Slovakia has joined the „EU Aid Volunteers“ programme and will be able to send its first people on a „mission“ to countries affected by humanitarian crises in just a few weeks' time. Their motivations and expectations for volunteering are varied, so the sending organisation needs to be prepared for anything.
In general, volunteers do their „work“ for many motives and reasons for free. These can be: gaining knowledge or developing skills, wanting to do something for society, but also building relationships. Humanitarian volunteers are not clueless or lonely young people with no experience, but are often experienced community leaders, health professionals, educators, programmers, managers of working age. In short, anyone who has a need to do something that leads to social change and poverty alleviation. Even if thousands of miles away from their homeland. The earth is round, and our solidarity with our fellow human beings in need on remote continents is needed now more than ever. Otherwise, the problems that have so far plagued post-conflict and low-income countries will soon catch up with us in Europe.
Capacity building for humanitarian NGOs
The European volunteer initiative „EU Aid Volunteers“, of which ADRA Slovakia is also a part, through the project HVM (Humanitarian Volunteering Management), is dedicated to solving humanitarian crises by training and sending people into the field. ADRA is a member of the MVRO Platform together with the Slovak Catholic Charity and thirty other humanitarian and development NGOs. A large number of them have so far sent development volunteers to developing countries. Thanks to the support of the EU and their EU Aid Volunteers initiative, junior and senior volunteers can now also be sent to areas affected by natural disasters or social conflict. However, this requires a different type of management (and not only in the field of security).
It is in the community of like-minded and like-acting organisations from the MVRO Platform that capacity can now be built in the management of humanitarian volunteers. In fact, Slovak ADRA has gained knowledge and experience during the training and mentoring of the HVM project, and is happy to pass it on. Uncovering motives and expectations before going on a „mission“, pre-departure training and building motivation for the whole cycle of volunteering were its essential parts.
Needless to say, motivation provides the answer to the question - why do people do their work, meet the organisation's goals, continue or even progress in their performance. Understanding the causes of motivation, as well as the possibilities of influencing it, is crucial for effective management of staff and volunteers and for harnessing human potential. There are two types of motivation - intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation refers to doing something because it is inherently interesting or enjoyable (volunteers enjoy the process of field activities) and extrinsic motivation refers to doing something that leads to definite results. The quality of the work done can therefore vary - depending on whether one is motivated by intrinsic or extrinsic reasons. Intrinsic motivation has been shown to be an important phenomenon in education and learning new things.
Motives and expectations of volunteers before the mission
According to available research, the most common motives and expectations of volunteers are: A sense of self-fulfillment and meaningful sacrifice (25 %); love of neighbor, giving and receiving mercy (29 %); feeling useful and needed (15 %); making and receiving social connections (12 %); gaining certain experiences (8 %); emotional and knowledge enrichment (7 %); possibility to make changes in society (3 %); but also discovering a new hidden dimension in oneself (1 %).
In the management of humanitarian volunteers, it is even more important to know the motives of the candidates for the „mission“, as it is a more challenging stay - in a region where there are limited supplies of safe and potable water, electricity, food, security and comfort, etc. This is because humanitarian volunteers are tasked (along with other experienced colleagues from partner organisations in the field, of course) to help in places where there is a humanitarian crisis due to earthquake, typhoon, flood, landslide, extreme drought, or war, civil war, or conflict.
All aspects need to be known, considered in advance and prepared for such a situation. Adjust and set realistic motivations and expectations for the placement accordingly - both on the part of the individual candidates and the organisations. Applicants will provide all the necessary information in their motivation letters, which can be used by the organisation to assess the applications of their potential volunteers (and then during interviews and interviews). Based on the knowledge of motivational needs, the NGO can ensure that new people are effectively placed in activities that match their needs, while meeting the volunteer requirements of the host, i.e. receiving, organisation. Part of managing humanitarian volunteering is knowing the motives of all those involved, which helps the organization to keep people happy as well as prevent conflict.
Compulsory traineeship and orientation within the sending organisation
NGO volunteers should be sent to places where their field workers have already been working for a long time, so they are familiar with the local needs of the local population and partner organisations. They have seen and experienced the local culture, religious and ethnic norms, traditions and customs, but have also analysed the security risks. This is particularly necessary in the health and safety at work section of the young people on secondment.
