Few will disagree that the concept of ‘volunteering’, doing something of service for
someone else, is part of the DNA and fabric of local communities, highlighting the best that
can be achieved when people come together to serve. Over the existence of human society,
we have seen the tremendous good that has come about when people of their own volition
have come together, often at times of tragedy but also other times, to serve those in need,
family and friends. Within every local faith and cultural tradition there is something that
describes this action and concept that is a reminder of that human fraternity. Volunteering
is very much active and present on a global, regional, national and local level.
Whilst there is much to celebrate in how volunteering is still an integral part of
communities, we still need to interrogate how volunteering is represented and discussed
and whether current discussions really consider, local realities, agency, ownership and
integration.
Volunteering as a concept, argument, terminology and process, in how it is understood and
discussed currently is a hangover of colonialism, shaped exclusively by Western / Christian
values, visible in power relationships, of the ‘missionaries’, often coming from privileged
places in their societies in the Global North, seeking to change the social, political and
economic structures of countries in the Global South with little input from affected
communities, the original ‘White Saviour’ moment. Initially, as the history of many social
movements show, volunteers were female, using their ‘free’ time as housewives to keep
themselves busy. Thus, many of the volunteering organisations and movements were led
by privileged women of society and volunteering remains disproportionately female.
Whilst other grandchildren of the colonisation, the development, and humanitarian sectors,
have started having conversations around decolonisation, the volunteering sector still
seems to be far removed from these conversations. This is a missed opportunity because
volunteering lies at the heart of community cohesion and engagement, either fed through
faith traditions or cultural values.
Yet in having a decolonised discussion on volunteering, we need to be prepared for some
hard truths.
Decolonising the volunteering narrative, must be bold to include a discussion around
disrupting the system or getting rid of the system altogther. A decolonisation discussion on
volunteering must consider that those from former colonised states, might want
decolonisation to deal with their own lived experience of oppression, injustice and
corruption brought about by their own current political and feudal elite let along dealing
with the colonial legacy. Decolonised discussions on volunteering need to crucially address
power imbalances today, inequity and inequality whilst discussing dignity, agency and
power. If we are discussing decolonisation of volunteering in the 21st century, we have to
address why it is still volunteers (largely white) coming out to countries with brown and
black subjects and ‘doing good’ and helping them, yet, very rarely is this reversed. Very
rarely is it acknowledged that people who volunteer are those who can afford to and that
the vast majority of people in the world, whilst having an intention to do something for free,
are unable to because their reality is that they need to put food on the table. Very rarely do
we in the volunteering sector discuss the real issues of the role of ‘volunteers’ from the
West / Global North, in geopolitics, military warfare, oil, illegal occupation, genocide, etc.
So a decolonisation discussion on volunteering whilst being cognisant of the past can not
simply ignore the current colonial or injustices that are taking place in the world today
Decolonisation of volunteering is about looking at the change in the whole system in place
that the sector subscribes to, describes, lives in and works with, which are oppressive to
people who are Black, Indigenous or a Person of Colour (BIPOC) and from what is called the
Global South, itself a disputed term. We need to have openand honest conversations with
a diverse range of actors, democratising the space for people to share ideas. We need to be
prepared to have our ideas, definitions, business models challenged, critiqued and even
changed. A discussion on the decolonisation of volunteering means that we need to provide
a seat at the table for everyone to be able to share their ideas, to understand how different
people from different parts of the world approach the conversation of volunteering,
decolonization which can be difficult for many in terms of language and understanding
We must also understand that Colonialism is a fact. We can’t repair the past nor allow it to
become a ball and chain for the future, and so we need to look at the inherent
contradictions and complexities of the volunteering project to see our own humility and
shine a lens on our own project. In the last three years, when the world was shut down, and
the lockdowns and restrictions of movement exposed the fallacies of the current system
and the unsustainability of the current volunteering, we were provided a blueprint for true
local, decolonised volunteer action where locals had agency and power to act according to
their local challenges.
Decolonising volunteering needs to think about an equity-based understanding of
volunteering action which means understanding that manifestations of oppression are
rooted in power hierarchies that often do not operate alone. They intersect with gender,
religion, socio-economic status, geography, sexual orientation, and numerous other social
markers, creating layers of oppression that are inextricably intertwined. Thus, addressing
one facet of inequity is not enough. Effective volunteering action requires a local
understanding and approach which is intersectional and operationally rooted, that provides
agency, enables representation and address power dynamics.
The concept of volunteering has evolved and changed happening in difficult conditions that
are difficult to measure; that are as informal as they are formal, thereby making it difficult
to integrate and as spontaneous as they are organized, making ownership difficult to
attribute. We need to recognise these are all vital components of a wide spectrum of
volunteering that has to be decolonised, redefined reimagined and rethought for the 21 st
century.
We need to do better; we need to be better, not because it is the good thing to do, but the
right thing to do.
This orignally appeared here
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