Volunteerism on the rise

KATELYN JOHNMercury - The Voice of Tasmania (Australia)
ON a six-month backpacking trip around Asia last year, 27-year-old Sydneysider Ainslie Bartlett met two Cambodian monks who ran a local school for poverty-stricken children in Siem Reap.Through these contacts Ainslie ended up as a volunteer teaching English at a school for the children.Ainslie worked closely with the monks, staying in a guest house next to the monastery, eating with them and doing day trips on their Sundays off. For six days a week she helped teach English to the school's 200 children from the surrounding communities.Ainslie says her personal involvement not only gave her a unique travelling experience but changed her outlook on life."Ever since I came back I've felt like a different and better person," she says.Ainslie is an example of the growing number of Australians choosing to give something back to countries they visit, rather than being what can be seen as stereotypical tourists who care more about five-star hotels than the people, culture and environments they experience.The 27-year-old insurance underwriter "just by chance stumbled across the school", but travel agencies and volunteer organisations all offer a wealth of options for those interested in travelling with a conscience.How about taking a wildlife conservation expedition to the Amazon? Participating for a water conservation project in Kenya? Or lending your skills to help study climate change in the Arctic?And volunteering as an English teacher will take you to just about every corner of the world.The World Bank, which monitors ecotourism and cultural tourism, says these are the fastest-growing segments of the global travel industry."What we find is people return a third time, a fourth time, a 15th time. They realise this kind of travel is how you really get to see the world and experience more of the food, the culture, the camaraderie," World Bank director Kristalina Georgieva says.Australian Volunteers International says the 700 or more Australians that choose to volunteer with them worked for 4000 hours on 420 assignments last financial year, foregoing $18 million dollars of earning to work overseas.Australian Volunteers International (AVI), which has volunteer options in more than 36 countries, specialises in organising career-specific volunteer trips to places which that are in need of professionals with particular skills, such as accountants, social workers and project officers.STA Travel offers a range of eco and cultural tourism packages, including teaching English in countries like Ghana and Sri Lanka, conservation work in Equador and turtle conservation in Costa Rica. It and even offers travellers a chance to carbon offset their trip.But volunteer holidays don't always come cheap.Some agency-organised trips can set Good Samaritans back thousands of dollars – much more than the cost of travelling around the country on your own.Travellers can be asked to pay not only for their own airfare and accommodation costs, but the opportunity to volunteer.Some travellers, like Ainslie, are concerned that their money may not be going towards the places they visit.She says she'd rather find her own volunteer project and invest her money straight into the community."I always wanted to do volunteer work or charity work, but when I looked into it there was always a lot of cost involved and it was always in groups and really organised. I just thought it seemed a bit impersonal, not to mention expensive," Ainslie says."So I just thought I'd go over there and see what I could do."It's easy to pick up (volunteer work) over there, if it's something you really want to do."Zayne D'Crus from AVI says trips like Ainslie's can go well, but if they go wrong it pays to be with a volunteer organisation."We definitely do encourage people who are travelling to try and find volunteer options, and in some cases that works out very well for them," he says."But I suppose one of the reasons people go through agencies – whether it's ourselves or STA or wherever – is that you have the security of knowing that you're going to be looked after and supported through your assignment if something goes wrong."Because AVI is funded through the Australian Government's overseas aid program people who volunteer through that program have airfares and accommodation costs looked after. They also receive a living allowance and insurance on a job-by-job basis.AVI's Zayne D'Crus acknowledges that volunteering can be expensive but much of this goes towards administration."The agencies that put them together often have to do a lot of work initially in setting up the projects, in making sure the organisations that people work for overseas are being adequately supported for the expense of having the volunteers with them," he says.STA says the money goes to the communities and administrative costs for recruiting and organising volunteers."(The cost) usually includes the accommodation, transfers, most meals, materials for the project, 24-hour support and reps on the ground to ensure all is co-ordinated correctly."But Ainslie has put her money where her mouth is. Before leaving Cambodia, she raised $700 from her family which paid for new school buildings.They now have three bamboo-thatch classrooms with concrete slabs as floor – and there's enough money to build a toilet block as well. There is now room for 500 at the school.Knowing it takes $5000 a year to run the school, Ainslie is currently fundraising to support it after the death of the school's director, monk Rathana in a tuk tuk vehicle accident earlier this year.Now back in Cambodia, she handed over $4400 – raised by a sponsored fun run and a mufti day at a local school, where she gave a talk on the work the school was doing."I always promised when I left that I'd return and that I'd always help. And I couldn't not help after the experience I had there," she says.