Students Who Volunteer Abroad Would Do More Good at Home
As growing numbers of Americans venture abroad to do volunteer work, some clear-eyed advice to the well-intentioned
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Dear international volunteer:
Thank you for spending some of your summer vacation working without pay overseas. You are joining around 1 million fellow Americans who spend a few weeks abroad each year tutoring, mentoring, or helping to build homes, schools, and clinics. I hope you build friendships and come away with an interest in developing countries that lasts a lifetime. Before you go, a bit of advice: The cost of your trip almost certainly outweighs by an order of magnitude the benefit it will bring to your host communities. That shouldn’t stop you getting on the plane, but it should make one thing very clear. You are not going to save people, you are going to learn from them.