Volunteer Tourism (Developing Caring Relationships)

At first I did not think of the many reasons as to how volunteering in a foreign land could be problematic. After reading Sin’s paper on volunteer tourism I believe caring relationships need to be developed in order for the success of the project at hand. There is a deep problem that exists if those volunteering do not get on to the level of the locals (Sin 986). Zakaria argued that volunteer tourism often times has a singular focus on providing the volunteer an experience instead of providing for the recipient (1). When a caring relationship is established it seems to me that there would be a change in focus towards catering to the needs of the recipient. I mentioned before volunteers have to “get on to the level” of the locals. This is best explained by Daily Muse emphasizing “’the need for the volunteer to adapt to the culture, to be flexible, relevant, and realistic’”(2). This simply means that when volunteering, one has a lot to learn about the area and really tap into what assistance he or she can provide. The idea of creating a caring relationship involves one to learn about the culture so that there is not a marginalization of those providing the aid and the recipient. Also, if one is not realistic with his or her expectations of the limited ways that the recipient can provide something in return, then the idea of volunteer tourism could create more problems. According to the Aristotelian theory of virtue ethics, I think that anything that would cause you to marginalize and demeanor the recipient would be an excessive way of fulfilling that virtue of generosity. This relationship captures the idea of respect toward another human being that possesses rational thought. With this in mind, I believe that with the recipient would overall benefit a lot more through a caring relationship.