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The Promises and Pitfalls of Global Health Volunteering (The Culture and Politics of Health Care Work)
ILR Press
February 2016
On Sale: February 16, 2016
274 pages
ISBN: 150170009X
EAN: 9781501700095
Kindle: B01B8FPSHA
Hardcover / e-Book
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Non-Fiction | Non-Fiction Political
Overseas volunteering has exploded in numbers and interest
in
the last couple of decades. Every year, hundreds of
thousands
of people travel from wealthier to poorer countries to
participate in short-term volunteer programs focused on
health
services. Churches, universities, nonprofit service
organizations, profit-making "voluntourism" companies,
hospitals, and large corporations all sponsor brief
missions.
Hoping to Help is the first book to offer a comprehensive
assessment of global health volunteering, based on research
into how it currently operates, its benefits and drawbacks,
and how it might be organized to contribute most
effectively.
Given the enormous human and economic investment in these
activities, it is essential to know more about them and to
understand the advantages and disadvantages for host
communities. Most people assume that poor communities benefit from the
goodwill and skills of the volunteers. Volunteer trips are
widely advertised as a means to “give back” and “make a
difference.” In contrast, some claim that health
volunteering
is a new form of colonialism, designed to benefit the
volunteers more than the host communities. Others focus on
unethical practices and potential harm to the presumed
“beneficiaries.” Judith N. Lasker evaluates these opposing
positions and relies on extensive research—interviews with
host country staff members, sponsor organization leaders,
and
volunteers, a national survey of sponsors, and participant
observation—to identify best and worst practices. She adds
to
the debate a focus on the benefits to the sponsoring
organizations, benefits that can contribute to practices
that
are inconsistent with what host country staff identify as
most
likely to be useful for them and even with what may enhance
the experience for volunteers. Hoping to Help illuminates
the
activities and goals of sponsoring organizations and
compares
dominant practices to the preferences of host country staff
and to nine principles for most effective volunteer trips.
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