Taking a gap year and going abroad to a developing country to volunteer has for a long time been a vital and character forming rite of passage for many conscious and well-meaning youths of the Global North (the term mainly refers to the developed countries of Europe and North America but also Australia and New Zeeland). The desire to be of service and to make a difference in the life of those less fortunate is admirable and should be encouraged. But in our endeavor to do good and help others, we often convince ourselves that we need to travel to a remote village in the Global South – you guessed it, the term refers broadly to low income, less developed regions of South America, Asia and Africa – to build a school or teach English, even though we might not be native English speakers ourselves.

This is not true. If your desire to go abroad and volunteer is driven by the urge to help the “less fortunate” of the world you don’t have to go abroad. You can volunteer right where you are right now. No matter from where in the world you are reading this post, I can guarantee that there are several local, national and sometimes international NGOs in your vicinity that are in great need of volunteers. If you take an honest look around you, you will see that there are people less fortunate in your home country, your city and maybe even in your own neighborhood. To give some examples on how you can volunteer at home I give you some examples from my hometown Malmö, Sweden.

The Swedish Red Cross branch offers a wide range of volunteering opportunities for people with widely different skill sets such as helping children and teens with their homework or practicing Swedish with refugees and other immigrants who recently came to Sweden. There is also the possibility to volunteer in soup kitchens or shelters for homeless during the winter. If you, like me, are studying  or working with communication there is the opportunity to volunteer as a communication professional. These opportunities are not specific to Malmö or even to Sweden. You can find similar initiatives wherever you are living, be it Toronto or Canberra.

“Covid-19 shouldn’t be the only reason why you think twice about going South to “save the poor”.”

Of course, staying at home might not seem like quite the same adventure as going abroad and roughing it out in the outback, and you will definitely not get the same caliber of selfies to post in your social media. But let’s be honest, that is not even really an option today, in the autumn of 2020. But Covid-19 shouldn’t be the only reason why you think twice about going South to “save the poor”.

By staying at home and volunteering locally you are  avoiding many of the pitfalls and the less savory aspects of the international volunteer industry.

First of all, you avoid playing the part of the White Savior. If you are unfamiliar with the term, it is used to describe white people (often from the Global North)  who acts to help non-white people (usually from the Global South) in a thoughtless and self-serving manner. Their actions often stem from an honest wish to do good, but the execution is simply reproducing colonial and racist discourses on the superiority of the (white) Global North and the helplessness of the (non-white) Global South. Do you want to read more about the White Savior complex and find out if you are unknowingly suffering from it you can dive in to this blog post from HipLatina https://hiplatina.com/white-savior-complex-is-real/

Secondly, you avoid unintentionally doing more harm than good. Many of the volunteer assignments available internationally such as building schools, caring for children or teaching English would in any other setting require some kind of vocational training. Performing these tasks without the proper training can have unintended and sometimes even harmful results.

Furthermore, you avoid feeding the dark forces of the volunteer industry. Let me be clear, there are many good international volunteer organizations that are really doing a great job and doing their best to make the world a better place for everyone in it. But there is a darker side to the volunteer industry in which less scrupulous organizations take advantage of the cluelessness and naivety of young (and not-so-young) volunteers to make a profit of misery. As an example, it has been reported that children are being trafficked to live in orphanages even though they’re not orphans and organizations deliberately keeping the living conditions in these orphanages very low as misery entices more donations in form of cash.

If you want to learn more about this and other backsides of the volunteering industry, I recommend this TedX-talk by Kayley Gould, a young volunteer herself.

So don’t pack your bags just yet. Contact a local NGO today and find out what ways your specific skill set can best be put to use in your community because, let’s be honest, you are probably better qualified to volunteer in the local soup kitchen than you are building a school in a faraway village.