The Gift of Sign Language

The five overarching key concepts/guidelines that I believe will be extremely important to conducting ethical service while abroad are:

Effectively highlighting the issue (specify and narrow down the broader problem if possible)

Analyzing and determining possible consequences (good and bad) for the determined plan of action

Not acting on impulse to do what you think is helping someone, a community or an environment

Gathering enough information as you can from credible sources about the issue

Integrity with the way in which service is conducted

To make your service work as effective as possible, in my opinion, the most important key concept is to effectively highlight the issue that you are going to be working on.  There is a tendency to go abroad for service work and discover other issues that you want to work with, but if you go to a country unprepared for the new issue, there is a high chance that you won’t be able to conduct the best possible ethical service work.  By narrowing your down the broader problem into something that you can focus on intensely, you will be able to accomplish more by concentrating fully and preparing completely for one issue.  In preparing for your trip, it is important to also analyze all the possible consequences before carrying out your plan of action, which leads me to my next point.

I believe that analyzing and determining possible consequences is a logical step to take when approaching any problem in life, and of course, service work aboard is no different.  I thought this was important because when you take this step, you are able to weigh the pros and cons BEFORE acting and therefore you can effectively acknowledge and address the weak and strong points that a course of action may hold.  This eliminates the chance of going through with a plan of action and then coming across a problem that may have been avoided had they simply thought it through completely.  This also prevents you from “charging” out to do what you think is right simply off of impulse.

This bring me to another important guideline to keep in mind while serving abroad, which is not letting impulse fuel you to do something that you believe is right for the environment that you are in.  Sometimes what we see as “problem” is not actually harming the community or environment that you are a part of.  The “Starfish Hurling” reading was an excellent example of impulsive service work, which is not the correct way in which to conduct ethical service.  To effectively go about service work, education about the area, its resources and how it functions is imperative to one who will be entering the community as an outsider.  This also leads me to another important concept, which deals with gathering information about the issue before engaging in service abroad.

By gathering information from credible resources, you are preparing yourself for obstacles you may face before conducting service work that will be critical, not only your safety, but to equip you with the knowledge of the community and its assets. As the “Service-Learning Code of Ethics” stated, credible sources could include “principles, laws and regulations, and codes” that may help you familiarize yourself with the way in which the community is operated.

Finally, I believe that when serving abroad with integrity is extremely important.  Many of us will be traveling with various third-party providers who are trusting that we will carry out service in a way that put their company in a positive light with those in the community.  When serving abroad we also represent college students and the United States, and it is important that we are serving in a way that doesn’t negatively affect the way that foreigners see these two groups.

Maya.

My idea of international service work prior to this course was one that could be characterized as romantic similar to that of many naive students with a passion to serve.  As Adam David said in his article,  “it seems to be so clear that Service Is Good… that we do not need to question service or to talk about it; we only need to do it”.  Prior to this course, I never questioned the idea that service can be bad for those on the receiving end, when it fact, it can do more harm than good in some cases.

I am personally still for international service work, but only when it is executed by individuals who take the time to educate themselves about international work as a whole, and on the needs of the community that they will be directly effecting.  Many “D.I.Y” activist for international service work/aide find themselves in situations that are hurtful to both themselves and their community when they attempt to jump into communities to “fix” all of their problems.  I don’t agree with this form of international work and I definitely advocate a more patient approach taken by the volunteers, while working more closely with the community to address any issues.

In order to conduct international service work while abroad I would recommend the plan of action that we learned to take in the FSD training session.  Before even arriving in-country, a volunteer should first do their “homework” on the country that they are visiting to learn more about their political, economic and especially their unique culture, so that they have an understanding of the society that they will be working to assist in various ways.  Once in-country, a volunteer should keep in mind, with each decision that he/she makes, that the idea of international volunteering should be centered around the community sustaining themselves.  One important visual tool that I took away from the FSD training was the emphasis of the “Development Power Ladder”.  The community remaining in control will result in the members of the community being active participants, provide information sources to advance the community, and of course receive the benefits of the changing community.   This is a recipe for success and I believe once implemented in communities, real social change will be felt by the members of that society.

Maya.