Voluntourism: what is it, and is it good?

Voluntourism- travel that includes volunteer work for charities, usually short-term and international

Voluntourism may be a new word to you, but the popularity of voluntourism has grown tremendously in the last decade. This growth is undoubtedly in part because of the ability to connect to foreign nonprofits through the Internet. A quick internet search will show multiple pages of voluntourism websites with locations all around the world where travelers can be tourists and volunteers.

My first experience with voluntourism was in
Puntarenas, Costa Rica in summer 2009.  In this picture,
my group delivered care packages to people living on the islands.

After my sophomore year of college, I wanted to travel, and I wanted to help people, so voluntourism was a perfect fit for me! After searching through the dozens of voluntourism organizations in South America and reading hundreds of online reviews of organizations, I decided I go to Cuzco, Peru with an organization called International Volunteer Headquarters (IVHQ).





In Peru, I taught English in Cuzco, helped a rainforest conservation organization in Puerto Maldonado and worked at a missionary school in Pisac.

IVHQ, like most voluntourism businesses, charges a program fee to help pair travelers with volunteer opportunities, homestays and traveling support and information.

On the weekends when we were not working, the volunteers and I would visit
the local sites as tourists.  This is Sacsayhuaman in Cusco, Peru in summer 2011.

Of course, programs like these are not necessary. An independent traveler could search online and directly find volunteer opportunities and not pay the program fees. I have used this method, as well as IVHQ.

The benefits of using a program is reliability and certainty, but the cons are the program costs and lack of diverse opportunities. For example, the IVHQ Cuzco program only offers volunteer positions in medical, teaching and childcare. However, and independent traveler could find volunteer opportunities in others sectors.

I volunteered with the InkaTerra nonprofit organization
with their jungle conservation program in summer 2011.

Volunteering while traveling sounds like a worthwhile and charitable use of time, but there is opposition to voluntourism because of some unintended, negative consequences.

The stongest argument against voluntourism is that voluntourism steals jobs from the local workforce.




Simply put, if volunteers do a job for free, such as childcare or teaching English, then the local people are not being employed for these jobs. The exception may be for volunteers who do skilled labor, such as medical care, that the local community members can not provide.

Voluntourism is an idea with good intentions: you can travel the world and help people. There are many different ways to connect with volunteer opportunities while traveling, but make sure it's reputable and you're not wasting money. Finally, make sure that your volunteer work will not take away jobs from the local people.