Considering Voluntour-ing? Tips for Travelers from Danielle Weiss of the planeterra foundation
Wondering what it’d be like to participate in a voluntourism trip? Interested in making a difference through travel but not sure where to start? This week, TIES asked Danielle Weiss of Planeterra Foundation for her insights into on-the-ground voluntourism experiences and some advice for travelers interested in learning more about voluntourism.
Read on to find out what voluntourism means to Danielle and The Planeterra Foundation!
Ask Danielle - planeterra Foundation
TIES: If you were to summarize, in 100 words or less, the reason Planeterra is engaged in voluntourism, what would it be?
Danielle: Planeterra was founded by an
adventure travel company, Gap Adventures, that was already providing
meaningful cross-cultural experiences for hosts and travellers alike.
Our voluntours take the cultural experience a step further to inspire
travellers to give back to the people and places they visit on tour and
afterwards. Our hope is for travellers to really impact sustainable
community development through mutual learning and by making connections
with local people.
Through Planeterra, travellers can continue to support our partner
projects on a longer-term basis. We are engaged in voluntourism because
it is a form of tourism that contributes to the local economy not only
through the volunteer service provided, but because the mission of the
tours is to do just that. Voluntours utilize local guides, incorporate
homestays, visits to local markets, restaurants, and other
locally-owned businesses, all of which provide additional positive
impacts.
TIES: Have you received any requests or
suggestions from travelers who have participated in Planeterra
voluntours to change the way the tours are run? If so, what was the
feedback and how was it implemented?
Danielle: We have had many travellers say
they would like to spend more time at projects. Therefore, we are
working to develop trips with longer volunteer components.
TIES: We encourage travelers seeking responsible tourism experiences to be proactive and ask questions
about the tour company or accommodation provider’s social and
environmental sustainability practices. What questions do you recommend
travelers considering participating in a voluntour to ask before they
book their trip with a voluntourism provider, in order to maximize
their experience and ensure positive impact?
Danielle: These questions by Daniela from PEPY Tours are great, straightforward and helpful for any would-be voluntourists.
In addition, here are some other questions that our Director, Richard Edwards, encourages people to ask of themselves and of their voluntour providers:
- When is my need to “do good” potentially a selfish act on my part?
- Am I helping or hindering by taking time and resources away from the community and project managers just so I have a “feel good” project to work on?
- Are valuable time, effort and resources being wasted and misappropriated just to prepare for and accommodate a voluntourist?
- Can I really make a contribution in a lasting, significant way in the short time I’m there?
- What is the optimum duration for a meaningful voluntourism stay?
- Is the project just a “front” for fundraising or attempt to
generate exposure, creating contrived situations for my benefit and not
really the benefit of the community?
TIES: Tell us about your first voluntourism experience (personal or professional) and the impact that the trip has had on your life.
Danielle: My first volunteer experience
was a two-month solo trip to the Middle East when I was 19 where I
divided my time between volunteering on a kibbutz and traveling throughout Israel and Egypt. This first experience enabled
me to make lasting friendships with local people, gain an in-depth
knowledge of their daily life, and build the confidence to know that I
could travel alone as a single woman.
With that experience under my belt, I embarked on an adventure to
South America that would change my life forever. Through a university
study abroad program, I spent four months living in the Ecuadorian
coastal jungle assisting a local non-profit with community outreach in
surrounding villages.
It was the year of El Niño so we would walk for days along paths
through the jungle at times with mud up to our thighs, through
torrential downpours and wading through rivers to get to remote
communities. We worked alongside local farmers to plant fruit trees
around the schools so the children would have fruit to eat, we taught
environmental education, and started a women’s co-op teaching them how
make jam and weave hats out of banana leaves to sell.
It was the experience of working with local people that had an
incredibly profound impact on my life. I learned that the poorest
people in the world are also among the most entrepreneurial, and that
it was always the people that appeared to have the least that gave me
the most. Now with over 15 years of experience volunteering and working
with numerous community development projects, I have found that the
projects and organizations that succeed are the ones that are based on
solidarity, not charity. Local people have the capacity to move
mountains when provided with the right tools to do so.
Travelling and volunteering have opened my eyes, my heart and my
mind allowing me to experience new cultures, to appreciate the natural
beauty of each destination and to make lasting friendships with people
from all over the world. It is my pleasure to have spent the past 10
years working for Gap Adventures, first as a tour leader and now as the
South America project manager for the Planeterra Foundation, which
enables me to continue working with communities throughout Latin
America and to develop meaningful cross-cultural volunteer experiences
for our travellers.
TIES: What would you recommend first-time
voluntour participants to do before their trip so they will be prepared
to make a difference?
Danielle: Think about the fact that this
type of trip is “community-based” which means you will be working
and/or living side by side local people, often in rural areas. So you
probably speak a different language than they do! Learn basic phrases
in their language to show them that you are interested in their culture
– and it will help with communication! Learn about the country, the
customs, and the organization or project you are going to be
volunteering with.
Be open-minded, flexible and willing to pitch in a helping hand
where you can. Think of it as a learning experience, where you learn
from them – about their way of life, and appreciate the differences,
always remembering YOUR way is not always the RIGHT way. There are many
ways in the world and we can all learn from each other.
about danielle weiss, project manager, planeterra foundation
Tell your friends about how they too can get involved in voluntourism.
