I was recently on a radio show on CBC radio in Canada called “Q with Jian Ghomeshi” in a segment titled “Do gap year volunteer programs do more harm than good?”. You can listen to it here if you’d like. I agree with the comment regarding animal and conservation projects (trail clean-ups etc) as being [...]
When I first saw “Changing the World on Vacation“, I had to cover my eyes for half of the film. Did I REALLY say that, do that, THINK that? Ugh…. Watching the first year of our work at PEPY is like watching someone act out the exact opposite of what I now believe in terms [...]
This past week, Alexia Nestora of the blog Voluntourism Gal, hosted a voluntourism conference. I did a presentation about “Learning Service”, rather than “Service Learning”, and was specifically vocal about my disdain for Orphanage Tourism. I was afraid I would get tomatoes thrown at me…. but instead a lot of people agreed with the experiences [...]
This week I offered a class with my friends Kit & Matt through the new group/learning platform SkillShare. It’s a phenomenal concept: anyone can be a teacher and offer up a skill they have and any of us can be student and pay for a class on topics as varied as Knitting for Beginners and [...]
Oh how I wish that I had heard Ivan Illich give this speech in 1968. I imagine myself as one of the students about to be sent off to Mexico to “volunteer”, eager to “help the poor people”, smiling proudly as I shine in my own self-worth. And then I imagine hearing him start out [...]
It seems that nearly every GAP year program, international school curriculum, and business incentivizing “volunteer leave” is now harping on the concept of “service learning”. They are no longer calling it “volunteering”, as the learning is being emphasized, but what I think we need is a further revolution of this concept. I no longer believe [...]
… when not done right. And, I know I am probably jaded, but I think that most of the time, it is not done well. Read up on this: http://voluntourismgal.wordpress.com/2011/01/18/a-tale-of-three-schools/ These schools took money fundraised from around the world and just threw it out away. It’s SUCH a waste! And the people living nearby likely [...]