{"items": [{"author": "Sarah", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/10100127419871392?comment_id=10100127436034002", "anchor": "fb-10100127436034002", "service": "fb", "text": "another opportunity to consider is volunteering locally, within your own community; for example, many schools, libraries, and nursing homes have space for people to come in and share what they got -- this might look like a story hour (my favorites are multilingual story hours with rotating guests...so cool!!), a specialty talk with question and answer, playing some instruments, leading a craft activity, a science experiment, a meet and greet with a firefighter/pet rabbit/coder, whatever. These little visits don't have to be especially \"skilled\" in that they're often for only 40 minutes, and you don't need extensive teaching or caregiver knowledge... but you can share your existing expertise and make a connection. They're pretty high impact, and don't take your whole vacation day, either.", "timestamp": "1576544571"}, {"author": "Nora", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/10100127419871392?comment_id=10100127453379242", "anchor": "fb-10100127453379242", "service": "fb", "text": "Yeah, I also thought this meant volunteering in your own community. Ideally something that doesn't require much training, or something you already know how to do.", "timestamp": "1576549557"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/10100127419871392?comment_id=10100127453379242&reply_comment_id=10100127455859272", "anchor": "fb-10100127453379242_10100127455859272", "service": "fb", "text": "→ I should have been clearer in my intro: they were asking about traveling to volunteer", "timestamp": "1576550713"}, {"author": "Pattern", "source_link": "https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/mnXRFBxvQWYsdLTDu#EBYmvwigrHy3tFf9F", "anchor": "lw-EBYmvwigrHy3tFf9F", "service": "lw", "text": "Possible interventions are stories.
Stories about how to pick low-hanging fruit are more easily verifiable.*
Stories about how to pick distant fruit are more difficult to verify, and call for a different means of evaluation.**
Stories about how to improve tree growing/orchard cultivation processes take a long time to verify, even if they propose a small change with a tiny cost. These also call for a different means of evaluation - if implemented, feedback is on a different time scale.
* "Just get a ladder."
**If two people get two regular ladders (that are twice as tall as the average member of the group), there's not a lot of waste. A ladder that's ten times as tall could be taller than the tree, and if it doesn't work, or a shorter one would have worked better, that's a lot of waste.", "timestamp": 1576550539}, {"author": "JohnBuridan", "source_link": "https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/mnXRFBxvQWYsdLTDu#hRSHqvY4RkNLQpvcb", "anchor": "lw-hRSHqvY4RkNLQpvcb", "service": "lw", "text": "Well said, but there are some things I think must be added. I think it is right to compare voluntourism to regular tourism and to judge it on its goal of increasing "local" cooperation. By your account, voluntourism should have the twin effects of increasing GDP (or the general success and efficient cooperation) of the members of the church group by a few percentage points and increasing the level of donations over many years to the voluntoured location.
When doing the math to calculate the cost-benefit analysis of these voluntourism projects we should actually write off the cost of travel because in our "voluntourism" model, we assume the travel was going to happen anyway. If that's the case, then voluntourism is almost by definition a net-positive. So I agree we shouldn't be too negative about it.
Nonetheless, I don't think we should call voluntourism effective altruism. For something to be called effectively altruistic, we should be forced to take into account the costs of the program, and the cost of a week and a half in Haiti is $2000 per person. If we assume that a person experiences a financial gain of 2% per year because of the increased group cohesion in the States, that person would have to be making 100k per year to recoup the loss compared to inflation. If the person makes more money than that and donates additional gains to the poor of Haiti, then that pays off for both him and the people of Haiti positively.
I think under these assumptions, voluntourism only reaches the threshold of being effective, when very rich people are doing it. When you are giving tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars away per year anyway, voluntouring does not make a big percentage difference to your budget, but will likely help you give to more effective causes.", "timestamp": 1576552334}, {"author": "Elliot", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/10100127419871392?comment_id=10100127461642682", "anchor": "fb-10100127461642682", "service": "fb", "text": "Shouldn\u2019t you also consider whether voluntourism is the most effective way of building community? What if you had low budget events in the church basement and public parks and gave the money you saved by not going on vacation to AMF?", "timestamp": "1576553254"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/10100127419871392?comment_id=10100127461642682&reply_comment_id=10100127499137542", "anchor": "fb-10100127461642682_10100127499137542", "service": "fb", "text": "→ Elliot I don't think voluntourism is likely to be worth it from a community/commitment/connection perspective, but I also think we've been too quick to dismiss it and should look at it more. Commitment especially is hard, since we don't really know the reasons people leave/drift away and it takes years to get even qualitative evidence", "timestamp": "1576582548"}, {"author": "Sarah", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/10100127419871392?comment_id=10100127506432922", "anchor": "fb-10100127506432922", "service": "fb", "text": "Oh, I see you clarified to just voluntourism travel. I hate it. :) I think that cultural exchange is super important but takes more time than a week or handful of vacation days. There's just so much learning that needs to go into understanding a new to you people and place, that coming in and thinking you can or should contribute/help/have opinions on what has been their entire lives... Disclaimer, I've lived abroad 3 times, for 4 mos, 2 mos, and 12 mos, and interacted a lot with the peace corps while there, who stay for 2-3 years. I think it's fair to say that intentions count for something, but also, we sooo don't need to be enabling white saviorism. Skilled medical labor for popup clinics is an exception where some help is much better than none.", "timestamp": "1576590466"}, {"author": "Lisa", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/10100127419871392?comment_id=10100127509721332", "anchor": "fb-10100127509721332", "service": "fb", "text": "It's a good argument that the funds would be much better used if donated, but the reality is that if they were not going, then young people most likely would not be raising funds. People donate to the participants majorly because they know them and they think that it would be experience. In reality, managing a group of young people is a lot of work, both for the organizers as well as the point person at the location.
It's important that the community where they will be serving identify the help needed. (This is a much broader topic in relief & development work. Donor driven projects aren't necessarily beneficial, and can be a huge waste of time and investment. An example would be water projects located in areas where local people see as hallowed or haunted ground, some place where they can't go.)
There's one thing I didn't see in the OP that is probably the biggest benefit of these trips. They get young people out of their comfort zone and looking at how other people live and begin to think about other people's approach to life and different circumstances. People who have never had cross cultural experiences can be narrow minded. For many it is the first and possibly only time they will ever see beyond their own culture. I think that it's an important thing for young people to do at least once.", "timestamp": "1576593240"}]}