This is a guest post from Rishi Bhandari, a Nepali who grew up surrounded by international volunteers.
I had a bit of an unconventional childhood. I was born in the western hills of Nepal to a wonderful family, but who were seriously lacking resources. They moved to the southern lowlands when I was a baby and started out with nothing there – we had no land and we stayed in a shared barn. So at the age of five I moved away from my family in order to grow up in an ashram community on the outskirts of Kathmandu. I ended up living in the ashram for 17 years. I was educated in the community school and studied up to bachelor’s level. As I got older I took on more responsibility in the day to day running of the community.
The ashram was both a farm and place of spiritual learning. In most ways it was self-sustainable – growing its own food and generating an income through selling products made there. But it was also a place where outside visitors would come to stay – to learn, to come on a personal retreat, to volunteer in the school, or to offer us some kind of service project. Hundreds of people passed through the community as I was growing up there, staying for anywhere between one day to several months. So in that way I was lucky that as a child I had exposure to people from all over the world.
I first encountered international volunteers when I was five, and I loved them! As a five-year-old kid, who doesn’t enjoy being tossed up into the air and given candies? But the irony was that they always only stayed for a short period of time, so the fun interactions were tainted by the knowledge that it was all going to be over soon. And when they would leave I would feel a keen sense of loss.
As I look back now, the behaviour of these foreign visitors was really bizarre. They would travel halfway around the world to basically spoil and coddle children, for a very short time, when the children clearly were not treated that way in their normal life. In Nepal people tend to show love in more subtle and less physical ways, so it was confusing to have that switched on and off as a kid.
When I reflect on it, I feel like the volunteers were treating us like we were from another planet. We were commodities to be used for a short period of time, not children with feelings and aspirations, or who are prone to attachment issues. There is a certain sense of exoticism associated with volunteering with kids overseas, that you can see on the posters that advertise these experiences. The images seem to say: “Look at these smiling brown children! They are poor but happy!” Volunteers internalise these messages and treat children like toys, who are there to be touched and be tossed around. They didn’t treat us as complex, rounded human beings.
“It all comes down to the subtle effects of colonialism.”
I started to notice all of this even as a kid. I was pretty mature from a young age. I was inquisitive, I read lots of books, and I was strongly affected by the interactions and dynamics around me. People coming into my life and then immediately going had a deep-rooted impact on me, that lasted a long time.
One of the things that felt most disempowering was when foreign visitors showed up in order to teach us. Most of these volunteers were just around 20-21 years old themselves. The hubris of showing up in a culture they knew nothing about and assuming that they had things to teach is mind-boggling. I used to think: “You people have no idea about this place, you don’t even know how to eat the food here, how on earth do you feel entitled to be our teacher?”
It makes me feel sad. I just think: “What the heck has happened to us, to allow this kind of thing?” It all comes down to the subtle effects of colonialism. The western kids grow up with the idea that they can do anything – that they can come to another place and teach anything, build anything, offer anything. And Nepali society is somehow brainwashed into believing that these teenagers really do know what they are doing. The cumulative impact of this can be really tiring.
I was a smart kid, but as everyone around me held those beliefs I too was influenced by them to some extent. Of course I always knew that the methods of these young volunteers were flawed and they wouldn’t be able to “save” anyone or anything. But the idea of western volunteers coming to help was glorified, we were taught to accept it and be grateful, so I wasn’t able to see them through a critical lens.
NOW RISHI WORKS AS AN EDUCATOR FOR STUDENTS STUDYING ABROAD IN NEPAL
Growing up alongside international volunteers has impacted me hugely. When I look into the bigger picture of what is going on with them I can see how their actions have a lengthy history and are related to human psychology. That volunteers feel the need to give things to people they don’t know on the other side of the world must be a response to a kind of emptiness in their own life. They live a life with every material wish fulfilled, and yet no amount of cars, luxury resorts, or material possessions can satisfy them. Giving charity and doing voluntourism are self-gratifying ways of filling this void that they feel – and are a whole lot easier than doing the work to find the root cause of what is wrong in their own lives.
There is a saying in Hindi: “Who will make their hands dirty by doing the cleaning in their own house?” It basically means that the best way to avoid dealing with your own problems is to get yourself involved in someone else’s problems. I think it is the perfect metaphor for what is going on with those volunteers.
“Volunteers swagger about the place as if they were a living embodiment of Buddha, telling everyone they are here to help and expecting praise and gratitude. It’s so awkward.”
Some of the attitudes that volunteers come to my country with bother and frustrate me. To judge issues as diverse as physical wellbeing, mental satisfaction, cultural health and so on, by material indicators alone is deeply flawed. But most volunteers come with the single idea that society should be measured by these things, because their own cultural values teach them that. Western society pins everything – community, happiness, fulfilment – onto material items. That seems like a narrow and skewed lens to me. And because of that, volunteers come to a country like Nepal and assume that everyone must be miserable due to a lack of “stuff”.
It’s a pretty patronising attitude. I’ve met foreigners that come to Nepal and start to feel guilty for the amount that they own back home. How does that help anyone? It’s an attitude that says “I am better than you and that’s why I feel guilty.” Volunteers swagger about the place as if they were a living embodiment of Buddha, telling everyone they are here to help and expecting praise and gratitude. It’s so awkward. Nepal has such a beautiful culture, the fabric of society is so strong. Don’t forget that the country only opened for tourism in the 1950s. When it was closed to foreigners before that people were not starving. Community structures were in place, social networks were strong, cultural heritage was intact. Now everyone that enters Nepal thinks that the people have to be uplifted, and that somehow they are well-placed to do it.
I was speaking to a woman just the other day who had been to rural Nepal. She said: “To see the poverty of these people opened my heart.” It surprises me that people can feel such a deep sense of satisfaction from seeing poverty. It is poverty porn, basically, and it is really disturbing. It is like white people see the poverty of brown people as their spiritual path – they come here just to have their hearts opened by poverty. Almost as if they are saying: “Thank you for being poor, now I have seen you I can consider myself an enlightened person.” And then after a couple of weeks they can head back home to their air-conditioned houses and their SUVs and branded clothing made by child slaves, and basically continue causing all the problems that are keeping the people here poor in the first place.
There are so many enthusiastic young people that have set their heart on coming to “help Nepal.” What I would like to say to them is that your intentions are great, that it’s really nice of you to want to want to make a difference, but it’s not sufficient. I would say please analyse your motivations, think deeply and critically about why you chose to come to Nepal, why you have this incessant craving to help. Did you see media stories of orphanages, with children wearing dirty rags standing in the doorway? What happens when you see those images – is it a strong sense of grief or deeply rooted compassion that you feel, or something more akin to a fleeting sense of pity? It’s easy to feel pity. It’s a natural human response to certain stimulus. But pity alone doesn’t help anyone. Are you willing to cultivate compassion, to question your intentions, to interrogate your skill set? Why do you think you are the right person to turn up in a country and build a school, when you have never laid a single brick or fixed a window or door in your life? Do you know how people in this culture, from when they are very young, learn to build with earth and cow dung and straw? If you are serious about helping then you might need to build up an entirely different set of skills, and humbly learn it from the people here, not walk in with the idea that you have so much to teach.
I have seen countless examples of volunteering causing more harm than good. As I was growing up there was a surge of orphanages that just came out of nowhere. Suddenly dozens of kids appeared in these places more or less overnight. Let’s say for the sake of argument that the kids were in need and had nowhere else to go. But just two years later, in those same organisations, the kids were gone. What was the story there? Well it turns out that the institutions were solely reliant on foreign donations. At some point it had obviously become a trend to donate to orphanages, and so setting one up became a business opportunity. I am talking about several orphanages, just in the vicinity where I grew up, each with dozens of kids. All of them both emerged and dissolved within the space of two years. So many questions arise from that. Where did those children come from? What happened to them when the organisations shut their doors? Why did the institutions have to close so suddenly? What happened to the funds they raised? To an extent this whole story is one of using human lives, children at that, as bait for money-making. That has to be one of the most unethical things that one could do. It is a classic example of good intentions, money, and privilege doing extreme harm in a recipient country, which doesn’t get the chance to choose whether these visitors come or not, or what mess they bring with them.
“After a couple of weeks they can head back home to their air-conditioned houses and their SUVs and branded clothing made by child slaves, and basically continue causing all the problems that are keeping the people here poor in the first place.”
