I suddenly felt like writing this topic as I remembered how people usually promote it as helping the less fortunate overseas. While it might be true that it helps them but I question the true value of these Overseas Community Involvement Programme (OCIP) or also known as Overseas Volunteering Programme.
Background
When I was 15 years old or Secondary 3, I joined one of the trip which is to go Chiang Mai, Thailand. Our aim was to teach the children English and so on. The trip was supposed to take place for a week. However, the trip was cancelled due to some natural disasters that either took place or was about to happen (I forgot) and our teachers decided to cancel the trip for the sake of our safety. Hence, I did not manage to go for the trip. Being young and naïve, I sought for similar chances in future where I was in Junior College as I really thought that I, will help bring about change to people's lives, no matter how small it is. However, after looking at the itinerary of the trips, I found out that sometimes, a trip of 7 days, will have about 3 days of Rest and Recreation (RnR). I wondered if that is to trip to go overseas and play or is it to really help the community. After asking people for their experiences, I found out that it is true that the trip is too short to help others. Sometimes trips such as helping the people to dig wells or to build toilets, ended up having the locals to do themselves as we are not experienced with these and the trip is too short to do anything significant. Overall, the trip seemed more like an eye opener for people like us that are born into more privileged familes rather than doing anything meaningful to help. In the end, I did not go for any OCIP trips and I guess I cannot criticise or provide much comments on the trips as there will certainly be trips which are helpful to the community but in my opinion, many just seem to be excuses for more overseas exposure and a means to boost the resume. In the end, I chose to join the Interact Club to teach underprivileged children in Singapore every Saturday but I feel that I did not do a good job as a tutor and I might have ruined their chance of having a better tutor for a year. So sorry for my shortcomings.
When I was 15 years old or Secondary 3, I joined one of the trip which is to go Chiang Mai, Thailand. Our aim was to teach the children English and so on. The trip was supposed to take place for a week. However, the trip was cancelled due to some natural disasters that either took place or was about to happen (I forgot) and our teachers decided to cancel the trip for the sake of our safety. Hence, I did not manage to go for the trip. Being young and naïve, I sought for similar chances in future where I was in Junior College as I really thought that I, will help bring about change to people's lives, no matter how small it is. However, after looking at the itinerary of the trips, I found out that sometimes, a trip of 7 days, will have about 3 days of Rest and Recreation (RnR). I wondered if that is to trip to go overseas and play or is it to really help the community. After asking people for their experiences, I found out that it is true that the trip is too short to help others. Sometimes trips such as helping the people to dig wells or to build toilets, ended up having the locals to do themselves as we are not experienced with these and the trip is too short to do anything significant. Overall, the trip seemed more like an eye opener for people like us that are born into more privileged familes rather than doing anything meaningful to help. In the end, I did not go for any OCIP trips and I guess I cannot criticise or provide much comments on the trips as there will certainly be trips which are helpful to the community but in my opinion, many just seem to be excuses for more overseas exposure and a means to boost the resume. In the end, I chose to join the Interact Club to teach underprivileged children in Singapore every Saturday but I feel that I did not do a good job as a tutor and I might have ruined their chance of having a better tutor for a year. So sorry for my shortcomings.
Therefore, I feel that people who do OCIP for the sake of doing or feeling that they do help out with the community just be exposed to this viewpoint where hopefully they will not just do these volunteering work as a one off event but consistently help so that they will be able to provide a greater help for the communities in need. In addition, I would apologise if I hit any nerve here due to this view point but I need to voice it out after seeing all the OCIP trip fund raising and so on as I feel that the funds will be used to fund the student's trip to have fun rather than the actual help given.
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