ADRA Slovakia is in the same situation with the analysis of local needs and training in the management of humanitarian volunteers. Its previous volunteers decided to work on the project because they could pass on their knowledge to local organisations and thus help specific beneficiaries. At the same time, they were able to complement their experience and skills by directly supporting the local staff of the host organisation in daily activities and interactions with communities on the ground. This was also high on their list of motives and expectations from the volunteer „mission“. It was about learning in new environments and groups of people (internally displaced people in Georgia, members of the Roma community in Albania, typhoon victims in the Philippines, socially excluded families in Kenya, budding activists in Ukraine, migrants in Lebanon, traumatized people after the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, etc.).
At the same time, motivations and expectations often include reasons such as: gaining new contacts; making a difference in personal life; making a difference in a poorer region; solidarity with the needy; the opportunity to travel to another continent and learn about a new culture, language, customs and traditions; gaining experience after graduation. All of this can be deduced during the interview with a potential candidate for a volunteer position, or then during a follow-up internship at the NGO before the actual trip.
However, this orientation and pre-departure placement process (as part of the preparation for the volunteering placement), which should be provided by the organisation's director or volunteer coordinator in the role of mentor, is often underestimated or omitted altogether by the sending organisation. The benefits are so clear: Transfer of knowledge; Increased confidence in the organisation; Increased enthusiasm of the volunteer; Avoidance of future problems. The orientation during the placement within the sending organisation itself should include at least the following components: structure and description of the organisation's humanitarian programmes and projects (as well as the objectives, activities and target group and community within which the volunteers are later to work); expectations and concerns from the volunteers before departure; structured job description; explanation of internal policies, rules and procedures; evaluation procedure for volunteer activities; familiarisation with security risks, emergency procedures and safety manual, etc.
Reveal pathological motives
Once again, it is important to dwell on the topic of the motives that lead young people to humanitarian volunteering. It is important for coordinators and mentors of humanitarian volunteers to observe and evaluate the volunteer work done by them during the initial interviews, but also later on: to observe or detect potential pathological motives. This may be compassion, leading to the degradation of the client or the recipient of help; service stemming from a sense of duty, moral obligation; the desire to sacrifice, the so-called self-destructive type of person - the Samaritan; personal misfortune, which the applicant cannot cope with and therefore wants to seek balance or compensation in volunteer service. Other pathological motives include loneliness and the resulting desire for friendship; a sense of one's own importance and irreplaceability; a lack of self-esteem and the associated desire to meet even „poorer“ people, but also a desire to control others and exert one's influence.
It has often happened that a young person on secondment has broken up with his or her partner in the recent past and in being sent on a „mission“ abroad was looking for a possible solution, i.e. forgetting the person he or she loved. During his stay, however, he was unfocused, having the urge to be constantly on the internet and following his ex-girlfriend's activities on social media, or drowning his sorrows in cheap alcohol or looking for one-off adventures among local women. This is completely unacceptable in the context of volunteering in third world countries. Moreover, in humanitarian volunteering, as local people are traumatised by having lived through an event that triggers a humanitarian crisis (be it an armed conflict, famine or natural disaster). These need to be mitigated and healed, not exploited for personal and dishonest gain.
The action of motive (the inner drive of a person's particular behaviour and action towards the fulfilment of a set goal) lasts until the set goal or interest is attained - that is, until the expected satisfaction is attained. The motive as the cause of a particular behaviour thus individualizes the person's experience, giving it psychological meaning. Mentors in the context of humanitarian volunteer management must work with these motives carefully. With the wrong motives in mind, volunteers can do more harm than good in the field. Therefore, it is really important to address the motivations and expectations as well as the concerns of the young people deployed before going on a mission. They are the ones who, as EU Ambassadors under the umbrella of the EU Aid Volunteers initiative, will be helping to address the situation of thousands of needy people in post-conflict areas.
Avoiding the phenomenon of „voluntourism“
Sometimes volunteering is confused with the term „voluntourism“ (a kind of voluntary tourism to the exotic for misery). Voluntourism almost always involves a group of idealistic and privileged travellers who have a significantly different socio-economic status from those they are helping or serving. They often enter local communities through their activities with little or no awareness or understanding of the history, culture and way of life of the local people. Everything is focused only on the need to reduce poverty. Unfortunately, this phenomenon also threatens humanitarian volunteering, as future „EU Aid volunteers“ will be sent to regions where poverty is most evident as a result of natural disasters or man-made conflict.