Growing up in a culture that is so famed for resilience it is sad to see outside influences damaging that. I went to a remote area one year after the earthquake had hit and found that the fields were barren. I couldn’t get my head around it – why would people who grow things for their livelihood decide not to at such a time of crisis? Well the answer was that there was so much aid pouring in that they said they didn’t need to. Who wants to grow food when there is enough rice being flown in and handed out? I am not invalidating the struggle that these people faced, but ultimately their resilience was undermined. Aid has the potential to overpower and devastate. It can create an imbalance and weaken spirits. If you constantly make people believe that they need help they will make it their ethos in life. In the quest to empower people you disempower them. I actually dislike the term “empowerment” – it is based on the assumption that you are more powerful and the people you are helping are powerless.
I am not trying to say that all aid work or all NGOs are bad. But the bottom line with NGO work is that it is an industry that needs to feed itself – in Nepal we say that it is growing like a mushroom farm. NGOs are some of the most well off institutions, some of the most prestigious places to work for, they are the owners of the most expensive cars, they are the most foreign driven institutions. Why on earth would a woman from rural Nepal need a pasty white woman from the suburbs of New York to teach her about empowerment? It’s like force-feeding a child powdered milk made from fancy formulas when he was doing just fine with breast milk. Rural women in Nepal need to learn from women in their own context about what empowerment means here. I hope that all these initiatives from overseas coming to empower us start to realise this soon.
[Part Two of this article has now been published and is here!]
Rishi Bhandari is a lover of the mountains, adventures, and wilderness. He teaches international students on experiential education trips, mainly in his home country of Nepal, and has strong views on how education should be more student-led. He is a philosopher by nature and loves delving into the moral truths of people’s actions, which he often does through his spoken word poetry. The main photo shows Rishi in his happy place in the mountains (Gosaikunda, Nepal.)
I would love to know what your take is on how we do educate student travelers? It’s unlikely that universities and NGOs will stop the practice of sending students, so how can we better educate students/volunteers. Ideally, students are there to learn and observe, not DO, but then that still feels one sided-that they are just taking from the host community.
I agree with you about your point that students studying abroad’s sole purpose shouldn’t be “doing”. But to answer your doubt, learning comes a lot from experience. The perspective and approach to “doing” abroad should be changed. Instead of doing as if you were to lead/help the locals, let them lead you and in this form of you “doing”, you will learn. It is fair to say that universities and NGOs aren’t stopping to send students abroad and if we want to make a change in “service learning” we have the responsibility to spread the word and shed light onto the issue so it can get recognized within society as a whole.
Very powerful and thought-provoking. Thanks so much for writing this Rishi.
Very interesting and I feel accurate perspective. I feel this ‘help’ is what has led to the decay of native Americans. They have lost any incentive to attempt to better themselves through too much charity, control and loss of their culture.
The decay of the native Americans occurred when the Americans came and took their land and slaughtered the buffalo herds and forced them on a “trail of tears”.
It really truth story of Nepal, thanks to sharing with entire the world.
Very powerful article and I agree a lot has to be done to redirect voluntourism to a less patriarchal system. This article is particularly poignant because the writer had personal experience as a receiver of the ‘aid’.
My focus when leading a group of youth to Tamil Nadu in India (through AVI) in 2003 was ‘cultural exchange’. We did some work around a school and each of us was billeted with a family. I felt, if anything, the local population got to share their culture and teach our young participants about how most people in the world live. I’d like to think this impacted their understanding of the world and this knowledge is still with them today. Meanwhile the people in the villages we stayed in learned a bit about us too. This village only had the one group stay. So it was a one off experience for them.
So hard to ensure these situations have good outcomes for all parties and doesn’t allow for exploitation.
You make a lot of really important points that need to be read widely. Not to disagree at all, but just to present another side, I know about projects with Habitat for Humanity which work hard to avoid this mistaken approach. The basic approach is helping people who have suffered from some disaster to rebuild their homes – working together using local know-how and also learning about the culture. The participants, in this case university students, were all clear that they were there to learn, not to hand over charity. And they seemed to have a balanced attitude. Young people need to learn about the colonialism that underpins our international economic relationships today. Thank you for this article!
As is usual with journalism there is a tendency to grip a notion and run with it regardless of balance. It makes sensational or provocative reading.
Undoubtedly there are many altruistic foreign ‘do-gooders’ who volunteer in Nepal. There are plenty of paedophiles too, alas.
However, to dismiss the actions of help as if it is some kind of misplaced ‘colonialism’ and guilt is misleading, if not absurd and niaive.
Many foreigners come to Nepal for long periods of time through a sense love and identity with the family values they see in Nepal.. ..not just to give money or attention for its own sake. Few seek praise and thanks.
