The key to any Intrepid Volunteering project is the partnership between you, the team and the local community. As well as bringing essential funding to the project, the presence of a team of volunteers in the village community can be a great motivator to local people.
Volunteering projects make a positive impact in 2 ways:
- By helping on development projects that are making a long-term contribution to local communities.
- By practicing responsible tourism.
Development Projects
'Positive change comes from projects which focus on long-term change, promoting culturally appropriate and environmentally sustainable interventions that are acceptable to beneficiaries'
(Prof. Paul Sillitoe, anthropologist; 2003)
Intrepid Volunteering projects support overseas development through project partners. These include local communities, non-governmental organisations, governmental departments and academic research groups.
Each project is researched and has to meet certain criteria such as long and short-term benefits to the host community. While the project itself is led by the community, Intrepid Volunteerings role is to act as a catalyst, both financially and motivationally (with the volunteers' presence) to get the project up and running. This way when Intrepid leave, the project will continue to be managed and owned by the community.
"By funding the projects ourselves it gives us the control we need to ensure that they are well-organised and completed, but ownership always lies with the local community. Perhaps most important of all, however, is the increased understanding that Intrepid Volunteering gains of the real issues of sustainable development."
Tim Guinan, Head of Overseas Operations, Volunteering
Responsible Tourism
Intrepid Volunteering endeavours to reduce the negative, and increase the positive, impacts of its operational practices. How?
- Water is a limited (or scarce) resource in many countries Intrepid operates in. We encourage volunteers to use minimal amounts of water on projects. We often rely on the collection of rainwater in order to wash clothes and fill the bucket shower! Drinking water is bought from local stores.
- Intrepid buys as many resources locally as possible such as food, building materials, accommodation, skilled labour, guides and transport to ensure that as much revenue as possible stays within the countries.
- Sensitising volunteers to cultural differences and enforcing a particular code of conduct whilst living within a rural community is very important. We keep group sizes small to better achieve this integration.
- Intrepid Volunteering projects aid volunteers' cultural infusion through involvement in activities organised by the local community such as drumming and craft workshops, language lessons, and guided tours.
- Intrepid Volunteering ensures that its volunteers receive accurate pre-departure information concerning the destination countries and the regions they will be travelling to.
"I plan to work in development economics after uni, so seeing projects and how they work on the ground level has made me more determined to progress with development economics as now I know that small scale projects really can contribute to the bigger picture."
Laura Andrew, Uganda July 2004
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