Ethical Volunteering

We pride ourselves in responsible tourism and ethical volunteering and so we were delighted and of course saddened to receive this email from a volunteer from 2018

Learning skills along side local builders and adding value

“I was part of the group that went to Tanzania last summer with Inspire Worldwide. After my trip to Tanzania I honestly had a completely different outlook on so many things and found it not only extremely beneficial for myself and my growth, but the community that we were with as well. 

After my trip to Cambodia with XXXXX this summer, I can honestly say the work was extremely different and I learnt to really appreciate what we did in Tanzania. I don’t even know where to begin with describing it. My trip was “childcare and education” - we went into the school everyday and taught English lessons and then painted in the afternoon. Of course I enjoyed myself and found it extremely rewarding, as did the kids, but I didn’t feel like it was as effective as what you taught me in Tanzania - which was based on making the community sustainable so they don’t fully rely on organisations and people like us. 

XXXXXX is a profit organisation and I feel like they don’t properly think through what we as volunteers do. We just go and play and teach, which is to a certain extent beneficial but now that I’m back, I don’t feel like I’ve made a long lasting and long term change. The teachers at the school were told to just wait while we taught, there was no structure and we didn’t include the teachers in what we were doing which made me feel like there wasn’t really a purpose. We didn’t follow a curriculum or text book and were told to just chose topics and teach it to the classes. 

A lot of the trip was also extremely luxurious. We stayed in a hotel with running water and electricity. We had days at the mall and were given budgets/money to spend which I thought was ridiculous. The trip is also advertised as a cultural experience for volunteers so we had days visiting temples and the area, but the little time we spent at the school was honestly not spent well. 

I would love to go back to Tanzania again. I really thought back about what you taught us and compared it to my trip, which honestly made me realise how unfulfilling it was.

 Click HERE for our Responsible Tourism Policy