Foreign volunteers and their contribution towards development of South African children

Governments of developing countries often struggle to deliver necessary services to their people. Therefore, international and local NGOs often get involved and establish projects that assist communities and vulnerable populations. As many local NGOs often lack capacity and financial resources, they require support from volunteers. The volunteers are often people from the Western world who are willing to come and work on projects. As they often serve in projects that deal with education or early childhood development, it is important to assess and analyse their contribution on the projects, and especially their contribution to the development and progress of the children they work with. This research assesses the skills and experiences of the volunteers and if and how they can contribute to the development of vulnerable children in South Africa. It is important to analyse the contributions of the volunteers to ensure that the children get what they need to reach their full developmental potential. To get a better understanding of what volunteers contribute to their projects, and especially the children they work with, the researcher conducted semi-structured interviews with people that work with volunteers, as well as with volunteers themselves, in and around Port Elizabeth. This research has found that the contribution of volunteers depends on the project they are serving, as well as on the skills and experience they have, and on the time, they are willing to contribute. Most of the projects studied did not depend on the support from the volunteers, but more on the money and awareness that they bring, which supports their daily work. The research also highlights the negative impact of the volunteers on the NGOs and projects they serve, which makes it important to create a better approach in how to deal with the increasing number of volunteers coming to South Africa from abroad. The research shows that what is needed is better screening of the volunteers by the NGOs, a proper preparation phase for the volunteers, and a better matching of the skills and experiences of the volunteers to what the NGOs and projects need to achieve their aims and objectives