I believe the following three overarching concepts are crucial to ethical and effective service:
- Intercultural Learning and Reflection
- Reciprocity
- Sustainability
Without pre-trip learning, it can be easy to hold an ignorant and ethnocentric outlook. This outlook usually results in ineffective service and cultural conflict. Only with proper education about local history and social customs, would I be able to ethically and effectively navigate my way around the community that I’m trying to serve. Moreover, I will be able to better understand the needs of the community and thus understand the role my service plays in this larger context. For example, it would be difficult to fully understand public health policies implemented in Argentina without understanding the recent economic crisis or the great influence of the Catholic Church in government. Another important part of learning is synthesizing day-to-day experiences. Here, reflection is paramount. With reflection, I hope to integrate my experiences with previously acquired knowledge and identify areas of concern or accomplishment. With daily reflection, I can learn to define my own limitations and map my own growth over the course of my service.
In ethical service, both the community and the volunteer organization both give and receive. This is important to prevent the formation of “savior” complexes on part of the volunteer. Furthermore, without this reciprocal relationship, many communities refuse any kind of aid fearing the creation of an unequal power relationship. It is also incredibly ignorant on the part of a volunteer organization to enter a community with the misunderstanding that the community has nothing to offer them while they have everything to offer that community. While I am going to Argentina as a ‘Loewenstern Fellow,’ I know that my community in Cordoba will have a much greater impact on me than I could have on its public health system. Going in with a clear understanding of my strengths and weaknesses, I will try to serve by facilitating minor existing projects to the ethical extent of my ability. It is with this distinction that allows a volunteer to understand his/her minor but important role in the development of the community. My main goal with the Loewenstern is not ‘helping’ but learning.
When performing any kind of service, it’s important to make sure that the effects of the service are lasting and that the service may be performed by the community in the future. Thus, the goal of service should be to empower the community so that it can effectively address its own goals. Without this transition, an uneven power relationship between volunteer organizations can persist and actually harm the community. Transparency in regards to short and long term goals of the organization and the community facilitates mutual understanding of roles. CFHI promotes sustainability by promoting existing community structures and leaders and supporting their own defined goals. For the volunteer, sustainability also means that engagement with the service issue doesn’t end after the trip is over. As a college student, I am in a place where I have a platform to educate my peers and continue engagement in global civic engagement and social change programming. Service at its best is a lifelong pursuit, and I hope to continue in my engagement with the issues of global health long after my return from Argentina.