Volunteering is not the same as backpacking around south-east Asia with a credit card, and frequent allegations equating volunteering with colonialism are wide of the mark and without foundation. VSO recruits are neither egoists nor egotists, supercilious or power hungry. Indeed, prerequisite credentials are quite the opposite. VSO volunteers go through a rigorous selection process, which seeks sensitive individuals who can listen as well as talk. Unlike backpacking volunteering calls for situation ethics, the importance of which is lost on the traveller fraternity lounging about on the beaches of Thailand, massage in progress, cocktail in hand.
Situation ethics are the basis of understanding, which also concedes to cultural diversity.
However it is precisely this concept which, people all over the world find difficult to cope with. With the benefit of distance and time I feel more able to appreciate the negative reactions to volunteering, though I am still no closer to accepting them. The West's greatest weakness is in believing that it can learn nothing from less developed cultures, and to judge all volunteers by this standard is grossly unjust. Conversely, the experience can be rich and fulfilling if we go about our work in the correct manner. This could also be used as an opportunity to deal with a local task that requires a team effort, such as cleaning up a run-down area.