On what it is to volunteer
I recall some serious discussion emanating from the in-country HQ during my first VSO posting about the “volunteer” title.
In short, the argument was that the title immediately demeaned the individual in many people’s eyes.
You’re working for free – therefore your input is devalued.
The V word meant that people overlooked the experiences that VSO recruitment demanded. It overlooked what qualifications you had. It also meant that in some cases employers didn’t feel that they had the right to demand standards of under performing staff – because they were just volunteers.
Of course the suggestion was – we weren’t volunteers we were consultants. Potentially trading one label with a stack of baggage with another.
So the truth is we do get paid – although it tends to be referred to as an “allowance” rather than a wage. But as I sit here right now typing this, my colleague who sits across the room, gets a quarter of what I do. And my allowance is just for food and bills – hers must also cover housing, health care and family commitments.
By local standards we have a good lifestyle but even in a town where the most luxurious item I can buy is a tin of tuna, I can only just about live on my wage.
Call ourselves consultants and there’s an immediate promotion in our standing. But don’t consultants just tell you what you should do whereas volunteers do it?
On one occasion at KOTO we had “real” consultants in. I was, one of half a dozen volunteers each chosen for their expertise and experience. In my case it was a dozen years in others it was over 30. The consultants, however, couldn’t see past our titles – referring to us in a report as “well meaning amateurs”.
Guess how angry we were? And of course what they meant was – there should be less of volunteers and way more expensive consultants like them.
Having said that, what’s expected of a consultant rather than a volunteer perhaps best fits the VSO model. Capacity building, sharing knowledge, not so much doing as showing people how it can be done. Then again, the most effective volunteers I have met are the ones who’ll pitch in whatever the job.
I recall Michael of Blue Dragon in Hanoi saying that the best volunteers wouldn’t quibble at having to clear up sick if one the kids they work with was ill. I’d certainly go with that.
Those KOTO consultants are not the first I have come across who were snobbish about the volunteer tag. Another NGO worker I met referred to us as the “plankton of the NGO world”. Even back home not enough is understood about VSO and potential employers can come to conclusion that you’ve essentially just been travelling for the past two years – or worse – growing dreadlocks, being flaky and “finding yourself”.
Even VSO itself can often seem to forget just how stringent its recruitment is. Next month we have been informed we will be paid 15 days late. I’m not happy and have argued for a reasonable explanation. It would never happen in the VSO London HQ so why should “volunteers” at the sharp end, surviving on a pittance, have to suffer it?
In the interests of balance I should say that we have been told we are entitled to a small loan to tide us through. But would that ever happen in London? Sorry, can’t pay you right now but, tell you what, we’ll bung you a few quid till we’re flush again.
Is it because we’re just volunteers that we don’t get the same rights? Three years into VSO work and I am yet to find a way of raising concerns with VSO head office. There’s no 360 degree reviews here. We can be complained about – but we can’t complain.
Going back to the titles – maybe volunteer consultant is the best of both worlds. The gravitas of the C word and humility of the V one.
On the reflection though I’m somewhat proud to be a volunteer. Where VSO works, it works because it’s grass roots. We don’t come with fancy titles nor SUVs. We don’t furnish people with instructions and leave them to get on with it.
On the whole we are here for at least a year – though that is changing and much shorter posts are now becoming available
But maybe it’s time organisations and individuals were challenged to rethink their thoughts on what a volunteer is.
Tags: consultant, volunteer, volunteering, vso
You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.
March 27, 2009 at 9:56 am
CUSO used to refer to their people as something like “co-operants” which sort of captures the spirit of cooperation without belittling the skills
March 27, 2009 at 10:20 am
I think the problem stems from the gap year kids that pay extortionate rates to “volunteer”.
Some are good, very good, but others have no feel for life because they are immature, and/or have a degree in sociology, which is really useful when a what community really needs is a well.
Sorry, that is a bit flippant. But these volunteers demean the work of professionals, paid or otherwise, such as Steve.
March 27, 2009 at 10:34 am
BM – I think we have to differentiate between the two – they are what they are and will probably always be so – and us..well then maybe we should find a new title.
