How Voluntourism Can Change the World and What You Can Do

I have to write this, while it's fresh in my mind. So please, forgive the grammatical/spelling/structural errors that will ensue, for they will be plentiful.

I had a great discussion with another volunteer here in Rocinha about the work I have been doing over the course of the past few years, working but more specifically, volunteering abroad. I've been blessed with the opportunity to follow my dreams; a wonderful family, financial stability, and relationships with inspiring people have brought me to where I am now; a favela of over 200,000 people in the heart of one of the world's most violent cities, Rio de Janeiro. However, I have never denied the direction in which my heart pulls me, and it pulled me here.

Volunteer service. Working with marginalized populations has brought me unparalleled joy and satisfaction. It's an addiction I can't kick. The more we engage in activities like volunteer work, travel, learning about other cultures/peoples, foreign languages, etc. a number of wonderful things can happen to us: our minds expand, our prejudices dissipate, our confidence grows, not to mention all of the like minded, inspiring people we meet along the way. Most of these benefits are obvious, but some are buried deeper, hidden as part of a larger picture and they're not felt instantaneously. What I speak of is this; these sort of activities pave way not only for spiritual and mental growth of the self, but a deeper realization that we human beings have so much more in common than what makes us different. We connect. Our countries give us labels as "Americans" or "Brazilians" or "Chinese" but once we connect, once we cross the invisible wall of seperation, we realize that we are really the same, regardless of the minute difference that characterize us as an "American" or whatever. We share so much. Part of what we share is a common suffering of some sort as well, stemming from various forms of suppression. Whether you live in a favela here in Rio, a home made of sticks and garbage bags in Central America, or you are shackled with a never ending debt by an already exceedingly rich bank who's CEO could elevate your suffering with one day's earnings, we are experiencing an injustice which tears at our very core. In the future, it shall be us who lift ourselves from these injustices, not the institutions we have trusted to protect our liberties. The more we connect, the more we understand that we are part of the same problem, and only in numbers can we begin to rebuild. So what can we do, what can I do?

The International Volunteer sector is, for the most part, currently acting as any other business. Organizations like volunteerabroad charge as much as $3,500 to come to a country and teach English for two weeks! For other volunteer organizations (just type in volunteer abroad into google) like CrossCultural Solutions their prices are even more outrageous. So here's what seems to be happening, these organization have moved away from the initial idea of cultural exchange and voluntourism and are behaving more like any other business, principle interest=profit gain. But this this sector isn't like a normal business, and shouldn't be treated as one.

Now, I'm not saying that they aren't doing some good, they are. But these prices are inhibiting hundreds, if not thousands of interested do-gooders from ever having the opportunity to take part in such a life changing experience. I've had dozens of people write me, discouraged because they sincerely want to do some volunteering abroad but can't find an affordable avenue to do so. They search the web with the desire to go abroad, to obtain that growth, that realization discussed above, but are discouraged because the big wigs decided they could make more money because "the rich ones will still pay." Here is how a company like this operates; they connect the volunteer with the NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) that needs the assistance. Cost = free. They set the volunteer up with a family or in a volunteer apartment who provides the living quarters and the food. Cost = depending on country, about about $150-300 a week. Then we have administrative cost. Cost = depends on the number of employees, but I highly doubt these are salaried positions. This is not even mentioning the numerous, grants and donations these companies receive. So where is the bulk of this money going?

What's the idea here? We need to get more people helping, taking part in these experiences, realizing that what we share is grander than what makes us different, adopting tolerance, respect, and compassion. These attributes are what is going to change our society for the better. These realizations are what unite us, not as Americans or Japanese or British, but as human beings. It saddens me to see we are being taken advantage of, yet again, in this sector. How many people have passed up these wonderful opportunities because of its outrageous cost?

