Volunteered in Kenya for 3 months with IVHQ - Blog

I'm sure the locals benefited so much from you being there for a measly 3 months! That's hardly enough time to actually get to know anybody at a project. Although i'm sure the charity has benefited quite alot from that hefty £5000 you gave them.

Classic voluntourism. Be honest, behind the 'i'm dedicating my time and money to help these poor guys' thoughts in the forefront of your mind, you were really thinking 'i'm so much better than everyone else, living out here, having a free holiday while offering absolutely nothing of value to these people. Can't wait to put these pictures up on facebook and brag and say how much people there changed me.'

I'm pretty sure you could get quite a lot done in 3 months.

Giving a rural village fresh water could be done in a few days.

A few small homes could be built.

Toilets could be built.

If you're actually qualified to do those things, and have carried all the equipment in your backpack then maybe - you'd need a massive drill, a team of experienced builders and lots and lots of materials. Then you'll have to brief the entire village on how to make sure they don't break anything and if they do, how to fix them.

A charity once fundraised thousands of pounds to buy tractors for a village in Africa. The people were all happy of course and for the next few weeks they were able to farm their crops with ease. However, the tractors started breaking down. The locals had no idea how to fix them because no one had bothered to tell them and no one had trained them in the skills needed and so just left them or scrapped them for metal.

Instead of going over and helping them, you make things worse. Mainly, voluntourism and the organisations that offer life-changing experience for '3 to 6 months' are for the volunteer's own sense of worth, not the people they're supposedly helping - so they can say they've done their bit for humanity and post great pictures on Facebook. I bet 99% of the volunteers never return to the place they went and if they do, I bet none of the villagers even remember them for the amount of volunteers that conveyor belt through their village.

I'm sure the locals benefited so much from you being there for a measly 3 months! That's hardly enough time to actually get to know anybody at a project. Although i'm sure the charity has benefited quite alot from that hefty £5000 you gave them.

Classic voluntourism. Be honest, behind the 'i'm dedicating my time and money to help these poor guys' thoughts in the forefront of your mind, you were really thinking 'i'm so much better than everyone else, living out here, having a free holiday while offering absolutely nothing of value to these people. Can't wait to put these pictures up on facebook and brag and say how much people there changed me.'

Sorry, I thought it'd be one of those expensive gap year organisations. What exactly does that money entail? Flights, house, food, travel? Keeping in touch with them? So these families in the slums have computers do they. Be honest, you'll never revisit the place and none of them will remember you. Hundreds of volunteers must run through that place every year.

Because 3 months is no way near enough time to even establish any sort of contact with people of such a different culture and lifestyle, let alone even to even begin to understand them. I've done it myself; it took 5 months just to break past the barrier and master the language enough for us to have small but intriguing conversations. You flew in from England and instantly began walking around these slums with your expensive cameras and phones... maybe if you had lived in the slums for a year, shared their hardships, lived on the money they earned, ploughed the fields and worked the jobs they do then maybe you might be getting somewhere.

From what i've read by skimming over your blog you zipped too and from projects of teaching to a food aid programme; I can say that I taught for over a year and by the end I still had so much work to do for them. Last winter I was actually living with a partner and my family in Tibet in a project i'd been in for a year. We had a nice Tibetan Losar dinner and then went out to the town with everyone for fireworks. Do you know why I wasn't handing out donations to all the beggars and villagers who lived in mud huts and tents? Because i'm not a self-righteous, arrogant Westerner. Do you know how non-Westerners feel when they see a rich, white kid walking around their hometown handing out little donations while taking photos on their expensive cameras? They laugh at it. And the fact that you're even boasting about it on here shows it too be true.

Actually I think you'll find volunteering is a 24/7 thing if you want to do it properly. I've volunteered myself and had to work 6 days a week for a year, from 8 in the morning to 22.30 at night. If I had gone into school 2 days a week to teach a 40 minute English class then the kids would of laughed and it would of been better for them in me not being there. What's the point of volunteering if you teach the basics of a subject for a couple of weeks and then swan off to see all the sights and have a good time drinking?

Volunteering is a truly noble thing to do, and I respect it entirely, but only if you do it properly. These 3 month gap year organisations offer no benefit to the people they're trying to help. Imagine being a poor villager and seeing truck load after truck load of rich foreigners coming into your village every 3 months to teach a couple of lessons and then swan around the sights and get drunk. It's worrying.

Computers in people's homes in the slums are very rare, but many do have internet enabled phones (often stolen/bought from black market type places) because they have managed to save up for it (having been in to many homes in Kibera, I was actually surprised to see some of the luxuries (not by our standards of course) that families had saved up for, such as a small flat screen TV or a CD player), and there are internet cafes (electricity and internet services (usually from a mobile phone network SIM card in a modem)), so many have Facebook and email access. I actually keep in touch with a pastor, and two guys who helped on the feeding programme and worked at the disability school, all 3 of whom live in Kibera, via email.

