Structured & Self-Funding Volunteer Programmes :Selection & Eligibilitycan adequately prepare them for their roles
and support them once they assume them, as I
have been through it all myself.
I set up 2Way Development with the aim of
contributing something new to the path of
international development. The organisation
provides a flexible way to address the need for
human resources and expertise in local not-for-
profit organisations in the developing world. It
also gives volunteers a personal service, ena-
bling them to direct their placements according
to their skills, time frames and preferences.
Attending a conference on ecotourism in
Cairns, Australia, in 2003, I met with the Director
of the Tibetan Tourism and Development Board.
He asked me how he should go about training
a local Tibetan community in the skills needed to
receive tourists. Their traditional industries had
died and tourism was a way of securing the
livelihood of the community. We hadn’t placed
any volunteers at this stage. My answer to his
question led me to recommend a volunteer that
could help implement a training manual and
tourism development programme to kick-start
a community-wide development strategy
aimed at fostering tourism in the area. Suchgrass-roots initiatives are where the benefits of
volunteering and the work we do in organising
placements can be seen at their best.
In fact, a lot of problems faced by local
development organisations in the developing
world are due to a lack of expertise and human
resources. Without volunteers, many smaller
organisations would not survive. By working
closely with host organisations we can ensure
that volunteers are channelled into appropriate
areas of need. In assisting with project devel-
opment, training or research, a volunteer can
empower organisations to engage in projects
that offer long-term, sustainable solutions to
development issues. While working overseas
as a volunteer, I noticed a growing need for
human resources expertise in the local not-for-
profit organisations I was working with. I often
saw genuinely skilled volunteers carrying out
work that was a complete mismatch between
their skills and abilities and those actually
required by the organisation. These volunteer-
ing experiences gave me the inspiration to
establish 2Way Development.
Katherine TubbKatherine Tubb is the founder and Director of
2Way Development (p182), a non-profit organi-
sation that links appropriately skilled volunteers
with grass-roots projects in the developing
world. Here she speaks about how she came
to establish the organisation, the participatory
means she uses to achieve her aims, and the
role that her own experience as an interna-
tional volunteer played in motivating her.
I’ve always wanted to work in international
development, and during my degree I spent
the best part of a year organising an over-
seas voluntary placement in Nepal for myself.
I worked on developing a visitor and com-
munity centre in a major national park, which
tackled the issues of tourism in developing
communities and fragile environments.
Volunteering overseas focused my
goals, was the starting point of my career
and was fundamental to the choices I
subsequently made. While overseas I
gained an understanding of international
development issues and met some fantastic
people. Both these things were invaluable
in setting up my own organisation. Now,
in my work placing volunteers overseas, I
Bottom: Katherine with colleagues in Nepal Photo: Ben Keedwell Top: A local participant in a 2Way Development partner programme in Bolivia Photo: Katherine Tubb10: Start Your Own Charitable Project :Go For It!Go For It!