Students given tips to stop gap year travel being 'a new colonialism'
Thinktank Demos warns poorly planned volunteering stints in developing nations can do more harm than good.
The multi-million pound gap-year industry is in danger of damaging Britain's reputation abroad and raising fears that the west is engaged in a new form of colonialism, according to a leading thinktank.
Young people planning a gap year should focus on what they can offer their hosts in order to discourage the view that volunteering is merely a new way of exercising power, says a new report by Demos.
Those who carefully select the projects in which they take part are likely to make the most of their time, while doing the most to dispel the belief that their trips are merely self-interested, says the report.
Nine out of 10 young people surveyed by YouGov for Demos said they had improved their self-confidence, self-reliance and sense of motivation following a stint of volunteering in a developing country.
However, the gap-year industry is a £6bn business for western companies, costing volunteers between £1,500 and £4,500 for a mere two-month experience. One in five people who took a gap year said they believed their presence in the place they visited made no positive difference to the lives of those around them.
Jonathan Birdwell, author of the Demos report, said there was even evidence that an ill thought-out gap year could be bad for local communities and Britain's relations with other countries. "There is a risk of such programmes perpetuating negative stereotypes of western 'colonialism' and 'charity': a new way for the west to assert its power," he said.
Birdwell added that "projects that do not appear to have benefits or make a difference for communities abroad leave volunteers unmotivated and disillusioned".
One respondent to the survey's report said: "I felt that the local community could have done the work we were doing; there were lots of unemployed people there. I'd have preferred to work with local unemployed and helped them in some way to benefit their community."
Demos's research indicated that there were key factors which make a gap year successful .
There should be post-placement support, which allows the young person to continue the work they started abroad once back home, it claims.
The report says there should be pre-departure training to ensure that young people are able to offer relevant skills.It says placements which are short are just as likely to have positive outcomes in personal development and civic participation as long-term ones. Young people who live with a host family are also more likely to report positive outcomes in "skills, identity and values".
The report found that the typical UK overseas volunteer tended to be young, affluent, white and female, although those with few qualifications and those from low-income backgrounds reported the most positive experiences.
Daniel Boffey, The Observer, Saturday 30 July 2011