But there is hope. Organizations like www.volunteerhq.org are charging less, and providing more. Their programs are affordable and their opportunities numerous. Perhaps that is why they are the fastest growing volunteer company in the business. If you want to donate, donate to them. Donate to the organization I work with now, www.2bros.org. They charge no volunteer free, and have provided kids in this favela free English courses for over 10 years now, not to mention a safe haven where previous role models; rifle toting, drug trafficking gang members are now replaced with new role models; educated foreigners who speak multiple languages, are sincere, and have the compassion and heart to work to change the lives of these children. Donate to Habitat for Humanity founder Millard Fuller's 'Fuller Center'. It provides opportunities to build homes in impoverished regions of the world at a very low volunteer cost. Donate to organizations like this, who have little or no program fee, because this is for us, this is about people helping people. 

Interested in volunteering abroad?

-www.volunteerhq.org

-http://www.kiva.org/fellows

-www.volunteersouthamerica.net

-http://thewaterproject.org/getinvolved.asp

-www.fullercenter.org

-www.safepassage.org

Funding ideas:

-Donations! Put together a letter, slide show, or album of your intended project and why the people need your help. (fundraising.com, fundriasing-ideas.com)

-Search for grants, fellowships, or if you are in school, scholarships!

-Hold an event. Auctions are always great way to raise money.

-Letters. Write a letter and send it to as many people as you can think of. There are many people who would love to be able to travel abroad and help but are unable to do so, many of them would love to see you do it instead!

-Get an online fundraising page with www.firstgiving.com

Related clips of the organization I currently work with:

http://edition.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/international/2010/07/31/bs.rocinha.favela.cnn.html

http://noticias.r7.com/videos/turistas-estrangeiros-sao-bem-recebidos-na-rocinha/idmedia/785a1879c119e7ab0a6968bb7bfd1693.html

The body of Rocinha

A wander through the narrow alleys of my new home, South America's biggest slum, birthed the need for a written analysis of Rocinha and my current situation. For some, this experience could be traumatizing; the noise, the open sewers, and all of the other issued that develop from close quartered living. For others it's like candy for the soul, a new experience around every turn, each as deliciously invigorating as the last. It all depends on how you look at your current situation. Do you invite fear and uncertainty in, allowing a manifestation of helplessness and vulnerability? Or better yet, do you invite the new experience to the contrary, recognizing that you are now part of a community that cares for and protects its inhabitants? We humans tend to retract when we experience the unfamiliar, a sort of primitive defense mechanism I guess. But we are no longer primitive beings, even here in the slum. Brutality has been replaced with generosity, a caring for one another, a connection shared by those who live here. On the outside, sophistication is pride. Yet we continue to submit to unsophisticated lack of ability to connect with one another. We tend to go from home to work to the grocery store to the bank and back in the tightly sealed safety of the car, the tightly sealed representation of who we are, a judgement from the outside rather from the inside. I've always been attracted to poorer, less developed communities because of the fact that human connection is so evident. It is in fact, a necessity for our species. Relationships are the focus, people know each other from the inside out, not just from the outer coating buttered up from purchasing power.

The body of Rocinha is made up of poorly constructed brick housing and edifices, but once inside, the elderly, the children, and everything in between are constantly passing through the streets and narrow alleyways, like cells pumping blood, giving life to the slum. The heart is the kindness of the people, the willingness to help each other at the drop of a hat. The muscle, one could say, are the gangs that keep order here. Like the illegally wired electricity that illuminates Rocinha, the gangs have replaced the lack of government assistance here with a system of order, punishment, and respect. As a gringo living here in Rocinha, this place is safer for me than any other in Rio. A thief is left with a few less fingers after they're caught, and they are always caught, because the slum is a body, and the good cells seek out and destroy anyone who threatens its health. Characterized as a brutal and crime ridden collection of filth from the outside, the residents of Rocinha share what most of Rio doesn't, a community free of crime, free of fear.

This place is little understood. Every passing week is like another puzzle piece added, but this is a puzzle with no final image. In any new environment, I clear myself from judgements. It helps me to absorb and analyze on a deeper, clearer level. Especially in a place as complex as Rocinha, one cannot even begin to try and understand it from the outside. Those that do, do so with ignorance as the drive the freeway safely sealed in their protective four wheeled bubbles, pontificating about surface values, without ever penetrating the inner beauty that makes Rocinha not a favela, but rather a community.