Even though it might seem like the most selfless thing in the world to your friends back at home, volunteering in Africa has become very controversial over the last few years as more and more groups decry the negative stereotypes it enforces about communities in need. One such organization, the Norwegian Students and Academics’ International Assistance Fund, has released a series of viral videos that call out such problems that they see with the Western world volunteers.
This organization isn’t the only one who feels this way about the practice. A recent column on Al-Jazeera , by Rafia Zakaria also argued that activism often becomes a self-serving task .
As admirably altruistic as it sounds, the problem with voluntourism is its singular focus on the volunteer’s quest for experience, as opposed to the recipient community’s actual needs. There is a cost associated with such an endeavor.”
Do you think there is dark side to volunteering in Africa?
[Image via YouTube]
