Thanks to everyone who contributed to our campaign. Though the Indiegogo campaign is finished, our work is on-going, so if you would like to contribute to The Ethical Volunteers' bid to give grassroots projects a voice and help stop the exploitation of volunteers and communities, please go to our website www.theethicalvolunteer.com and buy a Lifetime Membership.

Our Campaign:

We are creating a global movement that promotes better volunteering overseas..... 

Join us, support us, and share our campaign!

I love volunteering overseas. It’s a great way to get an insight into another culture. To share and to learn from others.

But I don’t like profit-focused volunteer agencies that profiteer from poverty.

Have you ever come across an agency promoting:

If not, type the words “volunteer overseas” into Google and check out what comes up – companies based in Europe or America entreating you to impart with 1000’s of dollars to “make a difference in as little as two weeks”. Very often, these agencies corrupt international volunteering and exploit the volunteers and host communities they claim to be helping. Even if you don’t pay such high sums, many agencies promote bad volunteering practices such as volunteering for 2 weeks at an orphanage where you are allowed intimate access to vulnerable children. Who do you think really benefits: the volunteer, the child or the fee-charging agency?

How did I get involved in this? I was one of those volunteers that paid a lot of money to travel to East Africa and volunteer for seven weeks. I quickly realised that I had been ripped off and that my project was set up purely to attract volunteers and so I set about opening a hostel for volunteers, to help others like me avoid expensive agencies while directly accessing information on local community-run projects. I stayed on in East Africa for almost five years before returning to Ireland to work on The Ethical Volunteer.

The Ethical Volunteer (TEV) is an online video travel guide for volunteers that promotes a better approach to volunteering. We travel the world to visit projects that are run by the community, for the community and have signed up to our Code of Practice. We stay at local hostels and lodges, eat local food, take local transport and we film every step of the way. Through our insightful films we highlight everything you need to know to organise your placement independently of profit focused volunteer agencies, such as how to apply for a suitable role, where to stay and how to get there. Our community website will give you the tools you need to plan your placement. What’s more, we will show you how to do it right, through a series of films which will highlight the potential impacts, both positive and negative, of overseas volunteering, and guide you in making the best decisions for all concerned when organising a placement overseas.

So far we have travelled to Malawi to visit and film nine projects and local hostels/lodges, but there are hundreds more out there that we want to reach over the coming years, and that’s why we are running this campaign. We need to raise enough funds to help us get back on the road and film more projects. We also need a lot of time to edit these films (or funds to hire an editor while we are on the road) and get them on-line so that we can give volunteers information on the projects out their looking for their support and give projects the means of connecting directly with potential volunteers. TEV will be showing all our films on the largest social networking site for volunteers,  www.worldwidehelpers.org, (saving us a substantial sum of money in website construction costs – thanks guys!!) and in future TEV will be earning enough income to cover our costs. But right now, we need your help to grow TEV and to film more grassroots projects until we reach the point where we can be sustainable.

Check out what we are up to:

Fisherman's Rest: An Introduction: http://youtu.be/3F2VhxocZsI

Fisherman's Rest: The Projects Part 1: http://youtu.be/ilybIYW1jtA

Support us!

We want you on-board. The best way to support us is to join us and spread the word. The more volunteers we reach, the more of an impact we can have on the way international volunteering is carried out today. Share this campaign with friends, family and colleagues, e-mail it to people you know that have their own blogs or sites or who write for magazines/journals/papers. Our goal is to reach 20,000 new members, so use the 'share' tools at the top of this page and help us spread the word!!!

Invest in us

So far TEV has filmed various projects and hostels throughout Malawi and later in 2013 we will film in up to six more countries, with many more to come next year. TEV has joined with Worldwide Helpers, the fastest growing social network for volunteers and organisations in the world, and with their support our films will be available as they become ready from approx. Sept 2013 onwards.

Ultimately, TEV will be sustainable. However, right now we need money to cover our start-up expenses for the coming six months, and so our minimum goal of 30,000 Euro, includes:

If we reach 30,000 Euro we will have enough money to buy the equipment we need (what we currently use is borrowed or out-dated) and we can get back on the road for the rest of 2013 and reach more projects and hostels. We do, however, hope to exceed this initial goal so that we can cover all the expenses listed above and other expenses including website maintenance costs and editor salaries (if we don’t get help in editing our films it will take us twenty years to get everything done!!!). The TEV team could also do with a good meal and some rent money, as neither myself nor Bob have earned a penny since sometime back in 2012 and have funded everything ourselves so far! (We will take restaurant vouchers if necessary……).  

But this campaign is as much about growing our community as fundraising and rather than receive a few large donations I would personally love to see 20,000 people donate just 1 or 5 Euros to us so we can be sure we have the support of like-minded people and that our message is reaching far and wide! 

Why are we setting up The Ethical Volunteer?

The obvious answer is that the volunteer industry is taking advantage of volunteers and host communities and an alternative is needed to help volunteers’ side-step agencies. But that’s not what TEV is about, at least not all we are about.

In my years spent in East Africa working with community projects I saw the many negative effects that an unconsidered volunteer placement can have on the local community including builders taking the jobs of local tradesmen, transient unskilled volunteers gaining intimate access to vulnerable children, school classes and timetables disrupted by volunteer teachers replacing local teachers and organisations' staff using valuable time and resources training short-term volunteers, to list just a few. The Ethical Volunteer community website will facilitate communication between volunteers and grassroots organisations to ensure project co-ordinators have their say in choosing suitable volunteers while through a series of films based on our 7 Deadly Sins of Bad Volunteering we will encourage our volunteers to take the time to prepare for their volunteer placements, to consider the potential impacts of their placements, and to adopt the role of learner, not saviour.

By supporting this campaign through funds or sharing our message you can play your role in helping to improve the way we volunteer overseas. 

Check out more films by TEV: http://vimeo.com/66626526

TEV in the media!!

The word is starting to spread.... here are a few places where we are mentioned, cheers guys!

http://community.businessfightspoverty.org/profiles/blogs/the-volunteer-travel-industry-business-exploits-poverty

http://www.thetraveltart.com/volunteering-abroad-how-to-do-it/

http://www.malawitourism.com/pages/news/index.asp?NewsID=335

About Us:

Sarah Carroll first volunteered overseas in 2006 and has been involved in this area ever since, as founder/owner of Hostel Hoff, Tanzania from 2006 – 2010 and chairperson of the organisation Path To Africa from 2007 – 2010. She is the co-founder of The Ethical Volunteer.

Bob Kelly had been involved in TV and film making for over ten years both behind and in front of the camera. Most recently he presented the series The Ethical Hedonist on Travel Channel and is now the other half of The Ethical Volunteer.

Worldwide Helpers: The Ethical Volunteer has joined with Worldwide Helpers,  a volunteer network that connects volunteers and organisations from around the world on one platform. It is a place to connect, discover common interests and share ideas.

Steve McElhinney: Steve runs the fantastic site Volunteer South America which gives volunteers access to low or no cost projects all across Latin America and is helping us spread the word.

Martin Fox is the founder of The Centre for Global Leadership and met Sarah back in the Tanzania days. He is helping us out with much needed advice from his years of experience with business and funding!