Voluntourism - A Sustainable Approach

Understanding the Voluntourism and its associated ethical and sustainability issues is virtually useless unless this wealth of knowledge can be actively applied to create change.

With that being said, what does a sustainable approach to volunteer tourism look like? This can appear in many forms and scales. One example is the work of TSAP (The Sustain Ability Project) Travel, a newly established CIC in Madagascar. This ongoing project states “We are a registered not-for-profit in the UK and are on a mission to upskill people within under-developed communities to help their community thrive. We are on a journey to empower people across the world and ignite global change” (TSAP Travel, 2022).

(TSAP Travel, 2022)

To combat previous issues discussed with short-term volunteer placements TSAP Travel focus on upskilling communities to promote self-sufficiency in developing communities. They achieve this by opening applications specifically to graduate and professional talents to ensure a ned is met instead of any paying customer. Additionally, to avoid emotional impacts, short-term volunteers aren’t able to interact with vulnerable children from the area at lengths, as this can cause long-term distress if it were to become a cyclical occurrence. As, Children are often the most vulnerable of those impacted during and after a disaster. According to the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, a growing body of research has established that children as young as infancy may be affected by events that threaten their safety or the safety of their parents or caregivers (SAHMSA.gov, 2022). So, this is important to note when working in voluntourism as often, you are assisting in disaster recovery.

Differently to many, TSAP also “Work with local communities and businesses to understand their needs and find ways to collaborate” (TSAP Travel, 2022). The ability to put the host communities’ complete and genuine best interest at the heart of operations overcomes Pan’s theory of egoism being a primary motivation for volunteer tourists (Pan, 2012).

Moving forward collectively and individually, how can you as a young person seeking volunteer experiences ensure this industry continues sustainably, without harming or hindering the sustainable success of these host communities? The answer is possibly claiming social responsibility for generating this change. Being socially responsible means acknowledging accountability for the impact of one’s choices on the larger world. Businesses are particularly expected to make the welfare of society a priority when they make decisions, rather than focus exclusively on profit margins. This pertains not only to how companies spend money, but also to the ways in which they earn it (The Borgen Project, 2018). In everyday practice, this may look like researching deeper the roots and operations of the organisation you are considering volunteering through, as well as considering heavily what meaningful impact your specific skillset can offer a community, or to research the specific needs of a host community you would like to volunteer within.

Alternatively, with personal judgement it is important to consider that potentially if your skillset doesn’t match a need found abroad at current, you can look at opportunities closer to home. As according to the World bank poverty is defined as living on less than $2. 15 a day, and at current an estimated 14.3 million Britons are living below the poverty line. (World Bank, 2011). As a result, one can only imagine the volunteer opportunities available within the UK related to poverty alone! This also decreases the environmental degradation related to traveling abroad.

In conclusion, Volunteer tourism is a flawed practice, and much must be done to improve and mould it into a wholly sustainable industry. But upon reading this blog series, I hope you have gained an insight into how to be an ethical and sustainable ambassador of voluntourism and how to embody social responsibility in order to make a world of difference.

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