Questions To Ask Before Volunteering in East Africa

Volunteering in East Africa: 8 important questions to ask yourself
Further reading on volunteering in East Africa

Volunteering in East Africa is admirable, and it’s something that motivates people from all over the world to visit the region each year.

After all, my first experience of Uganda in 2012 was through a volunteering program, and I know many others who first arrived in this part of the world via similar projects.

But volunteering in East Africa is complex, and it’s not something that you should participate in without due diligence and research.

I also want to make this point loud and clear: not every volunteering program in East Africa is beneficial to the people it pertains to support.

After my experience as a volunteer in Uganda in 2012, I returned to the UK to study for a Masters in International Development from the University of Birmingham, to get some answers to the questions that arose during my three-month stay in the country.

I wanted to know more about the dynamics between so-called ‘developed countries’ and those that are seemingly ‘developing.’ I also wanted to know why so many people are motivated to travel to East Africa every year to offer their services as volunteers.

Following a research project in Uganda, I had some answers to my questions, and I learned all about something called The White Savior Complex – a complex that completely reversed my views about what is at the crux of volunteering and development in East Africa.

This article is not about the White Savior Complex, but it’s really important to acknowledge the position that Teju Cole introduced when he wrote the above article in 2012 to add context to this piece.

To avoid being a “White Savior,” it’s imperative that you fully understand the volunteering project that you’re planning to apply for in East Africa.

While I have no doubt that the vast majority of western volunteers arriving in East Africa are undoubtedly well-intentioned, it’s crucial to question the purpose and structure of a volunteering project before signing up.

With that in mind, I want to introduce you to eight questions that you must answer before volunteering in East Africa. They’re a result of my university research, as well as an interest in the topic of voluntourism & ethical volunteering in Africa more broadly.

I hope you find them helpful as you seek to make a positive impact during your upcoming visit to East Africa.

Volunteering in East Africa: 8 important questions to ask yourself

Volunteering in East Africa can be impactful for you and the people that you’re trying to help, but this is not always the case. To avoid unscrupulous organizations when looking at volunteering in East Africa, ask yourself the following eight questions and answer them truthfully:

Q1: Is the organization a business or a charity?

A young boy studying in Wakiso, Central Uganda. Photo credit: Felicia Montenegro, Unsplash.

First and foremost, you need to differentiate between a volunteering placement that is offered by a business and one that is offered by a charity. Businesses that offer volunteering as part of an industry known as voluntourism do so primarily for profit, which is in stark contrast to the characteristics of charity-led volunteering placements.

The easiest way to discern whether a volunteering placement is offered by a business or a charity is to conduct an independent search into the organization. For instance, in the UK, you can search for the organization via the UK Charity Commission to see if it is registered. You can also look at business records on Google to find out if the organization is a profit-making entity.

The reason this is important is that charities and businesses offer completely different types of volunteering opportunities for completely different reasons (more on this throughout). You can use the below comparison to understand which type of volunteering placement you have found:

Business (for-profit) volunteering opportunities are:

Expensive (Often thousands of dollars for short volunteering trips).
Advertised with emotive imagery and suggestive tag lines (e.g., Change a child’s life, transform a rural community, etc.).
Available to anyone regardless of qualifications, experience, or skillset.
Engineered to the satisfaction of the volunteer, as opposed to the benefit of the local community in question.
Inclusive of tourism and leisure activities such as safaris.
Provided by organizations that are not registered as charities.

Charity volunteering opportunities are:

Usually free. Many charities also offer a stipend to volunteers to cover living and travel expenses while in the country.
Offered to fill a specific role that you are qualified, trained, and skilled to do. For instance, if the role is for a volunteer teacher, applicants must have teaching qualifications and experience to apply for the position.
Aligned to the charity’s mission statement and overall objectives that you can find on their website.
Subject to an interview/application process, as well as pre-employment checks.
Provided by organizations that are registered as charities.

As you can see, the differences between for-profit and charity volunteering placements are stark, so it’s vital that you are able to differentiate between the two before proceeding with an application. If you’re satisfied that you are indeed applying for a legitimate volunteering placement offered by a registered charity, you can proceed to the following question!

Q2: Am I qualified for the role in question?

One of the biggest issues with volunteering placements in East Africa is that positions are often filled by people who are not skilled or qualified for the role in question, which can often lead to disastrous consequences.
The story of former American volunteer Rene Bach articulates this point.

While not all volunteer positions filled by unqualified candidates have such dire consequences, the reality is that they provide very few benefits to local communities.

Think about this for a moment.

If you’re keen to work in a medical center back home, what requirements would you need to be approved for a placement? At the very least, a basic understanding of medicine, some relevant experience, and perhaps studies to show that you’re working towards a qualification.

Equally, if you want to get some experience in construction, surely your employer would want to see some credentials to support your candidacy, as opposed to taking someone who has never stepped foot on a building site in their life?

But due to issues relating to the undercurrent of the White Savior Complex, western volunteers often assume that because a placement is taking place in East Africa, it doesn’t necessitate the same requirements as it would if they were applying for the role back home.

As a result, placements are often filled by individuals who simply don’t know what they’re doing and are only in the country because they have shown a desire – and paid a fee – to be there.

You don’t need me to tell you that this is a huge problem.

Therefore, you need to be honest with yourself. If you’re not qualified to do a volunteering role at home, you’re not qualified to do it in East Africa. It’s as simple as that.

Q3: What is the cost of the program?

I’m a firm believer that volunteering is an admirable act of altruism that the world could do with more of. After all, if more people gave their time to causes that they care about, the world would undoubtedly be a better place.

