Nothing is one sided. There exists no singular sided argument. Society has been debating this since life began. Volunteerism, the practice of volunteering, is no exception. Volunteerism is most often showered in a positive light; the benefits of volunteering cannot receive enough positive press. But the opposing side still remains: volunteerism can have negative effects. Think of the lives that are being disrupted, the lack of impact, the temporary relief, the dependency. All of these are adverse side effects of ill-implemented volunteering. Volunteering’s currently accepted ideals, that anyone can be a positive, additive force and that all people can offer aid, are flawed. They lead to profit, corruption, and a lack of significant change in the lives of those volunteers are trying to help. Modern volunteering is futile volunteering.

            A lack of change is one of the worst aftermaths following volunteering. Eric Greitens highlights this is his novel The Heart and the Fist. He subtitles it “the education of a humanitarian” and rightfully so. He proclaims himself a humanitarian, an individual concerned with the improvement of human welfare and happiness (dictionary.com) yet despite his concern, he has little impact on anyone’s life other than his own while volunteering. Eric openly admits what little effect his time volunteering abroad had on those he was working with. He realized that the Cambodian refugees he was working with were being portrayed in a negative light by other volunteers. They were being photographed at their worst to gain additional help. Other volunteers were engaging in the practice of photographing local government officials giving candy to refuge children. When asked, Eric was told that this was happening to solicit more monetary and political support. Yet, when interviewing the people of the refugee camp, many were unaware of the shortage of funds. Instead they were concerned by far more alarming practices: the refusal of medical attention. These volunteers were picking and choosing who they wished to administer aid to and this is the pitfall of short-term volunteering. The volunteers wanted to make the most impact and believed that this could be done by saving small children and keeping families together. In doing this, they were diverting others in need away from the medical tents and back into camp to fend for themselves. Such a disastrous system lead too many deaths, Eric noted. Volunteerism needs to encompass all affected groups, not just those most in need. They are selective, biased, and therein flawed. These programs were able to help minimal amounts of people live their day to day lives. They could not do anything to reach all of the refugees. Modern, short-term volunteerism fails to benefit the general population.

            The modern convention of volunteering is far too similar to vacation. This is a vastly growing tendency among the volunteering youth. This address to the Conference on InterAmerican Student Projects, Ivan Illich denotes the aspirations of volunteers through these simple statements: “To hell with good intentions…the road to hell is paved with good intentions.” As volunteers, missions can be as valiant as anything but they must be implemented properly to have a positive effect. He goes on to say that volunteer trips are becoming “mission-vacations” more and more frequently. Mr. Illich notes that many of the volunteers share, “…the belief that any true American must share God’s blessings with his poorer fellow men.” And many volunteers try to do this. However they create these vacation-like trips where the volunteer organization arranges for them to sleep in comfortable hotels, their meals are budgeted for, and they do minimal work such as playing with children in a school. Their efforts are valiant and respected but respect does not feed hungry families. Respect does not educate children. Respect does not shelter and provide for a family. These missions bring volunteers who know nothing about the local culture, about the economy, about the local belief systems, and it brings them into these communities to try to help a people they do not understand. They are just as uneducated about these communities as tourists would be. In this way, they become like tourists as they volunteer. They are fed and looked after the way tourists are, they are brought in and out of the city as tourists are, and they do projects that last for small durations of time. They benefit the economy in only the way tourists can, yet they can have a negative effect on the groups they are trying to help. The trend of volunteer tourism will be the end of useful tourism.

            Volunteer tourism is harmful to the communities being “helped”. In many cases the United States is forcing a set of accepted ideals onto a population not necessarily ready to accept them. Many of these third world countries simply do not operate as the US does. They do not have the infrastructure, economic structure, or work force necessary to develop their country into a replica of the US. Yet, undeniably, US volunteers are salesmen for these ideals. They are, “…’seducing’ the ‘underdeveloped’ to the benefits of the world of affluence and achievement.” They are preaching to, “…people who haven’t the possibility of profiting from [their way of living]” says Ivan Illich. These other communities are not in a position to always run the way the US does but, “[the] US way of life has become a religion which must be accepted by all those who do not want to die by the sword—or napalm.” The US is forcibly making these countries adhere to their model of development through both warfare and volunteerism. These agencies send volunteers to try to help communities and they inadvertently become walking billboard for the American way of life. They become promoters of what these communities cannot having. This does not does nothing for the way these citizens are living. They have been provided with goals, bench markers for success that their society is unable of achieving for many years to come. These goals demoralize a people, not lift them up. This advertisement for first world cultures is harming the moral of communities in need.

            Another issue with volunteering is the patronizing ideals of volunteers. As mentioned previously, Ivan Illich talks of the American way of outreach involving the betterment of, “…poorer fellow men.” Again in Robert Coles’ novel The Call of Service: A Witness to Idealism, this demeanor of seeing others as lesser people is referenced: “…they just don’t seem to be able to break out, and the world I belong to, the white world of affluence and power, that world doesn’t really want these folks. Maybe it has no use for them, no jobs for them, though there’s prejudice, too, plenty of it.” This sense of entitlement, of superiority removes volunteers from experiencing life the way these communities are, and places an invisible barrier between volunteers and those they are volunteering to help. Their entitlement and prejudice causes volunteers to look down upon those they are serving. To serve someone is to render assistance, be of use, to help (dictionary.com). By serving someone, one is lowering themselves into a position where their assistance is at the disposal of those in need. The very nature of this condescending approach to volunteering distances the parties involved. Volunteers cannot make the necessary impact in communities if they are simply skimming the beginning of issues. If they do not make themselves, if only temporarily, open to the culture and the history of the communities these volunteers are trying to serve, they would have a better impact not volunteering but rather being tourists. Entitlement ruins volunteer’s abilities to connect with communities in need.

            Volunteering mandates a delicate balance of cultural understanding and equality. Volunteering is not about the enjoyable work; it is about improving the essentials of a community. Modern volunteering is flawed and how people volunteer needs to be reassessed. No longer can the entitlement ruin community relations. No longer can volunteers go to countries and be billboards for their first world cultures. Volunteering needs to be done in such a manner that those sent to help fully understand the problems at hand and the difficulties that keep communities from resolving these problems independently. Volunteering is essential to better society around the world, when done correctly. Modern volunteering is flawed volunteering.