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While it is often natural to feel sorry for people in difficult situations, it is important to remember to look for signs of agency in these people. Look for the positive ways in which they are trying to improve their own environment. Look at the rebellious actions they do in their own lives to reject their circumstances. This will allow you to see them with respect and admiration.
This means that when you travel you should expect to learn something. Westerners often think they can help others, which is true, but it is also important to realize that others can help Westerners to learn new things. Travel, particularly volunteer travel, should be undertaken with the mindset that “I am going to learn something. I am going to help them, but they are also going to help me gain a new understanding of the world.”
Setting yourself at an equal level to another person’s by assuming you are both going to benefit allows you to travel and work with others in a cooperative, rather than condescending, manner. With this mindset and careful research into the tour operator you’re travelling with, you can ensure a positive, socially-conscious travel experience which will benefit you and the communities you’re working with.
Photograph, Lives transformed, by Yama Enayat.
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Stacia
As my work shows, I am an advocate for development projects, yet am somewhat tormented by the best means of accomplishing them. The dignity, agency, and abilities of people in need are often undermined by development projects, or more accurately, by the mindsets of the people implementing them. I'm hoping that by writing about these issues I'll be able to work through these concerns, and find a middle ground where development work can be done without disparaging those who are the recipients of it.
If you have any answers to this dilemma, let me know - it would save me a lot of stress and guilt!
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