What Can a Volunteer Do

I’ve been thinking about what it is that a foreign volunteer can contribute to a local charity in the developing world. Of course it depends a lot on the skills and experience of the individual volunteer, but there are some patterns. For example, a volunteer always introduces new perspectives on the local problems and issues, and on the organisation’s strengths and achievements. Volunteers can also provide much needed services for an organisation that it would not be able to afford at market rates. In my case I am certain that my host organisation could not pay to bring in a strategy consultant for more than five minutes at international prices! Local translators can also do a passable job at writing proposals and reports, but the best ones would again charge a substantial amount.

People in Sri Lanka also have difficulty accessing technology, which is something hard to imagine in the UK where broadband, WiFi, and high-tech gadgets are everywhere. The knock-on from this is not just that people in rural areas don’t have access to word processing, email or design facilities, but also that when they do get access they don’t know how to use them! Therefore I can help with IT experience as well as through use of my computer and camera.

Of course there are other benefits for the organisation that I hadn’t anticipated. A white person is something of a novelty in rural Sri Lanka, and having a “westerner” working for you turns heads and opens doors (though some doors quickly close again when people realise I’m not about to start handing out 500 Rupee notes).

So perhaps the contribution of a volunteer is as much about where they’re from as what they can do. But having a flexible and open minded approach is essential.

I have to make use of all my personal attributes – in this case, height.


























This lady earns less than 1p per brick, but this is higher than she would get if she wasn’t part of the cooperative. She can make a reasonable living from the brick making.


























Interviewing the project participants can help gain a better understanding of the organisation’s strengths and weaknesses. In the background people are updating their microfinance records. The savers often contribute around 10-20p per week, and can take out small loans.























The funders of the project came down from Colombo to see the brick company handed over from the charity to the beneficiaries who will run it as a cooperative enterprise. Here they are telling me about work they are doing in other parts of Sri Lanka.





















During the handover ceremony




















This is the shelter that the brick company uses to keep the bricks dry before they are fired. There is no kiln, but the bricks are placed in a way that traps the heat and allows the soft clay to turn to solid construction material.





































The bricks will be used in house building, and sold at commercial rates. Many of the project beneficiaries have houses that are in part made from wood or mud, so the regular income should help them improve their living conditions.

This man is loading up the finished bricks, as they have been sold to a construction firm.