You are correct in saying hundreds of volunteers go through every year. But you are, again, making assumptions. I met several returning volunteers, and I have every intention of doing the same. Of the two of us, I am the only one in a position to be able to judge whether people will remember me (actually, I'm the only one in a position to talk about most of the points you have made), and I have no doubt that many will.

It helps to know a bit about a country before talking about cultural differences. English is a second language in Kenya. The language barrier wasn't too much of an issue, for the most part. In fact, in recent years, English has actually become far more prominent in schools, many lessons now being taught in English, regardless of the subject (though there is a push to change this). You could often guess how people had been brought up, based on their language capabilities. In the more rural areas, people would be fluent only in their tribal tongue, speaking very little English, or even Kiswahili in some cases. In the urban areas, it varied greatly. Taking my experiences in Kibera as an example, those that had a somewhat decent education would be fairly good at English, and more fluent in Kiswahili and their tribal tongue. Those that had lived in Kibera all/most of their life, true Nubians, would speak mostly Arabic. But for the most part, English is very prominent, you'd even hear Kenyan's having conversations in English.

Not being an idiot, I didn't take an expensive camera and phone (which was a wise choice, since I had my phone pick pocketed, and was almost mugged). Of course I didn't experience first hand how people live there. But having walked around Kibera almost every day for 3 months, I think I have a fairly good idea on what it is like. But I feel that regardless of what I say on this point, you'll just throw back that I haven't experienced it for real, so I won't waste any more time on it.

It is true, I switched between several projects. The first I was not happy at, teaching at a school that appeared to have plenty of teachers, I felt I would be better placed elsewhere. I began teaching at a disability school instead, that had no teacher, only a cook, and someone who would bring the students in wheel chairs to and from school. This school relied on volunteers to give people, who can't get a proper education due to their disabilities, some form of education and hope in their lives.

I have nothing but respect for what you have done, there is no doubt you have probably done more than I have in the 'measly' 3 months I was there. But I hate your attitude towards other volunteers and the assumptions you make. You sound like the one who thinks you're better than everyone else. It doesn't matter how long you volunteer for, how many hours a day. It doesn't matter if the people you are helping remember you specifically, all that matters is that you have made the effort to make some kind of difference, even if that difference is minimal in the grand scheme of things, in whatever way you can. I saw many volunteers come and go, most only do a couple of weeks due to other commitments back home, and they feel bad when they realise there are other staying for months. We have to explain to them it doesn't matter. They have taken their personal time to come and help other people. That is all that matters in volunteering. And everyone is entitled to some wind down time. Most placements aren't running 24/7 (apart from orphanages), so if people want to 'swan around' and have a few drinks, that is their choice to do so. It is their free time after all.

Having read through some of your post history, I have concluded that you are indeed a troll, and will not be wasting any more time responding to you.

I sincerely hope your comments here do not put anyone off from pursuing a similar experience to mine.

For the record, the tourist village is acknowledged in the album, nowhere do I state it is the true Masaai experience. And I went on one safari, you seem to have now turned to making **** up to back up your obnoxious opinions.

I've given you a rational, honest argument and because you can't answer back you call me a troll.

I hope they do because they'd be wasting their money and time. You honestly did nothing in that village besides tidy up some books and teach a couple of lessons and hand out a couple of bags of food and you proclaim you helped people and made great friends.

Exactly. You went to a fake Masaai village and not the real one. Why? Sums up your whole experience out there. You're shown a fake experience that gives you a sense of self-worth instead of the true experience.

Stop trying to boast on here and make people go 'OH I'M SO PROUD OF YOU FOR DOING THIS' because it's stupid and basically narcissism.

Well he seems to be an absolute arse.

I want to volunteer with IVHQ but I've seen some really bad reviews about them being a profit organisation etc etc. can you please just reassure me (I know you've already done this) that this isn't the case?

Well someone's a ray of sunshine. I think what you did was absolutely awesome and would love to do something like that one day. It must really of changed you as a person?

Will definitely have a read of you blog later I volunteered with what Laozi calls a gap year company, yes it was a holiday but we did help people out there i'm sure, what with setting up an after school club and playing games, playing football with the children, continuing reforestation work that was started by earlier groups. I'm really not sure what gripe Laozi has with what you did, I think it's good that people help other people out, regardless of where you are or how much you paid for it, i think he's jealous of your experiences

Hi, I'm considering joining the Kenya program with IVHQ in April this year! I have a trivial question though, how did you keep in contact with family and friends while you were there? Is it easy to sign a 3G package for my phone? Thanks!