The concept of volunteerism has long been criticized. Often, people never realize or think about that there are positives and negatives that come along with volunteer service. People tend to just think about the positives of helping people and people giving up their time to serve others and do not realize that there are underlying negatives to service sometimes.

 

        A huge criticism of volunteer service is that people do it for the wrong reason. Volunteering is often seen as “I have more than you and am better off than you, so let me help you.” Volunteers must ask themselves why they are serving; what is the purpose. Is it because you want to feel good about yourself? Is it because you are passionate about a cause? Do you like to feel better than other people? Do you like to help those who are suffering? Often the underlying tone of service is one of selfishness and of feeling like you are better than other people. This is a reason why volunteering is so heavily criticized because people are doing it to better themselves rather than for other people. Now this is definitely not true for all people. Some people just feel guilty for having a more ideal situation than some and try to humble themselves by doing service. It is a very humbling experience to dig deep into ourselves and really decide why it is we do service. I hope to always be serving God and others by completely putting myself aside and focusing solely on how to help others in the best possible way. That is a very hard thing to do because people are selfish and imperfect, but it gives me something to strive to and a goal throughout my service.

 

        The biggest criticism of volunteering is that it does more harm than good. This criticism is mainly aimed toward short-term volunteering. Short-term volunteering is typically a couple weeks long as opposed to long-term volunteering that is over several months and even years. There are quite a bit of negative aspects to short-term volunteering. One being that you are not able to create deep and fulfilling relationships with the people you encounter. Volunteers often try to do as much as possible while on a service trip. From the relationship side of this, volunteers are not spending as much time as might be needed to truly connect with the people they are serving. They are not able to foster genuine relationships and friendships and learn from each other since they are only together for a short period of time. On the other side of this is the fact that some people develop deep connections fast, but then the volunteers have to leave as soon as this happens. This happens very often when working with children. For example, lets say a group went to Nicaragua on a mission trip and taught bible school at a local school. The group begins to get close to some of the children and make real friendships. But then two days later the group has to leave to go back to the United States and the children are devastated and cling to their new friends because they do not want to leave. The Americans promise that they will see them again soon but these promises are empty because that is almost impossible that they will see each other again. This example really helps to highlight a major criticism of short-term volunteering. In my service, I hope to make deep, genuine connections and relationships that I keep alive by doing reoccurring service projects with the same organizations and people. I want to find an organization that I am passionate about and stay with it so I can learn more, connect more, and grow my relationships.

 

        Another criticism of volunteering is that the projects and services are often unsustainable. Sustainability means that something is able to be maintained and upheld over time. Sustainability is super important because what is the point of doing the service project if it is only temporary and is not going to last? An example of this would be taking food and water to places that are in need. This is great at first but it only provides a temporary fix. Instead, bring the food and water but put a focus on building gardens and using water filtration systems. If the gardens and water filtration systems are well maintained they can provide ample food and water for a long time and can even provide jobs and profits if they choose to sell their products. Volunteer service gets criticized often for not having long term benefits because the work is almost useless.

 

        Volunteers must make sure service projects are what the community actually needs, not what the volunteers might want to do or what they feel the community needs. As said by Shadle, “Is it a project that the community desires, and has prioritized? Or is it one that speaks more to us and our students, something we see as valuable, and that the partners “should” desire?” The partners that we work with should be the number one priority. The partners generally know the communities’ needs and know how to serve them in an effective way.

 

        Volunteers are often not prepared and not trained enough to go do service projects. If volunteers are not trained properly before they do their service, there can be severe consequences. Volunteers must be prepared to encounter and interact with people that might be much different than them. They must be able to drop all stereo-types that they once had of a culture or a group of people. The “don’t judge a book by its cover” saying is crucial to volunteering especially when you know you might encounter people who are different than what you are used to. Often, people do not know what to say or what not to say or what to do and what not to do around people that they are serving. Do the people you are serving speak a different language than you? Are the people you are serving required to wear certain things that they would be offended if you are not wearing it too? These are just a few examples of the questions that should be asked before one does a service project.

           

        Volunteers must also be prepared physically for their service projects. Mainly, they must know exactly how to do what they are trying to do. For example, if a group is wanting to replace the siding on a house, they must know how to properly do it. Prior training is definitely needed in an example like this because if the project is done wrong it can have effects on the house and the people living in the house. The type of training and the amount of training obviously depends on the service project but no matter what, a little training is better than none at all and going into a project blind.

 

        To me, an ideal volunteer is passionate, caring, knowledgeable, empathetic, self-less, and loving. There are many more characteristics of a good volunteer but those are just a few. I hope to be able to encompass all of these things as a volunteer. Avoiding criticisms is almost impossible, but as long as I feel like I had a positive impact on other people then it is all worth it.

 

Shadle, Brett L. "The Perils and Promises of International Service Learning." International Service Learning (n.d.): n. page. Print.