Fight Volunteer’s Guilt

There is a feeling that all volunteers can relate to: post-volunteering guilt. It’s that feeling of returning home after an amazing experience working abroad, only to wonder “did I do enough?”. Did you spend enough time with the kids you were teaching? Build enough homes? Vaccinate enough dogs? Play enough games of soccer? The list can go on and on.

My husband, John, and I are experts at realizing this guilt. We have worked abroad in three different countries.; Teaching English, providing childcare, building houses…you name it. We met while both teaching in Lima, Peru for an organization called Tarpuy Sonqo. (tarpuysonqo.org – check it out if you’re heading to South America). He worked for six months building three houses, and developing a full curriculum for the 4th grade students. I spent the following two months continuing his teaching work. Our hearts were completely invested in our efforts, and of course we fell in love with every baby, kid and adult that we met along the way. (Another feeling that every volunteer can understand.)

When we returned stateside and started dating, our conversations were consumed with when we could return back to our classrooms in Pachecutec, the largest slum outside of Lima. We worried how our students were doing, if the projects we’d started were continuing, and if the volunteers we’d trained were maintaining our high standards. But with full-time jobs, eventually buying a house and adopting dogs, it was becoming unrealistic to return to Lima for more than a week or two. That wasn’t long enough to make the impact we had in mind.

Instead – we decided to take the business we were already running, and use it as a tool to provide continued support to the causes close to our heart. My travel photography company – Kristen Emma Photography – quickly developed into a forever-fundraiser for international charities. Our new motto became “Capture the world to help the world”.  We decided to give 25% of our sales back to charities local to where each of my photos were taken. Anything from South America was given back to Tarpuy Sonqo – and other photos donated to a select charity based on their continental location. Within a few months of art shows we were supporting teachers in Peru, dog adoptions in the UK (dogstrust.org.uk), prenatal medicine for women in India (villageclinic.org), AIDS research and meds in South Africa (aids.org.za), even penguin conservation through the Pew Charitable Trusts and my recent trip to Antarctica.

Not only were we thrilled to be helping our Peruvian students – but our clients were amazed! With the rise of charity companies, and the one-for-one model, people are always looking for products that give back to various causes. Adding the charitable aspect to our business model was good for the charities – but also good for our bottom line. That certainly wasn’t our goal, but it helped put food in our dogs’ mouths. :)

The lesson learned is that volunteers can use their guilt as motivation to keep helping. It’s not always possible to physically get back to their area of choice – but they can instead work to find methods of help in their everyday lives. Of course, not everyone has a business that they can use like we did – but there are other approaches to helping:

·      Getting married? Set up a gofundme page for a charity, rather than asking for gifts. (John and I raised over $5000 for Tarpuy Sonqo. It built an entire park in the slums where we taught, and a jungle gym in a 2nd location. Exchange rates are always your friend. :)

·      Birthday? Have your friends bring a non-perishable good instead of a present for you, and then donate it to the local food shelf. (You don’t really need another pair of earrings anyway.)

·      Clean out your basement, sell what you don’t need on craigslist, and commit some of the proceeds to your volunteer location. (Those college books you’ve been holding onto could fund new books for your students in Kenya).

·      Have friends who are looking to travel? Put them in touch with your volunteer coordinator. A lot of organizations will trade housing and food in exchange for a few hours of work per day. My company of choice is New Zealand-based International Volunteer HQ. They’ve got volunteer placements all around the world, and their credibility makes sure volunteers stay safe while having an incredible experience.  Check them out at ivhq.org. They charge some fees, but its always cheaper than a hotel!

·      Volunteer locally! There are an abundance of opportunities to help in your own neighborhood. If you speak another language, you can teach ELL classes at your community center. Any work you found abroad can definitely translate to your own community – teaching, childcare, food shelves, and homeless shelters.

In the short seven months since we developed our charitable mission, we’ve raised over $1500 for our partner charities. Although it may not sound like much, it’s $1500 more than they had before. We could have easily NOT raised any money, but what good would that do? Its important to remember that even just $10 raised is helpful to any of the thousands of organizations around the world.

 

 

KRISTEN MACAULEY

Kristen is a Minnesota-based photographer, specializing in fine art travel photography. She has lived in three different countries, and traveled to all seven continents through her photography endeavors. Her goal is to use photography to show similarities between cultures, regardless of their location. In order to give back to the communities that she photographs, 25% of all sales are donated back to local charities around the world. See her work on Etsy or on her website. 

5 Ways to Make a Positive Impact while Traveling in Bolivia

As one of the poorest countries in Latin America, Bolivia is a nation that, more than most, would benefit from your tourism. However, a historic lack of investment in infrastructure throughout the country and a reputation of political instability has left this nation neglected by foreign visitors. 

Despite being more difficult to explore than neighboring Peru, Argentina or Brazil, Bolivia is a country that shouldn’t be missed. It has a wealth of diversity of natural landmarks, from the soaring Andes Mountains to the huge plains of salt flats to the Amazon jungle, as well as tiny communities inhabited by local, indigenous people ready to share their culture with curious travelers – and who really benefit from the income that responsible, considered tourism brings. 

So here are 5 ways that you can do your bit to make a positive impact when you’re traveling in Bolivia. 

Potosi

1. Go Local

Many of us are more comfortable booking tours ahead of our trip to ensure that our visit runs smoothly and no time is wasted. But it can be difficult to know exactly how much of the money you’re paying is being invested into the country you’re visiting and whether the local people there are actually getting a fair deal. 

Instead, booking tours when you arrive or online with locally-run, sustainable tourism agencies based in Bolivia will insure 100% of your money goes directly to the local people, meaning you’ll have a positive, responsible impact through your tourism. 