Nepal is a corrupt and failing state -alas. It’s only hope is a rising generation of educated young movers and shakers .
I am proud to be an Englishman who enjoys time in Nepal every year teaching young people theirNepali culture and history but also trying to promote honesty and industry.
I am proud to sponsor many deserving Nepalis who need money to EXIST.
Above all, I am proud to have a Nepali wife.
JAI NEPAL
Hi Stephen,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this. I am glad that you find it provocative. I love the idea of an article provoking people. Amongst several other facets, there’s definitely a part that invokes people to confront issues that are hard to digest, and talk about issues that are quietly slept under the rug. Yes the rampant presence of “do gooders” and “pedophilia” that you mentioned makes it even more poignant and important to discuss and not sugar-coat it.
I am happy that you feel gratified by the work you do. I am good friends with many foreigners that are doing valuable work whilst remaining humble enough to learn from people of Nepal, and if I said all volunteering does harm it would be unfair and unjust to the work they do and people they are.
I am not a journalist, this is a blog post with a personal perspective on this issue.
And let’s talk about the fact that Nepal needs a generation of educated movers and shakers. I agree!! But how does this have anything to do with this article? Or are we holding on to the long held assumption that Nepal needs foreign people to educate them? And how about we also challenge our notion of “being educated” – making it not entirely about everyone fitting in the mold of a capitalistic and corporate framework, that’s a longlasting legacy of the colonial mentality.
Yes, Nepal suffers from crippling corruption but the way of addressing this problem is vastly different and colossally more complicated than some volunteers coming and spending their money to “help”. Corruption is a problem that has intense historical and systemic roots that is beyond the powers of a few volunteers. Having said that, that I also want to empathize with all the so called “developed”/”first world” countries like England reeling with the recent effects of catastrophic failures in politics. And if we can own the fact that we all have problems in our respective places that are complicated, we could be equipped with the understanding that would help us see the world around us in a better way.
I have no context of the work you do, but the idea that Nepalis need Englishmen to teach them their own culture, and Englishmen come to this country feeling like they are equipped to do so, fascinates me. Just like almost everywhere there are exceptions, but the intense self gratification and lack of humility that accompanies this endeavor more often than not is what baffles me.
I would love to hear your thoughts on part 2.
Rishi
I have been that guy building schools, planting trees and coordinating projects in many countries. While it’s a learning curve, I realized decades ago that I’m I leave behind. I’ve certainly harbored condescending thoughts about the large NGOs that come with large bags of money, drive what are sometimes the only cars in community, pay out of proportion salaries to their local executives while leaving behind shining resource and culturally inappropriate buildings, schools and a fractured community, I can’t say that I can see the entirety of my impact in the wake of my departure, despite my own efforts to be sensitive to this dilemma (which is not limited to just international volunteerism). The model for my micro-NGO is to only support projects conceived, designed and executed by the recipient community institutions, I’m certain we never do it perfectly. And that’s why this conversation is critical and needs more light shown upon it.
What an incredibly written blog! Thank you so very much for writing it Rishi. I’ll be sharing far and wide and hope others will do the same.
Really interesting article! I have been a volunteer abroad myself, and I have found myself often questioning the whys and hows of my activities. I do agree on a lot of your points, but if I can give you a prospective from the other side, I think there is a line to be seen between the complex of “white people needing to save the rest of the world” and the idea of wanting to learn from each other.
Yes, after volunteering we come home to our usual lives, weather that means owning a car or having AC in the house. Even if I sold all my belongings I would still be leaving in a somewhat “privileged life”. I can’t change that, I can’t change the place where I was born. What I can do, is learn from other people, cultures and countries, and hope to give back some learnings too. Because I believe the biggest thing we can do as human beings is learn from each other.
I come from Italy, a country that could learn a lot from other ones on many subjects such as transparency in our government and quality of our education system. If someone came to me from a country with a more developed education system wanting to show me how we could do things better, without arrogance or superiority complexes, I would take it as an opportunity to grow. In the same way, that same person coming from that same country will learn something from me and from how we do things where I am from.
Naturally, things are not always this simple and I still agree that the volunteering system is deeply flawed and often the motives and/or actions of the volunteers are not what we would like them to do. But when you ask, what makes you think that you have something to teach me, it makes me sad because I detect a defensiveness that may prevent you from seeing the good side of certain experiences. Yes volunteers need to be well trained and the activities need to have a purpose and measurable goals. And yes, because no country is perfect, if someone comes from the other part of the world, I can learn from them and they can learn from me.
