Every year thousands of young Europeans travel to Africa to do voluntary work. They have heard that help is needed, that people are suffering in poor countries, and they feel that it is their responsibility to leave their home country and go do… something in this new place that they don’t know anything about.

So, what does this say about the world?

Well, by saying that the West can help “the rest”, we say that they have better knowledge on how to do things than the inhabitants themselves. This belief is exactly the same as the one the colonizers had when they “discovered” the world.

And this “helping” is what thousands of young Europeans are doing today. It’s not their personal fault, the problem is structural. Once again, nobody has made them confused.

From early on, through posters in the streets, schoolbooks and news reports the volunteers have been taught the following:

• That all Africans are poor people who love traditions and do not understand modern society.
• That they themselves live in a modern society that has amazing science and knowledge.
• That they know more than the rest of the world
• That the things they know are more worth than the knowledge that the rest of the world has.

8 confusing things:

1. Not only does the Western world have the power to decide what knowledge is correct. Not only does the Western world have the power to decide what knowledge is valuable. But a lot of the “Western” knowledge is not “Western.” It was not only natural resources, spices and slaves that the colonizers brought back from the colonies, but also numbers, letters and scientific findings.
2. The Western world has enough money and power to do what it thinks is right. It has enough money and power to decide what is right. And therefore, in many cases, it has enough money and power to decide what is being done. Does this make sense?
3. The Western society often claims to have modern values that it desperately wishes to spread to the world. In Uganda, homosexuality was part of the society until the British came, colonized the country and doomed homosexual relationships. Today Westerners doom the Ugandan laws forbidding homosexuality. Yes, why can’t the country just try to keep up with what the Western world thinks?
4. The message the young, European volunteers send out to the Western world shows a world where the richer part is saving the poor, because the poor people aren’t able to help themselves. And the understanding of what has made the poor people poor is… not exactly there.
5. The message the young, European volunteers send out to the world outside of the Western world shows a world where the richer part is saving the poor, because the poor people aren’t able to help themselves. From early on, the Western world makes sure that people from the rest of the world feel that there are things that only white people are able to do.
6. The young, European volunteers are often uneducated and unskilled. What happens to a country when nineteen-year-olds with no understanding of the culture are teaching in schools, taking care of small children and try out different social projects that they just thought of?
7. Why, oh why, is work that could have been done by an inhabitant done by this unskilled European?
8. Many, many people from the Western world go abroad to work. How many people go the other way around? If we really cared about teaching people about our practices and values – why not show it to people? Let them come here and make their own conclusions? Instead of making other societies their playground, maybe the Westerners could invite others to theirs? No?

The Western world has – because of what it has taken – enough power, money and resources to do what it feels like. And it is working effectively to keep it.

So what to do? Stay away, for once?

No. We need to get confused.

We need to grow up. We need to take responsibility for our actions and learn from our mistakes. We need to start to respect and listen to people outside of the societies we know. We need to value people’s knowledge, practices and opinions. We need to listen to people, learn from them and realize that they know more than us about their own home.

And we also need to question our own systems and knowledge. Why do I think something is right or wrong? Why do I have what I have? Is that fair?

The money, power and the resources can be used – SHOULD be used – where people need it. But we need to stop believing that we somehow earned the right to help someone else. It’s our society’s fault that we have more power than others, and we need to fix this. By letting this power go.

So, everyone, next time we feel like helping; let’s ask what people actually want from us. Maybe that is something else than your personal presence. And maybe you should listen to that. Because if you really want to make a change, you need to stop thinking that you know better than somebody else what they need. (Hint: You don’t.)

How volunteer experiences can benefit volunteers and their timeline on Facebook gets discussed more on http://gurlgoestoafrica.tumblr.com/

here is just a sample: