GVI has become a leader in quality volunteer abroad programs. What makes GVI different?
There are a lot of reasons but, for me, the number one reason would be that we have always taken a long-term view. This means that our commitments to our partners are long-term, we employ long-term experienced staff, and we base our decisions upon the best long-term strategy. When we started, this carried a lot of problems and we definitely suffered because of it, but in the last few years especially there have been many instances that show – time and time again – that, when running quality volunteer programs, this is the only way.
How do you respond to the prospective volunteer who asks ‘Why should I pay to volunteer abroad?’
For us, it’s a choice. If you decide to pay, you are paying for the quality of the program. The fees allow us to set up and manage long term programs ensuring their quality and importantly that you are actually contributing to the local cause rather than simply benefiting yourself. Our fees pay for the food, accommodation, transportation, project equipment and long term staffing. We ask the local organization to contribute direction, a welcome and a thank you in return for the skills, the funding, equipment and the work we supply! If you would like to go abroad and find a local organisation and volunteer your time, it is possible and if you have done enough research, you may well find your experience to be worthwhile. However, quite rightly, you will almost always be asked to pay for food and accommodation.
Also if you wish to use any equipment or have any level of assistance from the local organization, unless you are paying for this service, you should ask yourself: Are you helping or are you simply sucking resources from the organization for your own benefit? If you really want to make a difference, why would you want to go and ask a local organization to pay for and organize your food, accommodation, equipment, training, transportation, safety etc. The reality is you will either be taking resources from a local organization of paying for the services you require. The level of service you receive and the effectiveness of your work almost always reflects the level of fee you pay. Perhaps a better question should be “Why would I want to volunteer for free?”
You have volunteers from the UK, the US, Australia and other countries. Who makes a better volunteer — Americans or Brits?
A great question! The Americans always arrive better prepared, they have read the information, bought the equipment and know what to expect. They ask more questions in preparation. However, changes to the planned program can cause issues.
The Brit’s invariably arrive ill-prepared, haven’t read anything or asked any questions. They however seem to make do and learn as they go and accept changes with more ease.
The worst scenario for us is a group that only contains one nationality, we start to see the negative national traits far too clearly, never a pretty sight no matter what nationality you consider! The best groups are the diverse ones, with people from all other the world, it creates much more laughter and interaction. Luckily, as we have grown, both our staff and our volunteers are more and more diverse, so the groups are generally a lot of fun to be around and more effective.
What type of projects are more popular with British volunteers? Wildlife, street children, etc? US volunteers? Canadians?
We have a pretty even split for each nationality: about 40% community work, 10% construction and 50% wildlife
What is the coolest project you offer?
I get asked this question all the time and I know it looks like I have my “sales” hat on when I say I really cannot choose, but I just cannot. Every time I visit a program I walk away inspired by what I see volunteers and GVI staff doing and, for a while, that becomes my favorite program — until my next visit to another program of course!
We’ve met many of your program directors and they are a very idealistic bunch. Why do they work for GVI?
Good timing on the question! Over the last 6 weeks I have been running a core value exercise for all GVI staff. I have had hundreds of responses and we have been through various levels of consolidation to come up with a set of values that I think explain why people choose to work for GVI:
- Passion, Passion, Passion
- A deep commitment to sustainable development
- Long-term partnerships with people, communities and organisations that share our values
- Travel, done responsibly, makes people better
- Be a global citizen
- The knowledge that we are ALL responsible for experiences that can change lives
- Keep that family feeling!
- Fun + Hardwork = Perfection
What percentage of your volunteers are satisfied? What percentage say GVI is the greatest thing they have ever been involved in?
About 95 % would volunteer again with GVI if time and money allowed.
Coordinating volunteer opportunities abroad is a challenging venture. You can’t get it right every time. What was the most ill-conceived GVI project ever offered?
If I lied here I would never live it down. (It is GVI folklore!) I have to put my hands up and say the worst two were my ideas, although to this day I defend them rigorously.
We used to support a project in Spain based upon the conservation of the Andalucía Donkey .We were never really able to recruit volunteers to the cause, despite the validity of the project.
Another amusing one was an idea we are in the process of resurrecting, a global program which allowed National Parks to exchange staff. We called the program Global Parks Exchanges, and had the url of globalparksexchanges.org. The problem was the URL which included “sexchanges”. It caused us a lot of pop ups and some bizarre enquiries! This time around we may use another url!
What is more important: cultural sustainability, eco-sustainability or financially sustainable projects?
The truth is each project evolves through time, and GVI has evolved in the same way. First things first. Any project has to be ethical and needed. If it doesn’t create impact or change or is not needed, we are not interested in it. When we identify partners that we like and that we feel could do a lot more given the extra personnel, funding and skills we can bring, we then look at what they would like to do and decide if we feel we will be able to recruit enough volunteers to make it work. Our initial focus is therefore on the cultural and eco-sustainability of the project, during which time we discover how many volunteers we can recruit and then try to find out how to make it perform better financially and support itself.
What is GVI’s legacy and where do you think GVI be a hundred years from now?
That’s a big question and I am not sure I am ready to answer it yet. However, I have started to think about it a lot, so I will have a go!
I think I can speak quite safely for most people at GVI when I say that what we really want to see are more and more nationals [people from the country where the program is located] as volunteers and as staff leading those programs. At present about 40% of GVI’s field staff are made up of nationals. We have an amazing program, which we call the NSP program (National Scholarship Program) and which we are working hard to expand, whereby we offer free places to nationals on our programs so they can train under us and we can build local skills and knowledge locally. Our two most senior staff in Mexico came through this route. I would love to see this rise to about 75% but we are aiming for five years rather than 100! So ask me again in five years.