TL – Not sure I like “co-operants” sounds a little too vague for me. Sometimes I think VSO should be seen more as a recruitment company. Not finding volunteers or consultants but finding, simply, employees for one or two year contracts.
We’ve also had a flurry of people on secondment from Welsh Assembly who are here for two months at a time. All of them excellent but it still seems to break away a bit from the VSO idea of people living and working alongside local people. I think, in that time, they at best have time to impose their ideas but perhaps not enough time to really get a feel for the problems.
Most live at the local baptist centre with wifi, manicured lawns, water tanks in case of shortages, and a generator in case of power cuts. Not really the real Cameroonian experience.
I think in 2 months you can ask people what the issues are but people have local pride, they have loyalties and what you’re told isn’t always how it is. As I am coming up to seven months here I still feel I am only just getting a grasp of the issues.
In addition, seeing as they continued to get paid by the Welsh Assembly AND get the VSO allowance they never actually have to have an existance which is even close to a local standard – I should however point out that most opt to live on their allowance only.
The other issues with VSO is it’s hard sometimes to work out what “we” believe in. There is no set thought on the abstinence v condom argument for example. It’s okay to say..teach what you have been taught back home but volunteers from Africa and Asia, working alongside North Americans and Europeans will have very different answers to this.
And you certainly can’t say…just go along with the local practice because often these can be misguided. And the fact they are misguided is the very reason that you are here.
March 27, 2009 at 11:04 am
I quite like the vagueness, but you have a pont about the recrutment.
As for the Welsh Assemby people, I had one sharing my house earlier and another arrives today to move in. I agree, 2 months is far too short. People have also raised the question of whether VSO is as strict in recruiting short termers from paying partner orgs as they are in selecting the long term vols.
I think “we” believe in volunteering and the need to take an active part in remedying the problems in poorer countries. I’m not sure that VSO should take a line on too much, as you said it’s more like a recruitment agency than a political party. As long as no-one claims their’s is the “official” VSO line it may be helpful to demonstrate debate and that people with different opinions/beliefs can work together.
March 27, 2009 at 11:17 am
Fair point about “official” line. I guess you get good people and hope they make the right decisions. I think though as VSO becomes more multi cultural then the issue might become larger.
But perhaps just “common sense” rather than a rule book approach is the way to go.
March 28, 2009 at 9:25 pm
I think you British buggers should just pack your bags and go home. Western aid is actually bad for Africa, because it perpetuates the dependency syndrome, which makes the 2000s worse than the 1970s. A place like Cameroon has all the skill sets that you guys purportedly bring and more, except that the government that the West has been propping up has no motivation to deploy. French/Israeli military/security support for Paul Biya + NGO Play money + substantial flows of money from a large Cameroon diaspora population + Policy of inundating dissenting neurons with alcohol = a delay in the day of reckoning, when the people would be wrathful enough to end this crap.
Meanwhile you people can keep entertaining us with your whining and amusing condescension.
March 28, 2009 at 9:38 pm
facter – thanks for your kind words.
March 29, 2009 at 6:41 pm
“Western aid is bad for Africa.”
Where “Africa” means?
And the day of reckoning is likely anytime now is it?
Cite one example Facter? South Africa? Grow up.
Zimbabwe? Day of reckoning?
Yada yada.
If you are going to post – not unreasonably – challenging and thought / debate-provoking observations… however `strong’ you may feel is necessary… please, at least expand on them, and be less catch-all in your phrasing and `perspective’?
Most NGOs/ VSO’s probably don’t give a flying f about “Africa” but do care about “Africans”. Wherever they find them in need within that continent.
March 29, 2009 at 10:57 pm
What do titles mean if they’re not euphemisms for salary requirements? If money is out of the equation, titles are present for order, hierarchy, no? The work sounds important to me, and brutal or challenging or nourishing or generous or necessary. There are pros and cons of traveling to help or staying ‘home,’ if you know exactly where your home is.
thank you for reminding me that these internal struggles exist regardless of the work at hand.
April 8, 2009 at 12:03 am
[...] Visit On what it is to volunteer [...]