User:Melinab21/International volunteering

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International volunteering is when volunteers contribute their time to work for organisations or causes outside their home countries. International volunteering has a long association with international development or environment, with the aim of bringing benefits to host communities. It can include a range of services, from healthcare advancement to economic development to governance.

Trends show that international volunteering has become increasingly popular across many countries over the past few decades. International volunteering is a broad term which is used to capture multi-year, skilled placements as well as short term roles. The term voluntourism has become common to describe certain types of volunteering organised by governments, charities and travel agents.

History

On a large scale, workcamps after World War I and early missionary service were the first expressions of international service. Formal overseas volunteering can be traced back over one hundred years to when the British Red Cross set up the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) scheme in 1909. The VAD volunteers, as well as volunteers from many other national Red Cross organisations, worked in battlefields across Europe and the Middle East during World War I to treat soldiers and civilians regardless of the side they fought for. One of the most prominent organisations, Service Civil International, organised workcamps from 1920 on as a form of post-war reconciliation and was formally established in 1934.

Up to the mid-20th century overseas volunteering projects were mainly undertaken by people with direct connections to a particular cause and were considered more as short term in nature. The more formal inception of international volunteering organisations can be linked to organisations such as Australian Volunteers International (formerly the Volunteer Graduate Scheme) which formed in 1951, International Voluntary Services in 1953 in the United States, and Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO) in 1958 the United Kingdom. These services and that of the U.S. Peace Corps, established in 1961 during the Kennedy administration, paved the way for broader recognition of overseas volunteering in later years. During the 1960s and 1970s a movement of volunteerism and study abroad programs became popular among university students and graduates and the United Nations launched the UN Volunteers programme for young professionals to take part in a long-term (two year plus) overseas programme.

In the late 20th century, there was a notable emergence of medical international volunteering in response to the lack of qualified healthcare personnel in developing countries. This involved doctors and nurses practicing Western bio-medicine in non-Western environments. The growing interest in medical international volunteering was facilitated, in part, by globalization as it fostered cross-cultural exchange, collaboration, and networking among all parties involved. It also played a pivotal role in the increased sense of global connectivity and awareness of health disparities and humanitarian needs. Global health initiatives underwent a shift from disease-specific interventions to the advancement of internal healthcare systems. This change was brought about by an increased presence of non-communicable diseases rooted in unhealthy diets, substance abuse, physical inactivity, and exposure to unclean and hazardous energy sources. At this time, The World Health Organization (WHO) rapidly diverted energy to revitalizing efforts that would effectively bolster health systems. Organizations such as Global Medical Brigades exemplified goals of the WHO and were increasingly sought after by undergraduate students, medical students, and healthcare professionals.

In recent years the accessibility of international volunteering for US Americans has increased significantly with many smaller charities connecting volunteers with non-governmental organisations in developing countries. About half of all international volunteering from the US takes place through faith-based organizations. For-profit travel companies have also increasingly been offering paid-for volunteering opportunities, this growth coincided with the increasing number of young people taking gap years and has been termed volunteer tourism and voluntourism to denote shorter-term voluntary work that is not necessarily the sole purpose of the trip. However, many opportunities medium- and long-term opportunities for skilled international volunteers remain, for example, the publicised role of volunteers in addressing the Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa. According to US Current Population Survey, the most common activities volunteers engage in abroad include tutoring or teaching, mentoring youth, engaging in general labor, and providing counseling, medical care, or protective services.

International Medical Volunteering

A prevalent sector of international volunteering includes medical assistance and healthcare advancement abroad. Often this entails the set up of a mobile clinic in a rural city, at home healthcare services, or volunteer assistance in preexisting hospitals or clinics. Services can include pro-bono general consultations, dental services, vision screening, and other personalized care based on the scope of organization. This form of volunteering seeks to address the lack of trained professional healthcare workers and medical resources within developing countries.

Critiques and Challenges

... the article provided a thorough section of critiques and challenges, my only addition to it would be this disclaimer at the end.

Educators and practitioners in the Global North have identified certain critiques and challenges associated with international volunteering. These are not critiques by people who lives in the places where volunteering occurs. Further research is needed to investigate such local critiques.