Learning Service Slideshare

Examining service: motivations, pitfalls, benefits, and lessons learned

Learning Service

Claire Bennett @DanielaPapi

Our stories

Schools don’t teach kids.

Neither do pens, books, or t-shirts.

We needed to invest in people to put those things to use

Started out “giving things”

Now, “inves5ng 5me in people”

How did the NGO change?

Started out “giving things”

Now, “inves5ng 5me in people”

How did the NGO change? We moved from giving things away to investing time in people

How has PEPY Tours changed?

Started out doing “voluntourism”

Now, offering a “chance to learn”

Could also just be two images – perhaps people building or pain6ng something (can just be s6ck figures like the story of stuff) and the second people si?ng and talking or learning?

How did the tours change?

How has PEPY Tours changed?

Started out doing “voluntourism”

Now, offering a “chance to learn”

Could also just be two images – perhaps people building or pain6ng something (can just be s6ck figures like the story of stuff) and the second people si?ng and talking or learning?

How did the tours change? We moved from building, painting, and

‘helping’, to learning, debating, and ‘learning service’

it’s not how we can save the world in a week

It’s what we do the other 358 days of the year.

Volunteering Beneficiaries

“villagers”

We shifted our vocabulary

I’m from the “Village of Briarcliff Manor”…”

Volunteering Beneficiaries

“villagers”


I’m from the “Village of Briarcliff Manor”…”

… yet no one has ever called me a “villager”…


Being a “volunteer” means there is a “beneficiary”…

Being a “volunteer” means there is a “beneficiary”…

… but then it’s hard to remember that those people we’re meant to

“serve” are actually the ones from whom we need to learn!


Volunteering

Service Learning


Service Learning

Learning Service


We have to learn before we can help

sympathy

/ˈsimpəTHē/

Noun: Feelings of pity and sorrow for someone else's misfortune.

empathy

/ˈempəTHē/

Noun: The ability to understand and share the feelings of another.

So… what could actually go wrong?

In this trip.. EVERYTHING that could have gone wrong!

All of it

Poor implementation Bad planning

An evil guy Lies and corruption

List of things that could possibly go wrong


All of it

List of things that could possibly go wrong

Poor implementation Bad planning

An evil guy Lies and corruption


Poor pre-planning

Poor pre-planning

!

!!!

No transparency

No transparency

$$$

Ineffective project

Little to no traveler education

The WRONG people were let in

“Earlier this year, the British owner of the Cambodian Orphan Fund…was sent to prison in Cambodia for sexually abusing several minor boys in his care.” -  “Should You or Shouldn’t You Volunteer in a Cambodian

Orphanage?”, Expat Living, Monica Pitrelli, Oct 2011

(If you plant papayas,

you can’t get mangoes.)

បសិន%ប&អ(ក*ំ%ដ&មល/ុង 2ះអ(កមិន4ចទទួយ9នែផ<=

យេ ។

1) Poverty Overload

2) Savior Overload

3) Failure Overload

Three ways we lose students

Setting travelers up for failure

Supporting ineffective aid

models

Fueling waste & harm

Three causes of pitfalls


1)  False Marketing 2) Fostering Moral

Imperialism 3) Offsetting culture

This is how we are “marketing” the “developing” world.

1 #

This is how we are “selling” solutions to these problems.

Studies show that a large part of what people “know” about “developing” countries comes from fundraising campaigns

WELLS DO NOT

PROVIDE CLEAN WATER.

“The statement that this sort of media makes is “We have a group of people who are utterly helpless, and only you can save them.”… this person is helpless – this person needs your money – this person is incapable of making a better life for him/herself. In going down the path of the ‘savior’, we’ll inevitably be biased not towards policy that works, but towards policy that makes us feel good about ourselves.” -  What is poverty porn and why does it matter for

development? Matt Collin

Fostering moral imperialism

2 #

“We don’t send people over to the US to help with the emotional poverty we see there: with unhappy people, high divorce rates, broken family units, and dependence on material wealth - so why do you send people over to ‘help’ us with our financial poverty? We would fail at helping you as you are failing at helping us.”

-  Ghanaian NGO Director

Creates an offsetting culture

3 #



models


1)  Shifting power structures 2) Poor monitoring

3) Volunteers are not free


1 #

Shifting power structures

Poor monitoring

2 #

Buy bad car

Don’t research

Buy bad car

Don’t research

Car breaks

Buy bad car

Don’t research

Car breaks

You can change your behavior in the future

Invest in the wrong thing

Don’t research

Fails, adds to corruption, etc.

zzzSCHOOL

$

Invest in the wrong thing

Don’t research

Fails, adds to corruption, etc.