By the same token, I don’t think it’s fair to charge someone a fee to volunteer. And I’m not alone in this respect.

Some paid volunteering programs will tell you that the cost they charge is necessary because it covers the costs associated with your placement. But in reality, it does a lot more than that, particularly when you consider the fact that you pay so much in order to offer a helping hand.

If you’re willing to give your time to contribute to a cause that you’re passionate about, you shouldn’t have to part with thousands of dollars to make it happen.

What I mean by this is that you can find ethical volunteering placements offered by charities that actually need volunteers, as opposed to for-profit organizations that offer volunteering projects that are easy to apply for – for a fee – whether they’re required or not.

Everything in life is subjective, but I strongly believe that you shouldn’t be required to pay a sizeable fee to contribute to a cause that you care about.

Q4: Who benefits from my volunteering?

There’s no doubt that volunteering in East Africa can be a positive thing, and I have anecdotal evidence to support this claim.

I’m friends with the good people who run placements at Bwindi Community Hospital in southwestern Uganda, and their structured volunteering opportunities have long proven to bring benefit to the hospital, as well as the people that donate their time to be there.

The hospital welcomes trained medics and medical students from different parts of the world to collaborate with in-country health teams, share best practices, and improve the clinical services to the people that use Bwindi Hospital on a day-to-day basis.

From the outside looking in, it’s a great model for how volunteering should work, as local people, Ugandan professionals, and the volunteers themselves all seem to benefit from the arrangement.

What’s more, there are no exorbitant fees associated with the volunteering placement, and visitors are housed in the adjacent Hospital Guest House at a reasonable fee for the duration of their stay.

I use this as an example because it shows what is possible when responsible volunteering placements are put together. It illustrates that skilled, well-meaning people can offer their time to make a positive contribution in East Africa without exacerbating the White Savior Complex.

So, when you find a volunteering placement in East Africa that interests you, be sure to question: who actually benefits from my volunteering? It will help you make the right decision about a viable, ethical placement.

If you’re looking for a medical volunteering opportunity in East Africa, you can find out more about volunteering at Bwindi Community Hospital here.

Q5: Can I make an impact during my stay in the country?

A child photographed by a volunteer in Wakiso, Uganda. Photo credit: Felicia Montenegro, Unsplash.

Next, you need to think about what you can achieve during your stay in East Africa. While some people come with grandiose assertions about what they believe to be possible in a week, others are more measured with their expectations.

The reality is that you’re not going to change someone’s life by volunteering for a couple of weeks in East Africa, and it’s unhealthy to think that such an occurrence is possible. That’s not to say that you can’t make a positive contribution, but you need to be realistic about what is achievable in a short space of time.

People who are able to spend 3+ months in East Africa are much more likely to feel like their presence has made an impact than those that pass through for a week or so during a summer vacation.

I appreciate that not everyone has the time to volunteer for several months at a time, and telling contributions can also be made in a short amount of time.

The key is to acknowledge the limitations of your potential impact and enter into your placement with your eyes open about what you can achieve.

When you’re realistic about your impact, you are much more likely to have a meaningful experience, and you can utilize your time in East Africa efficiently. Equally, if you don’t think that you can make an impact in a short space of time, there are other ways to make a contribution, as explained below.

Q6: Could my money be better used elsewhere?

I’ve alluded to the fact that some volunteering projects can be costly, particularly those that are offered by for-profit organizations for relatively short in-country stays.

In many instances, if you have $1,000 to spend on a one-week volunteer placement in East Africa, you will almost certainly find that donating the money to a grassroots charity in the region will have much more impact than if you were to pay to volunteer for the same amount of money.

You could look into organizing your trip to East Africa independently before making a donation to a charity directly during your trip to one of the countries in the region. This way, you still have an excellent opportunity to visit East Africa while making a positive contribution, even if you don’t spend your time actively volunteering.

My good friends over at AJ Tours work with a number of great causes – including Project Rabies – and help people visit several projects in Uganda, Rwanda, and DR Congo without necessarily volunteering.

You can reach out to Andrew and the team directly or leave a comment below if you’d like me to introduce you.

Q7: Am I taking away an opportunity from the local labor force?

Another interesting way to look at volunteering is whether or not your presence in the country is potentially taking opportunities away from local communities.

Some voluntourism projects that place unqualified teachers into roles within schools in East Africa often inadvertently take job opportunities away from qualified local teachers.

After all, if a cash-strapped school can rely on a steady stream of unpaid foreign volunteers to teach their students, they are unlikely to look for ways of generating income to pay salaries for local teachers.

This is a problem that I’ve seen firsthand in Uganda – my wife sits as the chairperson on the board of a local primary school – and the issue of paying teachers’ salaries is always at the forefront of discussion.

Again, it’s all about how an organization approaches a volunteering program, and some interventions can certainly make a positive contribution.

But merely filling plugs in the local labor market in East Africa with short-term, often unqualified volunteers is certainly not going to solve any long-term, systemic issues that are prevalent within East African communities.

Q8: What visa do I need to volunteer?

Last but certainly not least, you need to think about the visa that you need to volunteer in East Africa. While many short-term volunteers often arrive in East African countries with tourist visas, the reality is that doing so is not permitted under immigration laws.

All countries in East Africa have special permits that volunteers should apply for, so it’s super important that you read up on how to apply and what documents you need in order to arrive in the country legally.

Legitimate charities that invite volunteers to East Africa will be able to help you with the process of acquiring the correct permit for the duration of your stay, but it’s a super important issue that many volunteers overlook.