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Volunteering overseas is an admirable activity but if you are paying a commercial company to give up your time you might be doing more harm than good.
It is difficult to criticize anything as positive as good intentions, but it is worth putting that aside for a minute. There are many awkward aspects to volunteering, especially for the short term. These might not be so clear when you are looking at a glossy brochure promoting everything from teaching kids to helping emotionally unstable elephants.
The explosion of 'voluntourism' (sorry for the ism) is relatively new and caters largely for the 18-24 year old market. It's an absolutely huge market in the U.K and is steadily growing in Australia. Generally having some sort of skill set used to be a big factor when volunteering, but no longer is this the case. Volunteering is big money. Big businesses are customising volunteering packages for everyone, regardless of their expertise, motivation or time line. This is great if the volunteers are filling a genuine demand, but unfortunately in some cases this has led to projects being created and matched for the volunteers' needs rather than a volunteer being matched to an existing project.
This is a strange reversal of roles between volunteers and the people (or animals or grass patches) they are supposedly helping. Who is helping who? And why? Companies such as I-to-I (quite popular in Australia and Europe) will offer programs to volunteers in a range of destinations and have programs ranging from building work in Africa to helping turtles in Central America. These programs can be useful for very short trips, but similar programs can be organised elsewhere without the considerable amounts you will be charged by this and other companies. Paying what can be thousands of dollars to work, of which 100% is pure profit for the company organising your program and not the people in need, makes no sense. Consider these points before deciding to volunteer with a commercial company:
These are commercial companies run for profit. Very little, if any, of the money you pay will actually reach the project you are working on. Your services alone are what you are giving when you volunteer (consider I-to-I is owned by one of the biggest package tour companies in Europe).
Why pay so much to let somebody find you somewhere to work for free? There are heaps of organisations that will happily take your services without charging you anything. You will still have to pay your own costs in getting there and living expense, but you won't be stitched up before you leave. Paying three grand or so (without flights) to volunteer for a few weeks is madness.
Consider that if you book through a travel agent their company will be getting roughly 10% or more of the total fee you are paying. This money and the rest of the "admin" fee is better given directly to those really in need.
Check out traveller forums like Lonely Planet's thorn tree; there are regular complaints about commercial volunteer programs
Aside from the commercial aspect of volunteer tourism, another consideration is whether or not you are doing the right thing by local communities by volunteering there in the first place. Would you want your child taught by different and often unqualified teachers rotated every few weeks? or even people that just volunteer on weekends, as is offered by some companies? Despite the hype there are not often shortages of teachers willing to stay longer term in many places.
To be blunt, most people volunteer for selfish reasons. It's hard to question anybody's good intentions but you might find yourself in a position doing more harm than good, especially through commercially concocted programs. The positives to this type of program might be more the people you meet than the actual help you give. You will most likely be in a group of likeminded travellers and get more of a chance to meet and interact with locals than if you were just passing through. Just be wary of any glossy brochures and any company asking for massive fees to set up the program. While making one kid smile might be a great motivation, it's perhaps better to try and stick it out longer term if you really want to try and make a difference in their life, rather than yours.
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