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British Mensa Travel Special Interest Group |
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Making
a difference OK, so you have done the package holidays, the quick breaks, and you are now into travelling – but how do you get into the culture of the places you are visiting and take part in local life? How do you do some good and engage in something more meaningful than tramping the tourist beat? One answer
is to be one of the good guys - maybe, like some I’ve met, even one
of the heroes – by spending your valuable time volunteering: say,
helping out at an orphanage or an animal rescue centre, or perhaps teaching
English or making playground equipment for kids whose communities are
too poor to get it any other way. The voluntourism deal will probably include volunteer placements, accommodation, holiday elements like visits and adventure outings, and at least some meals as well as a guide to keep you on track. But not necessarily. Companies are usually reputable and explain the details, but they vary widely and buyers need to add everything together to assess the whole trip. Some deals include extra time for you to use for independent travel, others are organised down to the last day. Costs vary widely too, from hundred to thousands of pounds plus the extras like flights and surface transport. The volunteering deal depends on the local arrangements but, for example, in Khao Lak, southern Thailand, you pay just £50 registration to Volunteer Teacher Thailand to join the local volunteer community for a fortnight or longer (no maximum) to teach English, under guidance and supervision if you need it, in schools, a home for kids in need, and at adult sessions. But, of course, you have to get there, and find your own accommodation and food with a little help and guidance from the local team… and you are free within your own travel arrangements to do what you like before and after the volunteering, often with volunteers linking up with like-minded people for travelling on to other destinations. Another big difference is the way the two sectors operate – and maybe the kind of people they attract, though profiles vary from company to company, project to project. Voluntourism projects – which often link with local community needs through organisations already working in the areas – usually produce programmes in stable conditions: if there has been an emergency, it is usually over before they go in or there is an ongoing need (helping in a home for the disabled, for example) and placements are made in a carefully controlled and monitored way. Volunteer projects usually operate in stable conditions too, but less controlled in time and what you do. Orphanages are always looking for people to help; schools and animal centres want volunteers; and there is an ongoing need for English-speakers to help teach local people in many places. But this sector also includes emergency aid: when the tsunami strikes, the volunteers just turn up and do what is necessary to help. The first volunteers at the scene of a disaster are very special people. They take the worst of the work. “Most people shouldn’t get to a disaster scene for the first week,” said Andy Tandoh, among the first volunteers into Khao Lak, one of the worst-hit Thai areas in the Boxing Day 2004 tsunami. “If you do, you end up doing the rough stuff – bringing in the bodies, helping to identify the dead.” After that
phase, the bulk of volunteers work on helping the local population, clearing
the debris and rebuilding. In the case of the tsunami-wrecked areas, that
work continued for years and some of it, English education and helping
to stimulate the local economy, is still going on. It was an intense,
hard-working, hard-playing experience that brought local people and volunteers
together and, through hardship and mutual kindness, forged bonds never
to be forgotten. In the case of southern Thailand, more than 6,000 volunteers
from 53 countries arrived – almost all in the first three years after
the tsunami - to help the Tsunami Volunteer Center (TVC) with the Thai
organised and led reconstruction work: whole housing areas were built,
the longtail boat fleet was replaced, local people were helped in many
and varied ways, and the English education programme was started and expanded. Most of those volunteers went back to their usual lives and many have worked in other places where volunteers were needed. Quite a few were ready to go into Burma after the typhoon, but were kept out by the Burmese military government – and others have kept up their interest through visits to Khao Lak, online links and donations to ongoing causes like the home for children in need and the English education programme. The two kinds
of volunteering have produced their own enthusiasts and critics. Voluntourists
point to issues of time and experience guarantees, as well as safety in
an organised venture; and the volunteers point to needs, freedom, high
costs, and company profits for “five-star volunteering” being
made on the back of local people. My own experience is that both sectors
have a tremendous amount to offer and sometimes company cash can help
low-cost volunteering to continue. They were all working under the banner of the Tsunami Volunteer Center on various projects. The voluntourists were teaching English through games at English Camps in schools and teaching English to Muslim fishing villagers on the edge of Phang-Nga Bay to help them with their hopes of getting into the tourism industry with home-stays and boat trips. The volunteers were happily getting through a workload of 7,000 student hours a week of English teaching in schools, at least one evening a week at the children’s home and a whole series of sessions, groups and one-to-one, for adults round the district that saw four in five of its English-speaking Thais killed by the tsunami. Some of the volunteers, including me, overlapped with the voluntourists in the fishing villages (as well as sharing office and bar space sometimes) and came to admire the amount they achieved and the fact that it would be hard to find a nicer, more intelligent or hard-working group of people; and, for their part, they seemed to respond very well to the volunteers. Now, TVC has handed over the English teaching to Volunteer Teacher Thailand – the same volunteer people, the same office and the same programme but TVC’s parent organisation, the Mirror Foundation in Bangkok, sees its tsunami work as being complete and is moving its resources on to new areas of need in Thailand. VTT is part of a new holding organisation, The Volunteer Centre (TVC2) in Khao Lak, which also has Fun4Kids, which makes and installs playgrounds for Burmese refugee children and Thai schools and orphanages; Home and Life home for children in need; and Community Media in Thailand which produces websites, photographs, articles and printed material. Fun4Kids takes volunteers for as little as a day with no registration fee; VTT need volunteers to stay for two weeks or more to help maintain the continuity of its teaching programmes and its £50 registration fee includes a day touring the tsunami area for orientation as well as a briefing on local culture and needs; Home and Life home for children in need is glad to see anyone who wants to volunteer or help in any way; and Community Media takes anyone who fancies a little media work. In practice, many people of all ages have signed up with the teachers and dipped into other opportunities for a wider experience, to do some extra good and for the sheer pleasure of getting into the area and among its people. Those organisations would be pleased to see you – but it’s a big world. Where do you want to go and what do you want to do? Check out the possibilities [below]. All you need is jai dii and a sense of adventure. First published in VISA 84 (Apr 2009) www.go-mad.net is made by volunteers, and includes details and contacts for various placements that do not involve fees. www.ecoteer.com has various companies and websites. The placements vary from totally free to paying large sums. www.volunteerteacherthailand.org is based at Khao Lak on the Andaman coast of southern Thailand, and offers placements for a one-off registration fee of £50. Teach English in schools, a home for children and to adults. There’s the option of dipping into other volunteering projects based at The Volunteer Centre. www.fun4kidsinthailand.org is also based at Khao Lak and takes people for as little as one day to help make and install playgrounds for Burmese refugee kids and at Thai schools and orphanages. No placement or registration fee. www.amazingkhaolak.com gives you a good idea of the area where Volunteer Teacher Thailand and Fun4Kids operate. This year looks like offering very good deals on accommodation, especially out of the peak (Dec-Feb) period. |