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Vacations can be more than just a holiday trip

Taiwanese are paying more attention to their recreational life nowadays. Yet most people choose sightseeing tours or sports as their outdoor activities. Rarely do they spend their holidays volunteering to help others. However, volunteer vacationing or charitable tourism has become increasingly popular worldwide.

People who go on a volunteer vacation want to get more than just a tan from their trip, according to a program director of the Global Citizens Network (GCN). The GCN assists Americans interested in volunteering on Indian reserves and in places such as Guatemala, Kenya and Nepal.

Global Volunteers is a similar non-profit organization that sends volunteers to 70 neighborhoods in the US and 17 other countries. By paying US$400 to the organization, a Massachusetts therapist was able to help workers in Texas build cheaper houses. This experience enabled her to get to know the local culture and make friends, a very different experience from the usual sightseeing tour that allows only a passing glance at a place.

Charitable tourism is developing in Taiwan. The King Car Education Foundation (金車教育基金會) has called on American and Canadian youth to teach English in isolated areas in Taiwan. On a mission called "English Schweitzer," 26 of these North Americans, mostly university students, taught Aboriginal children conversational English.

Volunteers of the Buddhist Compassionate Relief Tzu Chi Foundation (慈濟功德會) often travel from afar to help at a Tzu Chi hospital in Hualien. They are actually pursuing active recreation. Considering their activities as merely labor obscures their reasons for being so enthusiastic and passionate.

The fees paid for a volunteer vacation are viewed as tax-detuctable donations in the US. Other than the financial benefit, overseas groups usually enable their volunteers to see some of the local culture that traditional tours can't reach.

Of course, it is not easy to mobilize volunteers from various backgrounds. Training is necessary to turn these volunteers from a burden into helping hands.

"For those who haven't done heavy work before, sometimes we need to stop what we're doing to teach them so that they can be helpful," said the Texas-based Proyecto Azteca Self Helping Housing organization.

Religious tourism has long been popular in Taiwan. As religious tourism has gone through a rapid transformation in recent years, it is important to develop intermediary groups that support charitable tourism. This can enhance the quality of life of the people as well as aid the formation of a society based on social welfare.

Eric Huang is secretary-general of the Community Empowering Society, Hualien Branch.

Translated by Jennie Shih
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