Sometimes a Contiki tour or a cruise around the Greek Islands is not what a young traveller is looking for. Often students crave perspective on life and a chance to make a difference, so it would come as no surprise that volunteering overseas is an attractive option. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the number of young Aussies heading abroad to volunteer has been increasing, with 5.2 million in 2006 rising to 6.4 million in 2010.
They eagerly pack their bags, remembering to throw in a ‘Lonely Planet’ shoestring guide to their destination. They get to the airport, board the plane and let their imaginations run wild. They dream of feeding a hungry child or building a home for a villager. But these dreams are big ones. While they might not be impossible, they are unlikely to happen in the two weeks or even two months that students often dedicate to volunteering abroad.
What’s more is that many organisations, such as International Student Volunteers (ISV), offer students attractive combined volunteering and adventure packages. ISV offer two weeks of volunteering plus two weeks of adventure travelling, to ensure the young traveller fills their alcohol quota for the month. This means the impact of a student volunteer is minimal since such a short time may not be enough to improve the situation at the place they are volunteering.
Two years ago, my friend and I volunteered in Vietnam with an organisation called Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation. We instantly fell in love with the smiling faces of the street children that the organisation worked with. We played endless games of UNO, held cooking classes for the kids and shared stories. But just as we were all getting comfortable with one another, the month was up and it was time for us to fly back to Australia to start studying again. We haven’t seen those kids since then. Children, and even adult beneficiaries, often experience short cycles of volunteers coming in and out, giving rise to confusion and a lack of consistency.
While a volunteer building a hut may not seem harmful for the beneficiary, in certain circumstances it can be. While a volunteer may be able to build a home for a villager in two weeks, they often don’t realise that they are taking away a job from the people they are trying to help. Often beneficiaries are capable of carrying out these tasks and would earn a livelihood from doing so. When the volunteer leaves after two weeks, the village will wait for the next volunteer to come along to build a hut and so a cycle of dependency evolves.
But I don’t think student volunteering is completely negative. After all, if someone has the generosity to donate their time, whether it be two weeks or two months or two years to help those in need, something good will inevitably come out of it. I believe one of the greatest benefits is the impact it has on the student volunteers themselves. Even if the impact they have in the village or town or city they volunteer in is minimal, if they leave with motivation to spread the word or carry out fundraisers back home then undoubtedly in the long run this will also benefit the beneficiaries.
What is often overlooked though, is the importance that such an experience can have for the health of the volunteer. Given the stress that many students experience, whether from university studies or work or familial disputes, mental health issues are prevalent in tertiary education. Often, a volunteering experience overseas can reduce stress levels as students are thrown into a new environment that has little connection to their hectic life back home.
So perhaps it’s not so bad after all that the volunteer benefits. The saying goes that making one person smile can change the world. I suppose my theory is that if the volunteer begins to smile, eventually that smile will find itself back to the beneficiary who inspired the smile in the first place.
- Nesha Jeyalingam
