Hoping to Help: The Promises and Pitfalls of Global Health Volunteering
Overseas volunteering has exploded in numbers and interest in the last couple of decades. Every year, hundreds of thousands of people travel from wealthier to poorer countries to participate in short-term volunteer programs focused on health services. Churches, universities, nonprofit service organizations, profit-making "voluntourism" companies, hospitals, and large corporations all sponsor brief missions. Hoping to Help is the first book to offer a comprehensive assessment of global health volunteering, based on research into how it currently operates, its benefits and drawbacks, and how it might be organized to contribute most effectively. Given the enormous human and economic investment in these activities, it is essential to know more about them and to understand the advantages and disadvantages for host communities.
Most people assume that poor communities benefit from the goodwill and skills of the volunteers. Volunteer trips are widely advertised as a means to "give back" and "make a difference." In contrast, some claim that health volunteering is a new form of colonialism, designed to benefit the volunteers more than the host communities. Others focus on unethical practices and potential harm to the presumed "beneficiaries." Judith N. Lasker evaluates these opposing positions and relies on extensive research—interviews with host country staff members, sponsor organization leaders, and volunteers, a national survey of sponsors, and participant observation—to identify best and worst practices. She adds to the debate a focus on the benefits to the sponsoring organizations, benefits that can contribute to practices that are inconsistent with what host country staff identify as most likely to be useful for them and even with what may enhance the experience for volunteers. Hoping to Help illuminates the activities and goals of sponsoring organizations and compares dominant practices to the preferences of host country staff and to nine principles for most effective volunteer trips.
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Hoping to Help: The Promises and Pitfalls of Global Health Volunteering
Overseas volunteering has exploded in numbers and interest in the last couple of decades. Every year, hundreds of thousands of people travel from wealthier to poorer countries to participate in short-term volunteer programs focused on health services. Churches, universities, nonprofit service organizations, profit-making "voluntourism" companies, hospitals, and large corporations all sponsor brief missions. Hoping to Help is the first book to offer a comprehensive assessment of global health volunteering, based on research into how it currently operates, its benefits and drawbacks, and how it might be organized to contribute most effectively. Given the enormous human and economic investment in these activities, it is essential to know more about them and to understand the advantages and disadvantages for host communities.
Most people assume that poor communities benefit from the goodwill and skills of the volunteers. Volunteer trips are widely advertised as a means to "give back" and "make a difference." In contrast, some claim that health volunteering is a new form of colonialism, designed to benefit the volunteers more than the host communities. Others focus on unethical practices and potential harm to the presumed "beneficiaries." Judith N. Lasker evaluates these opposing positions and relies on extensive research—interviews with host country staff members, sponsor organization leaders, and volunteers, a national survey of sponsors, and participant observation—to identify best and worst practices. She adds to the debate a focus on the benefits to the sponsoring organizations, benefits that can contribute to practices that are inconsistent with what host country staff identify as most likely to be useful for them and even with what may enhance the experience for volunteers. Hoping to Help illuminates the activities and goals of sponsoring organizations and compares dominant practices to the preferences of host country staff and to nine principles for most effective volunteer trips.
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Hoping to Help: The Promises and Pitfalls of Global Health Volunteering
Overseas volunteering has exploded in numbers and interest in the last couple of decades. Every year, hundreds of thousands of people travel from wealthier to poorer countries to participate in short-term volunteer programs focused on health services. Churches, universities, nonprofit service organizations, profit-making "voluntourism" companies, hospitals, and large corporations all sponsor brief missions. Hoping to Help is the first book to offer a comprehensive assessment of global health volunteering, based on research into how it currently operates, its benefits and drawbacks, and how it might be organized to contribute most effectively. Given the enormous human and economic investment in these activities, it is essential to know more about them and to understand the advantages and disadvantages for host communities.
Most people assume that poor communities benefit from the goodwill and skills of the volunteers. Volunteer trips are widely advertised as a means to "give back" and "make a difference." In contrast, some claim that health volunteering is a new form of colonialism, designed to benefit the volunteers more than the host communities. Others focus on unethical practices and potential harm to the presumed "beneficiaries." Judith N. Lasker evaluates these opposing positions and relies on extensive research—interviews with host country staff members, sponsor organization leaders, and volunteers, a national survey of sponsors, and participant observation—to identify best and worst practices. She adds to the debate a focus on the benefits to the sponsoring organizations, benefits that can contribute to practices that are inconsistent with what host country staff identify as most likely to be useful for them and even with what may enhance the experience for volunteers. Hoping to Help illuminates the activities and goals of sponsoring organizations and compares dominant practices to the preferences of host country staff and to nine principles for most effective volunteer trips.
Judith N. Lasker is N.E.H. Distinguished Professor of Sociology at Lehigh University. She is coauthor of When Pregnancy Fails, In Search of Parenthood, and Equal Time, Equal Value.
Table of Contents
Introduction: A "Tsunami" of VolunteersPart I. The Sponsoring Organizations1. Who Sponsors International Medical Missions? 2. The Activities and Goals of Sponsoring OrganizationsPart II. The Volunteers3. Becoming a Volunteer4. What Leads to Volunteering, What Volunteering Leads ToPart III. The Host Communities5. The Best and the Worst: Host Perspectives on Volunteer Programs6. Benefits to Host Communities7. "First, Do No Harm": The Unintended Negatives for Host CommunitiesPart IV. Principles for Maximizing the Benefits of Volunteer Health Trips8. Mutuality and Continuity: Two Pillars of Effective Programs9. Community-Focused Research10. Programmatic FocusConclusion: Lessons Learned; Responding to the DebateAppendix A: Methods of Study Appendix B: Recommendations for Having the Best Possible Global Health Volunteer TripNotes References Index
What People are Saying About This
Eric Hartman
Hoping to Help makes a clear and new contribution. The issues Judith N. Lasker examines are increasingly pressing for universities across the United States, as the trend toward internationalization is accompanied by unexpected perverse incentives and adverse impacts such as those Lasker raises. This high-quality book will appeal beyond the global health community to study abroad, service learning, and civic engagement programs, as well as church organizations and civic groups.
Brandon Blache-Cohen
The space where international health volunteering and good intentions collide can get very messy. Hoping to Help cleans up the mess. This book should be required reading for anyone interested in volunteering abroad in any capacity, health service or otherwise.
