Also, the presence of a foreign volunteer within a host community emphasizes the need for local people within the developing community to work towards alleviating poverty within the area. A volunteer’s case study argues that host communities are so used to seeing poverty, and living within it, that they fail to challenge it, nor do they organize themselves to make the situation any better, this could be viewed as being desensitized to poverty. The presence of volunteers from the Global North brings consideration and pressure on host communities to combat poverty more effectively (Tiessen and Herod, 2012). Volunteering at home and abroad is seen to harbor positive impacts on the recipient and contributor of the volunteer effort. Furthermore, its part in character building (Rosenthal, 1986), and citizenship (Hyam, 1993; Butcher, 2017) is well documented. However, for a fair and thorough piece of research some case studies have been reviewed to include research and articles that discuss the negative aspects of volunteering at home and abroad (Boluk, 2017; Talbot, 2015; Butcher 2017; Davies, 2018; Tiessen and Herod, 2012). ( This reference is a bit confusing surely it should be placed after those articles are mentioned)
Volunteers can create a false sense of hope in host communities. Also, if volunteers act irresponsibly this can set a bad example and cause the creation of stereotypes such as volunteers buying gifts for host communities. Albeit a normal practice in the West, a volunteer being seen to drink alcohol or act in an unruly manner causes distrust of foreigners in host communities (Tiessen and Herod, 2012). Another negative impact is the sensation that as a volunteer the efforts were not sufficient, leaving the volunteer dissatisfied with their experience. Furthermore, host communities in some cases develop a sense of dependency on Western aid to save them (Tiessen and Herod, 2012). Additionally, cultural and behavioral differences can have a significant negative impact on volunteers (Tiessen and Herod, 2012). Furthermore, volunteer burnout is seen as one of the main negative impacts for volunteers in most cases. Volunteers typically become irritated and dissatisfied with their work in cases where there is a lack of recognition for their efforts (Talbot, 2015). The negative impacts associated with volunteering were that volunteers would commit more of their time than they would have liked to. This is what led to volunteers becoming stressed and burnt out (Talbot, 2015). Additionally, volunteers can also experience a feeling of inadequacy by being given trivial, mundane tasks that cause the volunteers to be less interested in their efforts, alienating the volunteers (Talbot, 2015). Furthermore, it was found that those who commit more time than they would have liked felt a negative effect on their commitments, as well as a lack of time to be able to take part in leisure pursuits, this becomes apparent for volunteers who realize that they have to reduce or stop the amount of volunteering that they do (Wylie, 2013 as cited in Talbot, 2015). In some cases, it seems young people are volunteering far too much and this causes volunteer exhaustion. However, according to research, young people in Scotland from deprived backgrounds are less likely to volunteer. The Scottish Government is committed to encouraging young people to volunteer.
Save your time!
We can take care of your essay
- Proper editing and formatting
- Free revision, title page, and bibliography
- Flexible prices and money-back guarantee
Stuck on your essay?
