Travelers' Philanthropy Handbook - Center for Responsible Travel

Avoiding Dependency: Care must be taken to avoid local dependence on tourists who bringhand-outs for the community. Bringing even seemingly simple things like toothpaste, coca-cola,or used clothing may create demand for products that can only be supplied from outside thecommunity. Additionally, from the work perspective, if residents feel that the volunteers willcome and “fix everything”, that may also foster dependency. Some VSOs address this byvarying their project locations and types. Other organizations ask that visitors not provideanything to the host that isn’t expressly allowed by the VSO.Although these lessons learned primarily inform the VSO and VRO, there are lessons learnedthat can benefit the traveler. They are:• Seek a well-established VSO.• Determine if the VSO or VRO has an established history with the destination or if the tripin which you might participate is a “one-off” activity.• Be honest with yourself about how much tourism and how much volunteering you wantto do.• Carefully assess what living and working conditions would be acceptable to you andmake sure that your needs match those offered by the program you choose.• Determine what you like to do as a volunteer and what skills you can offer and pursuethem as a voluntourist.In addition to the points above, there are several published sources of do and don’ts ofvoluntourism. Several are included in this Handbook, as well as a list of additional sources ofinformation. VolunTourism International has published a “do and don’ts” for the traveler, as wellas a detailed personal assessment (reprinted below). PEPY Tours, recipient of the 2010National Geographic/Ashoka Changemakers Challenge, has produced a set of guidelines forresponsible volunteer tourism development or “Voluntourism 101” (See Appendix 2).• ConclusionVolunteer tourism is a rapidly growing phenomenon that can provide multiple benefits when theactivity is host-driven, financially viable, designed in partnership with credible organizations, andsustainable over the long-term. Creating an activity with those characteristics requiresdedication and hard work.For the traveler, voluntourism provides an opportunity to immerse oneself in a meaningfulactivity while on vacation. Volunteer tourism allows the traveler to support a local project thougha hands-on work experience. The trend is expected to grow. There will be challenges along theway, but for both the travelers and the VMOs, adhering to the suggested best practices andlearning from the lessons learned are key to successful, impactful voluntourism.104