Structured & Self-Funding Volunteer Programmes :Selection & EligibilityScotland, England and Wales. There is clearly a need for such self-regulation. Volunteers
from outside the UK and Ireland should check whether organisations in their countries of
origin follow similar regulatory guidelines.At this stage, you might be thinking this is all getting rather too difficult. Take heart, it
isn’t. If you are asking the right questions of yourself, you’ll ask the right questions of
everybody else. And in this instance, ‘everybody else’ includes returned volunteers. It is
particularly important to talk to volunteers who have recently returned from a placement
with the sending agency or local NGO that you’re thinking of volunteering with. This is
one of the best ways of finding out what a project is really like on the ground.
Of course, you also need to ask questions of your sending agency or local NGO as well.
To help you pick an ethical international volunteering organisation, seven key questions
to ask are given in the box on pp26–27. They have been put together by Dr Kate Simpson,
who has spent over six years researching and working in the international volunteering
industry and has also written extensively about gap years and international volunteering.
She has completed a PhD on these subjects at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.How Long?
In the world of international volunteering there are short-term, medium-term and long-term
placements. However, there’s no real consensus on the length of time each category refers to.
For the purposes of this book, short-term volunteering comprises one week to two months,
medium-term is three months to 11 months and long-term is one year or more. Outside
these time frames, some volunteering holidays will let you volunteer for less than a week
(sometimes just a day or two) and, at the other end of the spectrum, some skills-based or
faith-based charities expect a volunteering commitment of two years or more.
How long you volunteer for depends on how much time you have. Elaine Massie and
Richard Lawson have volunteered on a variety of wildlife projects lasting from two to 14
days. They explain:
The length of the projects suits us very well, as we both work and so need to be able to fit
the volunteering into our annual holidays.
Volunteering for such short amounts of time can work, particularly with conservation
or wildlife projects where the financial contribution that volunteers make to sustainable
research projects overseas is invaluable. (See the following section and Chapters 5 and 6
for more details on this.)
However, as a general rule of thumb, the shorter the volunteer placement, the more
specific the project needs to be. Also, it is the accepted view that the longer the volunteer
placement, the better it is for both you and the host programme. This makes total sense if
you think about your volunteer placement as a new job (which, to all intents and purposes,
it is). How useful are you in the first few months of starting a new job? Doesn’t it take time
to learn the ropes, to get to know everyone and to become familiar with new systems?
Sarah Turton, who spent one month teaching in Ghana, confesses:
One month – that was too short. It takes a long time to adjust to somewhere that is so dif-
ferent to your own culture and I felt that I had just started to fit in properly and make good
friends when I had to go home again.
This view is endorsed by Julie Jones, who worked on an orphan outreach programme
in Kenya:
I came home after only four weeks and felt that I was leaving prematurely. I had only just
got into the swing of things and felt there was more I could do.
Poonam Sattee volunteered for a year with Casa Alianza in Guatemala, where she worked
with the street children. She says:
Just under a year – it worked out perfectly. As an organisation, they try and set up vol-
unteer placements that are for a minimum of six months. This provides stability for the
children and the volunteers are also able to get the most out of their time there.How valuable your contribution is depends on the effectiveness of the volunteer pro-
gramme and feeds into the response given to the first question in this section. To some
extent it also depends on what work you are doing. If you are passing on your skills to local
people so they can do your job when you leave, if you are training the trainer or helping
to build international understanding through cultural exchange then, obviously, this is
invaluable work and much more important than money.
In addition, many sending agencies donate a proportion of the fees they charge to the
overseas project you’re working with. For a more detailed discussion of this, check out
the response to question three in the Ethical Volunteering Guide written by Dr Kate
Simpson, on pp26–27.
Q4: will my volunteering take a paid job away from a local person?
It is crucial that it doesn’t, and you need to ask this question of your sending agency or local
organisation (if you are finding your own placement) before you sign up. Again, there’s no
chance of this if your volunteer agency is reputable and well run but there is if it isn’t.
Q5: some sending agencies place thousands of volunteers annually, while others
place relatively few. Is this an indication of how good they are?
Not at all. In fact, in the world of international volunteering small is often beautiful.
Instead of looking at the number of volunteers, find out how many partner programmes
an organisation works with abroad. The relationship between a sending agency and its
partners is key. There needs to be mutual trust, frequent correspondence and visits, and
long-term commitment if the relationship is to thrive.
So, beware the agencies that appear to offer every international volunteering option
under the sun. You can’t work with everyone everywhere. In fact, an abundance of choice
usually means that host programme partnerships are weak, that not all projects are prop-
erly vetted and that quality control is poor.
In addition, check out how an organisation matches its placements to its volunteers, par-
ticularly if you plan to work in development. Some organisations spend hours interview-
ing volunteers, talking through the possibilities and really searching for the perfect match,
while others either do this by telephone or not all (you simply apply online).
Q6: Is there a difference between volunteering with a registered charity, a not-for-profit
organisation and a limited company?
Volunteer programmes are run by all three types of organisation. In the Listings section
of Chapters 5 to 8 the status of organisations is given. However, it is questionable whether
these distinctions make any real difference to your volunteer experience or the worth of
a volunteer programme. Having said that, registered charities are normally regulated by
national bodies and, from an ethical point of view, have an extra layer of responsibility to
act in a genuinely charitable way. Of course, nothing is black and white. From time to time,
charities are criticised for how they use their money, while certain limited companies within
this sector choose to operate like not-for-profit organisations. Some sending agencies are set
up as limited companies because decision making can sometimes be easier and quicker (no
board of trustees to involve). Certainly, no-one wants to find out that a limited company is
making vast profits from international volunteering.
The bottom line is this: all types of organisation should be transparent about how they
spend your money.
Q7: as standards vary so much, are there any best-practice guidelines that
organisations sign up to?
Interestingly, there is no governing body that regulates this growing, and sometimes prof-
itable, sector. However, Comhlámh (%+353 (0)1-4783490; fax +353 (0)1-4783738; info@comhlamh
.org; http://www.comhlamh.org; Ballast House, Aston Quay, Dublin 2, Ireland) – the Irish Association of Develop-
ment Workers – has put together a Volunteer Charter and a Sending Agencies Code of
Good Practice. It is hoped that both documents will be adopted by similar organisations in
02: Choosing Your Volunteer Experience:Arranging a Worthwhile Placement