Volunteering in Kenya - Programs targeting poverty

Hostel Hoff might be of an interest to you in Moshi. It is a standard lodge which run community development projects at an affordable rate compared to many other charities and organisations working in the voluntary sector. Also, if you elected to volunteer here you would be close to the Northern game parks in Tanzania as well as Kilimanjaro.

Beware of Voluntourism.

I would recommend doing kili via the Rongai route. Much less crowded than the others, you literally have the mountain to yourself. Also, there are no bunkhouses of any description so it provides a great chance to camp in some beautiful surroundings.

Other websites you could look at in regards to volunteering are ecoteer, volunteer4africa and WWH.

Hope that helps!

Volunteering for short periods of time usually does more harm than good. Unless you're prepared to make a serious commitment, not just some side trip to your safari, I'd suggest you simply don't volunteer in a developing nation like Kenya.

Agree with letemspeak. It may seem like a 'nice' thing to do, but please please please find out both sides of the 'argument' first.

Note that you will be helping to 'address poverty' simply by bringing your hard-earned $$ to the country and buying things from the locals - the city people will then have more money to spend at their local shops, they will send some of it home to the villages, you will encourage employment in both city and village, etc. I'm not a capitalist in the slightest, but simply by spending money we are assisting the locals to become more fully employed. In this vein, it is a good idea to spread your money around at different stalls/shops when you are buying things.

Unless you have a specific skill that you can pass on in a couple of weeks, you will simply be taking jobs off the locals/or roles that the Government should actually be providing. One of the worst things I have seen about volunteering was actually in an advertising brochure FOR voluntourism - it was a picture of the rich white foreign tourists working hard on a local garden, whilst the locals were simply watching on! Surely you wouldn't want that.

You also have to wonder where the rich locals are, when it comes to volunteering - and believe me, even in the poorest countries there are many people that are a lot richer than you and I put together!

Julie, this is a passionate topic that always draws replies (usually from the same group of posters).

One point on which I must disagree with you is your statement that volunteers take jobs from locals. It is actually nothing of the sort. There is little if any chance that the Kenyan government will hire local youth to do this work, especially now that devolution has kicked in. Under this new constitutional arrangement, revenue collected by the central government is supposed to be disbursed to the counties. But not much of it has shown up yet. So there may actually be more layoffs.

The last big youth employment initiative, Kazi kwa Vijana, was a PR photo-op for politicians who planted a few trees with the kids, then left in their limousines (or helicopters). Turns out many of the young workers are still waiting to be paid. When you see local youth looking on idly, remember that many of them have tried this employment thing before and never saw their pay packet; why would they want to work again?

So I remain equivocal, seeing volunteering as a rather dumb idea in theory, but not seeing any local solutions either.

School volunteering in particular has an uncertain future since Kenyan teachers are now on their 7th strike in recent years and are more likely to see volunteers as "scab labour". But again, the government constantly fails to come up with the money to hire more Kenyan teachers.

Thanks for your comments, Christopher. I haven't been to Kenya for a few years, so I was unaware of these changes. My response was more general - ie. if the western world continues to provide people to build libraries for the developing nations, then their governments won't ever actually have to allocate money in their education budget for providing libraries. And yet they probably don't ever see the need to reduce their military budgets to cover this.

And I'm sure it is a topic that comes up often, but I haven't been on the Africa branch for a long time, either, so I wasn't aware of the current 'trends'. I was merely replying to the OPs query.

Interesting intellectual debate, but unfortunately that's what the above feels like - intellectual debate between people who probably don't know what it is like to go hungry or uncared for or sit in a classroom of 150 other students...no offence intended.

Personally I don't think there is any harm done in extending a little helping hand to someone, even if it for a brief moment to help them get up. If enough people do it then there is continuity in that. To simply say if you can't give a lot then you should not give at all is a bit of a cop out and unrealistic.

Besides technology offers the possibilities to stay connected - which is what I was hoping to ultimately do with the right organisation. And on this note, Richard Moore thanks for the recommendation of Hoff Hostel - they sound great as they seem to facilitate skills exchange, which is what I was ultimately after. Made contact and waiting to hear back.

They would have more money to hire teachers if they scrapped the ridiculous "laptops for schoolkids" initiative.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/hubs/gapyear/8107555/Volunteer-holidays-do-more-harm-than-good.html

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/peopleandpower/2012/05/201252183744156840.html

http://www.whydev.org/voluntourism-what-you-need-to-know-before-signing-up/

http://matadornetwork.com/change/why-you-shouldnt-participate-in-voluntourism/

http://academia.edu/2267242/Tourism_and_Transparency_Navigating_Ethical_Risks_in_Volunteerism_with_Fair_Trade_Learning

http://responsiblevolunteering.wordpress.com/

Please visit these links before you decide to go give a little. The last one should help you find a responsible organization should you decide you still want to do short term volunteer work

novice_traveller - I grew up below the poverty line, in public housing, with everything in life going against me. And I have spent over a year travelling around Africa, talking to lots of local people along the way. Yes, I am fortunate to have been born into a first world country, but I do have some awareness of what it's like to be dirt poor.

If you really want to volunteer, why not make it be a positive experience for everyone? Do some homework first.