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[Applause]
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the world is full of idealistic young
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people who want to do their part in
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changing the world and making it a
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better place I would count myself among
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them but over the past few years I've
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started to realize that we idealistic
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young people are also potentially
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dangerous because we're trying to help
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without really knowing what we're doing
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you've probably heard of volunteerism or
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service-learning it basically refers to
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groups of usually young Western
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do-gooders traveling into an oppressed
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area or country to volunteer at projects
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like building a school or teaching
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English or planting trees but these
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kinds of projects I would argue often do
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more harm than good I want to tell you
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about my journey both literally and
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figuratively speaking through various
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service trips and the ideas that I've
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come up with as a result about how I
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think we need to transform these kinds
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of trips in order to make them truly
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worthwhile when I was fourteen naive and
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curious I signed up for a group at my
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school called team Ghana as part of this
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group I am 20 others in my year traveled
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to Ghana during the holidays to teach
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English and dig ditches at our sister
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school in matching t-shirts and lesson
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plans all prepared we rocked up at the
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school for a week that arguably is why
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understanding here today it was it was
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the beginning of a period of ongoing
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nought for me and I have to say my 14
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year old self thought it was fantastic
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in fact so much so that I went back to
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God
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more Hayden's while I was still in high
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school but the more time I spent
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involved in this project the more I
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began to question it certainly on my
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third trip to Ghana there was a growing
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nagging thought in the back of my head
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saying what are you doing here and I was
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becoming more and more skeptical of what
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we were really going there to do because
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it seems like the old service trip
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cliche that they gave us so much more
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than we gave them and yet we were
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calling this a service trip when I
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graduated from high school in 2014 I
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uprooted and moved to the country of
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Honduras in Central America now at the
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time Honduras has the highest homicide
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rate of any country in the world so not
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to lead my parents were terrified in
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Honduras I was working for the uk-based
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charity project trust at an orphanage
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for extra children I was a teacher a
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nanny an organizer and a big sister
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figure to the 39 children of the home
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who came from a background of immense
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poverty abuse and neglect working in
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Honduras as a long-term volunteer menace
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that I got to see these kinds of short
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term service trips that I had the so
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long been a part of from a different
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perspective as they came in to the
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orphanage where I was working finally I
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was able to see just how detrimental
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these kinds of service trips can be
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especially in terms of abandonment
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syndrome disruption of routine and
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ineffective use
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time and resources these people didn't
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understand
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Honduran culture or the organizational
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structure of the home and they were
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coming in that creating disruption that
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meant that children weren't finishing
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their homework controls and every time
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they left with their cameras full of
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adorable photos they left behind these
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39 very confused children and as a
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long-term volunteer I was able to see
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just how much they were impacted by this
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this I'd like to share with you a story
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that I was told by a long-term
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missionary in Honduras there was an area
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near the city where I lived could
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sunport game and it was a noticeably
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poor area one year a few years ago now a
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us-based charity came to Honduras and
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decided to build new houses for some of
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the families from South Market in
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another part of the city to provide them
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with safe secure housing where they
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raise their families and in principles
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idea sounds fantastic but what these
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people didn't know was that some cocaine
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is a gang center gangs are a huge
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problem in forests and are largely the
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reason for the country's incredibly high
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murder rates and suffocate in the center
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of this it so can control that even the
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police can't enter any one juror knows
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this but they didn't so what they
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basically did when they built these new
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houses was they spread the influence the
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gang influence from San Joaquin to a
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whole novel part of the city thereby
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increasing violence and during far more
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harm than good
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trying to work in a culture that you
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don't understand can have drastically
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negative
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and good intentions are absolutely not
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enough short-term service trips provides
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simplified development issues that
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untrained Westerners feel able and
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entitled to help wedge these trips make
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complicated issues seem simple by
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putting emphasis on short-term goals
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that short-term volunteers can easily
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accomplish to gain a sense of
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achievement things like build school or
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teach a child or plant a certain number
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of trees but what these ideas fail to
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recognize is just how complicated
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development issues are poverty
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inequality violence and crime there are
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no easy short-term solutions for these
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problems having said that I know that
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nobody goes to Ghana or anywhere else
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for that matter with the aim of causing
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harm of course you go as I did because
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you believe that in some way you can
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help but the truth is you can't I'm not
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talking here about training them
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qualified professionals I'm talking
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about young untrained foreign volunteers
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think about it this way the resource
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that developing countries usually have
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above all others is unskilled labor they
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don't need you as well that being said I
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think there is one aspect of these trips
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that is invaluable
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and that is the chance to see a totally
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new part of the world and the impact
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that this can have on your perspective
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before living in Honduras I had never
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been the only white person
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or the only English speaker or the only
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one who had finished high school I'd
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never experienced living without
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electricity and water but days at a time
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I've never seen dead bodies on the
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streets or guarding the fitti lining the
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walls of a city that I call home
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I've never spoken to a nine-year-old
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girl about how she used to work in the
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sex industry well listen as an
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eight-year-old boy told me about the
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time he watched his father shot three
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times and fall backwards off a bridge
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into the river dead and also never
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danced by Chaka or make tortillas on a
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regular basis or invited my Honduran
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friends over for a dinner of pasta and
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tomato sauce which for some reason they
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couldn't understand the appeal of these
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experiences change you in a way that I
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don't think you could be changed from
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the comfort of your own home and that is
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valuable even if it is only for you and
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I think that's reason enough to travel
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to a developing country but it requires
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you to go there with the aim of learning
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I think we can make several fundamental
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changes to how we do service trips that
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can lead them to becoming more valuable
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both for the volunteers and for the
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people that they're trying to benefit
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which is arguably more important Western
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teenagers shouldn't be taught to believe
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that they can help God better and train
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gun ants but that doesn't mean that they
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shouldn't be going to God there are
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three things that I think need to happen
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in order to make these service trips
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worthwhile first of all if a group of
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untrained foreign volunteers is going to
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go to a developing country for a short
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period of time it shouldn't be a service
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trip if you're not trained for the job
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that you're doing probably shouldn't
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secondly discussions about developed
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theory in general and about the
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political historical economic and
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socio-cultural situation of the country
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that you're going through in particular
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should be learned about and discussed
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both prior to the trip and throughout
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earth as these concepts are put into
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context
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this makes volunteers think about how
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the work that they're doing fits in to
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the development of the community the
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country and the world as a whole and it
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both educates and humble with the
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volunteers it's so important that these
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people question their motives an ability
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to create necessary lasting and
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impactful change and thirdly volunteers
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need to understand the limited impact
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that any service trip is going to have
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they can't go into this thinking that
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they're going to make fundamental
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changes for the community or change will
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by all of the people that they're going
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to meet volunteers are guests in these
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communities and need to act as such not
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only respecting but appreciating a host
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culture the aim should be to serve them
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it should be to learn about and from
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them based on these ideas I and several
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others have been working to found the
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NGO educate which supports education
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related projects in Honduras we believe
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that education is at the root of
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sustainable development and that it must
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be a Hondurans for the acting to create
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this change so we as directors act
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really as facilitators all been we in
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the West are not superior and we need to
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stop with this mentality of the service
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that's perpetuating this toxic idea if
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development and human rights is
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something that you're interested in then
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travel can be a great way to gain
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first-hand knowledge be curious but be
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humble go out into the
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your eyes and your mind wide open and
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learn as much as you can
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[Applause]
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you