It is so important to distinguish between voluntourism/for-profit programs without ethical frameworks and volunteerism programs that have long understood these issues and do not reproduce such problems (not working with children, especially in orphanages and other people in vulnerable situations, not performing medicine when unqualified, etc). This anecdote is an important reminder of the potential risks of the former category of voluntourism. Research involving a large sample of partner organizations and communities tells a different story of solidarity and partnership (when programs are in line with the latter model of volunteerism). Rishi’s voice matters and should be used to advocate for an end to voluntourism programs that involve working with children in vulnerable situations. The voices of hundreds of partner organizations and community members who have benefited from the ethical volunteerism programs also matter. We don’t make generalizations about all forms of medical care (i.e., we don’t conflate medicine with pseudo-medicine) so we need to be mindful of other false equivalencies.
Hearing thoughts like yours more and more which is a great sign that people feel they can now speak up. Keep going Rishi…it needs to be said.
A great blog Rishi, thank you; So much has been written by external volunteers and academics looking in, even if critical (myself included) but the most important home=grown perspective is the most lacking. Do write more (than part 2) and encourage others to do the same, it is so vital!
Really fascinating article and has made me think quite carefully about any volunteering I do. One think I would ask though is, have you taken the time/had the chance to actually speak to those that volunteer? Perhaps your assumptions will be proven right, or perhaps they will be developed further? Who knows? From my experience, many volunteers really want to help people out of a sense of inbuilt compassion. They reject the material life of the West.
Sorry Too much generalizations and Prejudices.
Loved reading your practical tips!!
We at Don Bosco India started our volunteer tourism program fairly recently.
I will be pleased if you can read and post your suggestions here:
There’s something that I deeply love about critical pieces of writings and perspectives. For a truly impactful and sincere endeavour ends up using critical perspectives a way of growth. My intention with this post was to foster that culture of questioning and analysis.
To call out problematic issues and behaviour patterns doesn’t invalidate the good that is happening through organizations and individuals. In fact it makes it even more pertinent to not tiptoe around and to speak one’s view.
Aid and help-based institutions and activities have long been exempt from critical questioning because the fundamental notion of helping is seemingly beyond critique. But we know from so many scandals that run rampant in some of the most sacred institutions all over the world that nothing should be given an altar high enough that exempts them for criticisms and questioning. This comes at a risk of being blunt and offensive, but honestly the consequences of offending someone’s feelings is much smaller compared to the real negative impacts on people and places.
Thank you all for your perspectives whether you agree with this view or not.
Rishi
Thank you Rishi for sharing your analytical article based on the experience. I couldn’t agree with it more. You’ve highlighted the issues so clearly and concisely. I wish people would really consider more in depth why they are volunteering and the impact it has communities left behind once the volunteers have left.
went on and on without a pause. incredible one. one of the best article i have read in this topic.
Thank you for writing this. Much needed conversation in this community. I hope your message is well received with love and compassion ❤️??
Very powerful and thought-provoking article (blog) Rishi, thank you sharing this important message. I’ve been living and working in Nepal for a lot of the past 15 years. Whilst I did start an NGO many years ago and we do still run projects that help empower people in rural areas – not me personally cos you’re right what can a silly white lady offer. but I think our Nepalese team do a great job and I know they also focus on responding to genuine need and not giving handouts, helping people realise what they’re capable of, not thinking they know all the answers either. It’s always very much a community led approach. We encourage them to have VA voice, to be independent,
so they don’t think they need people like us (whether it’s a local or foreign help). I’m sure we could have done lots of things better and we’re forever learning. we learn so much from so many people including the people who seek our help, to improve the way we do things. You are so right when you say Nepal has such a rich culture, I’ve always thought Nepal was richer than my home country and many others in many ways – I guess it’s all about how people define richness. I feel blessed to have come to Nepal and be part of this amazing country, hopefully help in some ways, and share the amazing stories of the people we work with too inspire people back home. I like the term cultural exchange. There are always things people can learn from each other, whether it’s country to country or within a country, regardless of the country or the persons economic status. I look forward to reading more of your raw and honest insights, experiences and opinions, you’re definitely one many can learn from. Thank you for sharing 🙂
It is true history of Nepal Himalayas region