The ethics of different forms of voluntourism are discussed in both academic and non-governmental circles, and the HVM project has also been touched upon in the section on education and information about humanitarian volunteering. The question is raised as to whether holidays in an exotic country for individuals who can financially afford it do the desired good in developing countries, or whether it further deepens the stereotypes of „saviour complexes“ of the wealthier descendants of former colonisers from the „white continent“ of Europe. However admirably altruistic such volunteering may seem, the problem with voluntourism will continue to be linked to the volunteer's desire to have a new experience in a new/exotic country, which may not always be linked to meeting the real needs of the host community.
For example, in tourist areas in Cambodia, orphanages (often even with fake orphans) are abused as part of the phenomenon: „voluntourism“. In fact, tourists are lured to visit orphanages in order to volunteer, either in the form of donated time or money. Institutions for the protection of children at risk thus become fundraising vehicles. In many cases, foreign visitors are not subjected to any initial screening interview and pre-departure training, and are even left alone with vulnerable children. It is also customary to maintain deliberately poor living conditions in such homes - in order to generate (in visitors, volunteers, voluntourists) greater compassion and willingness to support fundraising and other volunteer-tourist visits. Slovak volunteer stays have so far successfully avoided such a „voluntourism“ orientation.
How to increase motivation in humanitarian volunteers
The success of human resource management (and therefore the management of volunteers) is based on flexibility, professionalism, communication and ethics in both the sending and receiving organisation. At the same time, it should be reinforced by sufficient motivation of the people sent to developing countries. Human resources planning is underestimated by many NGO managers, i.e. the process of securing the right volunteers (who will responsibly and effectively carry out the tasks set out, while representing the organisation abroad), as well as preparing them for the trip/mission - which is a mistake.
The pre-departure training of humanitarian volunteers occupies an important place in the management of volunteering (not only within the HVM project, of which ADRA Slovakia is a part). The knowledge and skills acquired during the internship, orientation in the sending NGO and pre-departure training in Slovakia will undoubtedly be used by the young people in the field. The EU Aid Volunteers initiative includes several compulsory preparatory modules, such as: Principles and priorities of humanitarian aid; international humanitarian law; the functioning of the European Union, its institutions, specific activities and interventions around the world; managing personal safety and health at work (plus psychological first aid for stress or burnout); project management with regard to the life cycle of projects in a humanitarian mission, intercultural learning, principles of communication and reporting on humanitarian issues in the media, plus testing knowledge in a simulated exercise.
If the volunteer coordinator and/or mentor wants to effectively guide and motivate co-workers or volunteers, he/she must know the motivation process, he/she must decipher the motives, values, interests, as well as the individual needs of these people in the work activities. An important prerequisite for effective motivation is to make sure that each task is completed, so that the evaluation of the volunteer's performance corresponds to predetermined criteria. All these items must be recorded in the documentation and the young person on secondment must be familiar with them before he or she goes to the developing country. The mentor must not forget to listen actively, to support the volunteer in his/her activities, to monitor his/her activities, to help him/her to solve problems, while there is always room for feedback and praise - if the goal is met, the activity is brought to a successful conclusion.
Humanitarian volunteers do not bring financial aid to a developing country. Their options are limited in themselves - in terms of time horizon and implementation of activities, systemic problem solving, taking ownership of the humanitarian mission and activities in a specific post-conflict area. However, in addition to commitment and expertise, the „symbolic“ and social capital of humanitarian volunteers is also important and credible. Indeed, together with both sending and receiving organisations, they represent their own (direct or indirect) role - in the interest of: contributing to the Global Goals and ending global poverty, which often follows human-caused conflicts that have evolved into humanitarian crises, keeping millions of people unjustly in need.
Text: Boba Markovič Baluchová, Photo: ADRA team, HVM project
Note: The Humanitarian Volunteering Management (HVM) project is implemented thanks to the financial support of the European Union under the „EU Aid Voluneers“ volunteering initiative.
The article was originally published in Charity 3/2018.
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