When it comes to short-term volunteering abroad, do such providers actually deliver efficient results? Are we fooling ourselves, justifying our guilt, or fulfilling our own desires as volunteers? The most recent President's summit pledged a huge focus on volunteerism and the need for more and more young individuals to become involved. Case-in-point, this "service-learning movement" has indeed burgeoned amongst high schools, higher education institutions, and U.S. non-profit organizations.
Service is awarded something of a "sacred" status so it is neither popular nor political to raise questions about the assumptions of unintended effects of volunteerism which often characterizes service-learning. Between the excitement and dramatic tales of volunteer stories, the field for service-learning is therefore booming. Most studies assessing the efficiencies of such programs lean far within interest to maintain and/or grow such programs. And while some informal debates do rise occasionally, most of what should be considered an important opinion is overlooked in favor of the excitement and superficial ideas of "volunteerism."
So does service-learning teach a false understanding of need? Although I have consistently been in favor of volunteer programs, both abroad and local, I recently have come to question the appropriateness and efficiency of such commitments. For example, I am scheduled for my next volunteer mission in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti in four weeks. In light of the Cholera outbreak, where beds are few and health professionals are even fewer, is it justified for me to take away resources in exchange for only 10 days of volunteering? Americans, especially during volunteer expeditions, are protected with the utmost highest watch. That is to say, if it is even the possibility that an American does contract a health problem, greater attention will be (as history has shown) provided to that American in lieu of attention that could otherwise be given to at least more than one Haitian citizen.
Do little "blips" of volunteer trips satisfy the long-term goals and needs of countries? What is the worth of my spending several hundred dollars in U.S. funds while taking attention from Haitian government officials (though Haitian dollars)? When does it become efficient to volunteer? And most importantly, should anyone and everyone be allowed to volunteer abroad? If we placed stricter regulations on who could volunteer, where, when, and for how long, would we be more efficient in using funds and providing help? I wish there were more studies on this so I could quit speculating. But deep down, my gut instinct doesn't feel too right about what I'm about to do.
