Over the last two months, I have had the opportunity to embark myself on a fascinating journey and, taking advantage of my groupmates’ wise guide and advice, to discover the challenges and penuries that novice volunteers will encounter in their own journey. In this final blog, I will re-visit my previous contributions to our hands-on communication blog project, “A Better Volunteer”, and try to show my conclusions and reflections upon a topic of paramount importance for the humanitarian sector.
We already talked a lot about the potential harms of digital technologies and how these factors impact populations, humanitarian actions, volunteers, and the field of development itself. The dissemination of (false) information is another element of the ICT debate. While news has the potential to reach everyone, one way or another, its implications on different communities are varied. In the current COVID-19 outbreak, the lack of appropriate risk communication and community engagement fail to counter social stigma and could reinforce health inequalities.
Over the last few decades, technological developments have impacted all aspects of life. This is also true in the case of the healthcare sector and development organizations. Communications strategies have been adapted, focusing on digital communication, incorporating various social media applications as well. Social media use facilitates building the image of an organization, creating a social identity, sharing achievements and demonstrating long-term goals and projects. Studies have argued that recruitment platforms should also strengthen online recruitment (as incorporated use of digital platforms in order to attract the most well-prepared and motivated young volunteers)[1] as Internet has become an important resource for involving and recruiting volunteers as well as creating various opportunities for participation[2].
The traditional one-to-one relation between development and economic growth has given way to a more holistic understanding of the term that encompasses social, environmental and economic wellbeing. Among other theories, Kleine’s approach proffers the idea of development as the freedom of choice – personal, social, economic and political – which a person may value most. In this context, ICT4D work as invaluable catalyzers for human advancement to help people achieve different ‘degrees of empowerment’ regarding choice capabilities. Needless to say, the volunteering sector has been at the cutting edge of ICTs in their strife to ameliorate community life conditions, taking into consideration their impact on the quality and quantity outcomes of volunteering agency.
Marta was about to finish her studies in medicine when she, along with a bundle of fellow doctors-to-be, decided to spend her summer holidays in the Philippines. Blue-eyed and blonde, short and fragile, she is my little niece and the apple of my eye. But she is also self-assured and far stronger than the initial impression that her fragile appearance conveys… And when she felt the spur-of-the-moment drive for joining a humanitarian cause, for living the volunteering experience, and finally, for enjoying two additional weeks in the paradisiacal archipelago, no one in the world was capable of stopping her from crossing the planet. Once back home, she brought her baggage full of countless emotive stories, joy and tears, gratitude from and towards the Filipino people, a worrying sunburn, and hundreds of digital pictures already posted on Facebook and Instagram.
If you are about to experience something completely new, far away from home, it is not strange that you want to share this with you family and friends; especially if it is overwhelming. These days, sharing photos is, as you know, easier than ever before. Endless apps and platforms enable your loved ones to see what you are up to wherever you are. This means that in theory, we should be able to better understand people and places far away. Digital ways of communicating does bring the opportunity to decrease the cultural distance and to connect with these faraway people and places, but it can also do the exact opposite if you are not aware of the traps.
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