intentions
are not enough. Volunteers and organisers of volunteering need to consider
carefully the consequences of their activity and to guard against exploitation
by the careless and the unscrupulous alike.

Read what Michael Horton and Sallie Grayson had to say about
child trafficking in the first edition of Progress in Responsible Tourism

If you have examples of irresponsible volunteering post them on www.irresponsibletourism.info

Read about, and join, the Think Twice Campaign