Changing international volunteering after COVID-19

International volunteering has, over the years, become increasingly attractive to young people from the Global North. Sub-Saharan Africa, and South Africa in particular, are among the main global destinations for young volunteers, offering numerous volunteering opportunities and being an attractive travel destination.

Young people from the Global North claim to be interested in international volunteering because they want to make a difference and improve the lives of the less fortunate. However, their volunteering often leads to paternalistic, disruptive and even exploitative and harmful engagement and practices.

Many Western volunteers find it difficult to work and interact in an appropriate manner with people from host communities in the developing world. This is because they lack essential knowledge about the countries, cultures, traditions, challenges and needs in places where they volunteer.

Western volunteers are in most cases young and inexperienced, lacking even the most basic training necessary for work with vulnerable populations in orphanages, day-care centres, schools, healthcare facilities and community projects.

Despite this, they are allowed to work with babies, kids, teenagers and young adults from less fortunate backgrounds in many parts of the Global South. While they would have to be graduates in social work, teaching or other related fields to undertake similar work back home, this often does not apply to their work in the Global South.

Big business

International volunteering has become a big business. While some international volunteers are study abroad students – primarily from Europe and the United States – who study at universities in the Global South, many are young people who find volunteering opportunities through businesses set up in the Global North to recruit young people and sell them a volunteering experience in the Global South.

These businesses often advertise volunteering experiences to young Westerners, offering them opportunities to teach English at local schools or work on other projects, without any ‘previous experience or qualifications’.

To get a better understanding of the contributions of young Western volunteers, we conducted research in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. We interviewed young Western volunteers, managers of local NGOs, teachers and a principal at a local school that hosts the volunteers, as well as a social worker from a local university that works with study abroad students who volunteer in local community projects.

In many local projects and organisations in South Africa, international volunteers are welcome, particularly due to staff shortages. As most volunteers are young people who lack the experience and knowledge to work with vulnerable populations, they require training and assistance to perform well in their roles.

However, they are not offered any training or orientation by the organisations that are sending them abroad. In addition, when they arrive in South Africa, volunteers are not given enough, and in some cases any, orientation, preparation, training or supervision.

The situation is different when it comes to the study abroad students who volunteer in local community projects. The local university provides orientation, training and supervision of the volunteers through workshops and seminars, where they learn about South Africa, its history and demographics and poverty and inequality in the country.

They also critically discuss volunteering and the challenges that could come up throughout their time as volunteers.

While study abroad students are provided with orientation, training and support during their stay and volunteering in South Africa, the large number of volunteers are young Westerners who come to the country through businesses that sell the volunteering experience without offering them training and supervision.

Ethics

Our research argues that it is highly irresponsible, unprofessional and unethical for the organisations and businesses that promote and sell volunteering experiences to tell young Westerners that they can work in orphanages, schools and community projects in the Global South without any previous experience or qualifications.

It is equally irresponsible and unethical for schools and organisations in the Global South to allow these same volunteers to work with vulnerable populations without orientation, training and supervision.

Our findings suggest that preparation of volunteers before or upon arrival, as well as training and supervision throughout their stay in countries such as South Africa, must be a key part of every project that hosts volunteers from the Global North.

However, the reality in South Africa is that most local NGOs and projects lack the capacity to run their basic operations.

Similarly, many public schools where international volunteers work are dysfunctional, lack resources or are in a state of crisis. Many organisations and schools are simply unable to provide structured orientation, training and supervision to the volunteers.

We argue that the national Department of Social Development and Department of Basic Education, together with their provincial counterparts, must provide training and workshops for local NGO and school staff on how best to use and support international volunteers.

They also need to create a system for vetting and placement of international volunteers that assesses their experience, qualifications and criminal record. This is necessary in order to protect the well-being of the vulnerable children with whom the volunteers work.

South African universities can also provide training and support to the organisations and schools in the cities and areas where they are based. The universities can develop online courses that must be completed before international volunteers can start their work at local projects.

Through these courses, volunteers can learn about the socio-economic conditions in the country, power dynamics, racism, privilege, humility and non-paternalistic ways of support for the less fortunate.

Where next?

A key limitation of our research is that it focused only on one city in South Africa, a few NGOs and a primary school, and a small number of international volunteers. However, this is an important start that shows serious challenges that must be addressed. Future research should expand to other parts of South Africa, Africa and the rest of the developing world.

There is no blueprint approach for international volunteer engagement with projects and NGOs in the Global South. As organisations and projects differ and face various challenges, it is important to individually figure out what each project needs and if that can be achieved with the help of international volunteers.

When projects and organisations in the Global South decide to work with volunteers, it is of the utmost importance to engage critically with the volunteers and provide them with orientation and training about the setting, the recipients of the assistance and other relevant information and knowledge.

Volunteers also need to be supervised throughout their stay in order to be able to contribute effectively and meaningfully to the well-being of the vulnerable groups they work with.

The COVID-19 pandemic has paused the movement of young Western volunteers to the Global South. This gives us an opportunity to critically assess and restructure international volunteering in order to minimise the risks to vulnerable populations and improve the experience of young volunteers in the future.

Carina Strohmeier is a PhD candidate at Rhodes University, South Africa. Savo Heleta works at Nelson Mandela University, South Africa. This article is a summary of a paper published in the Journal for Transdisciplinary Research in Southern Africa (Volume 16, No 1) earlier this year (open access).