"Deep Thoughts"

“Our Man In Granada” On The Downside Of Voluntourism, Part 3

Date: June 18th, 2007 |

(Start here for the first part of Steve Jackson’s guest post)
“The voluntourists (VTs) have contacted the NGO in the developing country. They’d like to visit and play with the kids for a week. The sustainable volunteer (SV) is wary about this. He knows it would mean taking all the children out of [read more]

VSO On The Media And Volunteer Tourism

Date: June 8th, 2007 |

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I recently came across an article from Black Britain, reporting that Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO – profiled here at the Volunteer Logue) is concerned that it will be unable to fill the needs of its volunteer partners in five countries (categorized as its five least popular countries) – Nigeria, Eritrea, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Mongolia. [read more]

The Value Of Any Volunteer Trip

Date: May 31st, 2007 |

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I’ll be honest: it strikes me that many “volunteer vacations” are arranged mainly to meet the desires of volunteers, rather than to meet a local need. Perhaps this is to be expected; many people with a genuine desire to get involved with a volunteer project abroad, typically the target population for volunteer vacations, [read more]

Bhopal News

Date: May 29th, 2007 |

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The latest news about Bhopal (see my take on the background here) is that the Madhya Pradesh government has arranged for an Indian firm in Gujurat - another state - to burn the chemicals for 9 million rupees. Environmental groups are protesting this. There are definitely health hazards of leaving the chemicals sitting [read more]

“It’s A Spy, It’s A Missionary, It’s An Aid Worker” From Reuters

Date: May 26th, 2007 |

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I recently came across an interesting article at Reuters Alert Net; it describes some challenges facing foreign aid agencies and/or aid workers, i.e. those “delivering” aid in a country other than their own. The article outlines a particular journal article, which was focused on a handful of countries it considers a group, but most [read more]

Food, Sex, and…Donating Money To Charity?

Date: June 15th, 2007 |

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That’s right, according to recent research, “knowing your money is going to a good cause can activate some of the same pleasure centers in your brain as food and sex”.
Researchers carried out various experiments and also found out that while people’s brains got a “thrill” for even for a compulsory donation – such as a [read more]

How Far Is Too Far? A Hoax To Inspire Organ Donation

Date: June 2nd, 2007 |

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Read the USA Today article to find out more about the reality show which turned out to be a hoax in the Netherlands. All of the “contestants” were in on it, and the producers’ goal was to raise awareness about the need for organ donation and also to pressure the government to adopt better [read more]

Bhopal Background

Date: May 29th, 2007 |

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I realize the importance of seeing the glass half full, but sometimes I read things that just make me want to throw my hands in the air. I spent several weeks in Bhopal, India, the city where the 1984 Union Carbide disaster occurred, so a story featured on Yahoo News today caught my attention. [read more]

The Case Of The Steep Steps

Date: May 26th, 2007 |

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One of the organizations I volunteered with independently – a non-profit in a developing country – was involved in the construction of a new building complex. The project was quite large; lots of time, work and money went into this. One day there was a meeting with various stakeholders – community members, the [read more]

On Changing Minds

Date: May 16th, 2007 |

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I recently listened to a woman speak about her experience working with handicapped kids. She had a background in psychology as well as, obviously, an interest in the particular field the work was in, but was interacting only in an informal capacity with these children. Nevertheless it was useful, she said, because when [read more]

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