O2E prides itself on being an ethically responsible volunteering company taking into consideration, first and foremost, animal welfare and environmental responsibility.
O2E believes it is crucial that there are standards that should be upheld when organisations place candidates within the voluntary sector. Since the main purpose of providing volunteers within projects is to supply much needed funding and resources that are otherwise difficult to come by, it is essential that the main beneficiary of the volunteers’ presence and financial contribution is to the project itself.
Many volunteer organisations have become established over the past few years aimed at recruiting and placing volunteers on animal, conservation and community projects; however O2E questions the actual impact volunteers make on some of these projects and the animals and people they aim to help.
Recent studies have been undertaken showing the presence of volunteers can actually have a negative impact on communities and some organisations are passing little or none of the volunteers’ financial contribution to the project or community. Projects that are sold as animal welfare projects are commercial ventures that exploit and abuse animals, conservation project volunteers leave tree nurseries alive and well only to have them die within a few days, and the transient nature of social development placements that involves children such as orphanage care or teaching can have lasting negative effects on the children involved. Naturally, instances such as these are seen especially in developing countries, where individuals and communities are easily taken advantage of.
The term Voluntourism has come to define the growing number of volunteer projects which have little value to beneficiaries. Instead these projects provide little other than warm fuzzy feelings and photo opportunities for the volunteer. The volunteer leaves believing they have made a difference and have contributed to a worthy cause, none the wiser that they have simply undertaken a tour in irresponsible travel. Worse still, they may have contributed negatively to broader issues such as local job loss, placed increased stress on local sanitation systems and water supplies, supported negligent animal breeding programs or supported projects where profits go straight into the pockets of project owners or organisers rather than to achieve project outcomes.
When you look at the fine print, many of these Voluntourism operators are travel agents looking to capitalise on the growing “market” of people who have made a selfless decision to dedicate some time, money and effort during their leisure time to a cause they believe in. These operators are often unaware or nonchalant about the wider ramifications that many of these activities bring. We believe that this only reinforces to the volunteer that such activities are acceptable. An example of this is elephant riding which is seen by most to be a normal and common practice, however, although the line between wild and domesticated elephants initially seems very distinct, the domesticated elephant has never been selectively bred and thus both genetically and behaviourally remains a wild elephant.
O2E was founded and is run by volunteers. It was established with one main objective in mind; to create partnerships between individuals and animal welfare and conservation organisations so that positive contributions could be made by the volunteer, both short term at the project and long term with a change of attitude and global responsibility.
The first step is to recognise the major environmental problems faced by the planet today including over population, deforestation, animal extinction and water pollution. The second step is to do something about it! This focus, on one individual or one action at a time, may seem like a slow route to a more sustainable world. However, it is individual change at the grassroots level that makes it possible for broader social and policy progress to occur.
