Talk:Volunteer

From Wikitravel

[edit] Vision

I had this idea whilst talking to Cacahuate about my trip this summer to Kenya to do some work in the slums in Nairobi. The general idea is to show travellers ways that they can make a difference when travelling, and to be a directory of charities that take volunteers to work in different parts of the world. I am not aware of a similar page on Wikitravel. -- Tim 09:57, 19 January 2007 (EST)

[edit] Volunteer

I moved in the information from Volunteer, because I do not think we should not distribute information among several articles. Feel free to plunge forward here or write a note why you think we should create a seperate article. Thanks! --Flip666 ^writeme! • 09:43, 22 August 2007 (EDT)

I think Volunteer is the better title. Making a difference might include ecological camping or political activity or Teaching English or whatever. This article is not about those, only volunteering. Pashley 20:00, 23 August 2007 (EDT)

This article was sorta meant to encompass those things and be sort of broad about ways one can do more than just travel and take... for those who would rather give... I guess many of the things would fall under volunteering, but when Tim and I first discussed creating it I think we were shooting for it to broadly encompass many ways of making a difference. But alas, my idealistic mind is still empty, so I still won't be hashing out this article further at the moment :) – cacahuate ^talk 23:20, 23 August 2007 (EDT)

[edit] Problems with the article?

I am concerned that the article appears to be falling down a slippery slope. Providing a "yellow pages" listing is something we avoid as a matter of policy, but this article is becoming one.

It lists many "volunteer" organisations, some of which I fear are basically tour companies with a gimmick and others outright scams. I have met gap year travellers in China who had paid money for a placement. They were doing the same work, with about the same qualifications, as other foreigners in the same city for about a third the money. Moreover, the placement firm had sleazed out on getting them the promised visa, so they were working illegally.

My guess is that we should include a warning about scams in the article, and institute some policy that greatly reduces the number of links — perhaps not listing any company that charges an up-front fee for placement services, or listing only established NGOs like WWOF. Other opinions? Pashley 11:24, 15 June 2011 (EDT)