Luckily, Bolivia has a growing number of excellent, responsible companies to choose from. Some of the best include: 

Condor Trekkers based in Sucre is a hiking tour agency that leads treks into remote villages in the Andes, with hikes passing along stretches of preserved Inca trail and to landscapes potted with dinosaur footprints. They feed all of their profits back into the communities through which their tours pass to support locally-run, sustainable development projects.  

The San Miguelito Conservation Ranch, a short distance from Santa Cruz, is a private reserve and conservation project that protects a section of wetlands acknowledged as having one of the highest concentration of jaguars in South America. This eco-tourism project runs tours to spot the big cats, birds and other wildlife in the reserve and uses the profits to maintain this important habitat. 

Nick’s Adventures, another company based in Santa Cruz, runs a series of tours throughout the country, including spotting big cats in Kaa Iya National Park, the only park in South America established and administered by indigenous people. This agency supports sustainable development by providing employment to local people as drivers, guides and cooks and replaces any cattle killed by jaguars to stop ranch owners from shooting the cats, thus meaning that no jaguars or other native wildlife have been killed since Nick’s Adventures began this project. 

La Paz on Foot runs walking tours in La Paz itself, as well as hiking trips further afield to indigenous communities. These communities receive much of the profits and La Paz on Foot have established a series of sustainable development and biodiversity conservation projects.

Solace Trekking Tours based in La Paz takes visitors on cultural tours to indigenous communities to take part in workshops about dancing, weaving and other traditional activities, as well as running climbing, biking and hiking trips to remote villages. Some of the profits of these tours are used to support the indigenous communities that are visited, as well as others who are fighting to save their land and water from mining – something that is a real threat to both natural habitats and the livelihoods of local people. 

2. Don’t bargain too hard

Like many Andean countries in South America, artisanal goods of fluffy llama wool jumpers and delicate jewelry are hawked by locals on their stalls in every city and travelers are always keen to get a good bargain. But unlike parts of Asia and India where haggling hard is par for the course, in most of South America and particularly Bolivia, it’s not always the case.

Yes, you should expect prices to be higher for you; unfortunately, as a foreigner you will be charged an inflated rate. Negotiating a small reduction is sometimes possible, but most of the time, you shouldn’t try and push for prices that are vastly lower. 

Shop around a bit and get a feel for what things cost, but follow your conscience with what you spend. Saving a few dollars on a jumper probably means very little to you in the long run, but in a country where 45% of people live in poverty and earn less than $2 a day, avoiding haggling sellers into the ground is the responsible thing to do. 

3. Get off-the-beaten track

Most travelers in Bolivia stick to the main gringo triangle: La Paz, Sucre and Uyuni. And while these are certainly highlights of the country, other places also need the investment that tourism brings. 

Towns such as Rurrenabaque, the best place in the country to access the Amazon Jungle, really need the support of responsible tourists. Once receiving lots of Israeli visitors (because of an Israeli who got lost in the jungle here a few decades ago and wrote a book about his experiences), numbers have dwindled since the Bolivian government decided to support Palestine and introduced a fee for Israelis entering the country. 

Tourism is currently at a record low in the region and desperately needs travelers who are keen to visit. Check out sustainable operators, such as Mashaquipe Eco Tours, who charge fair prices and work responsibly to protect the jungle.  

Another under visited location is Potosi. Here you can actually visit Cerro Rico (Rich Mountain), the famed mountain of silver that was plundered by the Spanish conquistadores. 

Potosi is now the poorest city in the country and while many local people still attempt to make a living mining the last remaining minerals in the mountain, tours with ex-miners such as with Potochji tours, located in Calle Lanza, provide another option. Visitors can enter the mountain to see the terrifying conditions and ensure that their money supports ex-miners and the mining unions that now operate there. 

4. Stay and volunteer

One of the most profound ways that you can help to support social development in Bolivia is by staying for a period of time to volunteer with grassroots projects. I’m always hesitant to volunteer for less than at least three months; I know that it takes time to learn about the organization and how best you can support its work. 

In Bolivia, where few people speak English and where the culture is far more reserved than in a lot of other Latin American countries, it can definitely take time to start feeling like you’re making an impact. 

Unfortunately, 90-day visas are the norm for most travelers arriving into the country, which can put a time limit on your volunteering. However, a visa of up to a year is not impossible to come by, but does require you to put a lot of effort into acquiring the necessary papers. 

There are plenty of organizations that need your help, including Up Close Bolivia and Prosthetics for Bolivia in La Paz, Sustainable Bolivia in Cochabamba, Communidad Inti Wara Yassi in the Bolivian Amazon and Biblioworks and Inti Magazine in Sucre. 

5. Or become an ambassador

But if you can’t commit to volunteering, how about becoming an ambassador or fundraiser for a charity based in Bolivia? While travelling in the country, take the opportunity to visit some of the many volunteering organizations to get an idea of what they do. When you’re back home, it’s easy to find a way to support their work. 

You can become an ambassador who promotes the charity to their friends and social media followers, as well as signing up to make a regular donation. You could also volunteer long-distance by supporting fundraising efforts or helping with their social media accounts. Most importantly, you can spread the word about what they’re helping to achieve and find other volunteers or sponsors who can support their efforts. 

Ultimately, Bolivia is a fascinating country to visit and so by traveling responsibly and considering how you can make a positive impact as a foreign tourist will support social development projects in increasing the quality of life for the Bolivian people. 

 

STEPH DYSON
 

Steph is a literature graduate and former high school English teacher from the UK who left her classroom in July 2014 to become a full-time writer and volunteer. Passionate about education and how it can empower young people, she’s worked with various education NGOs and charities in South America.