UnionAID Activity 2cVolunteering

ACTIVITY SHEET 2c KEY DEVELOPMENT PRINCIPLES Give priority to needs and interests of aid recipients

How can we help best?

Include all people in a community

The purpose of this exercise is to think about how we in New Zealand can best help people in developing countries.

Using the 8 principles (right), and bearing in mind that the main drivers of development are said to be expanding economic opportunities, facilitating empowerment and enhancing security, discuss the various ways that individuals can volunteer to help people in developing countries.

Rank these in order of their benefits (to the country; to the volunteer). If you had to make a choice, which of these volunteers would you be prepared to support or fund?

Encourage self‐help and self‐ reliance

Seek to enhance gender equality

Encourage active participation in aid processes by most vulnerable Ensure intervention is culturally appropriate and accessible

Promote collaborative approaches to development through working in partnerships

More information from: Fred Hollows Foundation. Available: www.hollows.org.nz Volunteer Service Abroad. Available: www.vsa.org.nz Dichter, T. 2003. Despite good intentions: Why development assistance to the Third world has failed. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.

Riddell, R. 2007. Does foreign aid really work? Oxford University Press.

Integrate environmental considerations

Adapted from AusAID

Volunteering Opportunities

Official government agencies

You can also work as a volunteer through an official aid agency such as Volunteer Service Abroad (VSA). VSA finds New Zealanders with the skills that developing countries have requested. These are often trades people like builders, carpenters, engineers, or those who can train local people such as nurses, doctors or teachers. In the Tourist volunteering 1960s, VSA used to send school leavers to help in Large numbers of organisations have in the Pacific, but now they rely on people with sprung up lately to encourage young skills and knowledge. These volunteers undergo a tourists to do voluntary work in poor rigorous selection process. countries. These often include a package

of tourist type activities and usually From 1964 VSA sent over 300 school leaver charge large amounts of money. For volunteers to work for a year, mainly in the Pacific. example, Volunteer Eco Students Abroad However these teenagers had few useful skills to (VESA) provides two week ‘adventures’ in offer and in 1974, this programme was stopped. which one week is spent working in Fiji or Today VSA believes “development is a process that the Amazon, on jobs such as building a should encourage and enable people to participate primary school or teaching children fully in the decisions that shape their lives. Today English. But is this helpful? This comment the average age of VSA volunteers is 48. See from the Volunteer International website www.vsa.org.nz (to justify their fees) suggests otherwise:

Non-governmental organisations (NGO)

A host community generally will not have the extra

resources to house and feed you. If they had the funds to pay a stipend, they would probably hire a Another organisation with a practical focus is the local person instead – someone who speaks the Fred Hollows Foundation. This NGO focuses on eye language, understands the community and culture, health programmes to prevent blindness and and is more inclined to stick around. restore sight to poor people with cataracts or From www.volunteerinternational.org other eye problems. This Foundation has a training centre in Fiji to teach doctors and nurses

throughout the Pacific region. These people then go back to the own communities to prevent and cure blindness.

Photograph from Fred Hollows Foundation website www.hollows.org.nz