Travelers' Philanthropy Handbook - Center for Responsible Travel

Your ISA should include personal qualities and characteristics that you would not include in yourresume. For example, you may have done babysitting as a teenager and found you really likedit and got along well with children. This would be an excellent item to include in your (ISA),especially if you plan to work with children during your voluntourism journey.Take your time to review anything you have done as a volunteer, especially if you liked theactivity and found it rewarding. You may have been an usher at your church or temple. You mayhave coached your daughter's soccer team. These fit well within the framework of voluntourismexperiences because they represent tasks that you conducted as a volunteer.You do not want to include every detail of every activity that you did only once or twice in yourlife. Your ISA should credit you with service that you have rendered and feel comfortablerendering again.• The Difficult Questions (Q)Answering the following questions honestly andcompletely may be the toughest assignment of anythat you will have to do before, during, or after yourvoluntourism trip. You must look at yourself squarelyin the mirror when you ask these questions. Honestyis an absolute necessity for this exercise; without it,you are wasting your time and effort and, quitepossibly, other people's time and effort as well.We will assume that you have already determinedwhere you want to go.As for the rest, remember, you are asking yourselfthe following questions while looking in the mirror:Question #1: What is my personal minimumrequirement for accommodations? (For example: DoI need running water? My own bed? My own room?)Courtesy of Voluntourists Without BoardersAll Rights Reserved by Via InternationalQuestion #2: How much money can I truly spend topay for a voluntourism trip? (In other words, what can I afford to pay without being anxiousduring my entire trip because I spent more money than I should have?)Question #3: How much time/percentage of my trip do I want to dedicate to volunteering andhow much to regular tourism?Question #4: How sensitive am I to deprivation, poverty, starvation, health issues, etc.? (Forexample, can I mentally and emotionally handle being with children who have no arms or legs,or cleft palates, or bloated stomachs from malnutrition?)Question #5: What tolerance do I have for extremes in climate? (For example, is desert heat anissue for me? Arctic cold? Rainforest humidity?)107