You don’t usually know it!

zzzSCHOOL

$

Volunteers are not FREE

3 #



models


1)  Seeking out easy & fast solutions

2) Child’s rights violations 3) Creating experiences “for

the travelers”


models

1 #

Seeking out easy & fast “solutions”

Shifting from consumer driven “aid”

Child’s rights violations

2 #

“There were about 25 kids inside the ‘orphanage’. Every time a tourist boat pulled up and people went in to deliver their bounty, the children would stop what they were doing and shout a greeting or a thank you. Doing that every five minutes throughout the day is surely going to impact on your education. It was obvious that the children were being used for profit. Yet boat after boat of people were pulling up to get their holiday feel good points by gawking at children trapped in a floating cage, chorusing multilingual greetings like polished professionals.” -  “Orphanage Tourism: Cute Kids, Cashed Up Tourists, Poor

Outcomes”, Devpolicy Blog, Development Policy Center

Ask yourself: Would this be okay if this was happening in my community?

Orphanage tourism

“Many volunteers see it as their role to provide love, thus building strong emotional bonds with the children. However, when volunteers leave, these bonds are broken and the children are once again left alone.” -  With the best of intentions, a study of attitudes

towards residential care in Cambodia, 2011, UNICEF-funded

3 #

Creating experiences for travelers

while overlooking the cause

The community or the project has

a need

The community or project puts out a request for volunteers

Volunteers supply that skill and 9ill the need

A sending organization has increased demand for a speci9ic location or type of volunteer

project

The organization seeks out more

placements to 9ill the volunteers’ demands

The hosting organization agrees to take the volunteer, in exchange for

payment or in hope of continued donations

Perceived Model

Frequent Model

“You know, Americans always want to paint things. They want to paint buildings, so we have a building we let them paint. Usually we have to repaint the walls after the Americans leave because they don’t do a very good job.” -  Excerpt from Rethinking Short-Term Missions for Long-Term

Impact by Mary Faulds

An ILLICH Break

http://bit.ly/illich

Intrinsically interlinked

Videos & tools soon at learningservice.info

•  Throughout the Journey:

Adopting a Learning Mindset

•  Before departure: Thorough

Research

•  While Abroad: Humble,

Mindful, and Self-Reflective

Action

•  Back at home: A life-long

approach

The trajectory of the book…

Adop5ng a learning mindset

-  Pre-departure tone-setting

-  Debriefs -  Acknowledging cultural

lens -  Open issues up for

debate

It isn’t changing your mind

It’s forming new opinions

based on new information

Thorough research

-  Transparency -  Impact goals

-  Power dynamics -  Skill fit (and the importance of

“attitude building” not just “skill building”)

-  Cultural context -  Learning opportunities

Humble, Mindful, & Self-‐Reflec5ve

Ac5on

-  Build relationships -  Avoid confirmation bias

-  Remember you vote with your money

-  Don’t forget the rest of the trip!

RESEARCH: Giving your money $ You vote with your money

Remember:

Do you want more kids on the street?

Avoid the long-neck-

women phenomenon.

Don’t forget the rest of

the trip!

A Life-‐long Approach

-  Follow up!!!! -  Nuance & complexity -  More questions than

answers -  Interconnectedness

-  Lifestyle & daily choices

The exact initiative

(a fundraiser, a volunteer trip, etc)

The experience for

the student

The issue or NGO partner

What are you married to?

Daniela Papi [email protected]

pepycambodia.org

pepytours.com learningservie.info lessonsilearned.org

Other RESOURCES

to consider

Global Ci9zenship -‐  Humility

-‐  Inter-‐connectedness -‐  Compassion -‐  Gra5tude

Awareness of Self -‐  Awareness -‐  Curiosity

-‐  Authen5city

Leadership & Skill Building

-‐  Responsibility -‐  Ownership -‐  Courage

-‐  Self-‐reflec5on

www.wheretherebedragons.com

Now also at learningservice.info

www.voluntourism101.com

Child Safe

Campaign at thinkchildsafe.org

Travelers Philanthropy Handbook

http://bit.ly/TFHandbook

More voluntourism guidelines

www.ecotourism.org/voluntourism-guidelines

Learning Service Charter/Guidelines/Videos

www.learningservice.info


pepycambodia.org

pepytours.com learningservie.info lessonsilearned.org

Claire Bennett [email protected]


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