Balancing Impact and Experience: A Case Study Analysis of Short-Term Volunteer Programs in Sub-Saharan Africa

<span class="TextRun SCXW81661949 BCX0" lang="EN-US" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="auto"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW81661949 BCX0">This thesis </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW81661949 BCX0">seeks</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW81661949 BCX0"> to </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW81661949 BCX0">evaluate the </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW81661949 BCX0">different ways</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW81661949 BCX0"> organizations that receive short-term volunteers from the global West balance t</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW81661949 BCX0">he pursuit of their mission with the experience they provide volunteers.</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW81661949 BCX0"> I explored the way this was balanced differently between organizations with locally based and </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW81661949 BCX0">globally</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW81661949 BCX0"> based staff.</span> <span class="NormalTextRun SCXW81661949 BCX0">This was done through a case study approach of four different organizations that </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW81661949 BCX0">operate</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW81661949 BCX0"> within Sub-Sa</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW81661949 BCX0">haran </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW81661949 BCX0">Africa </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW81661949 BCX0">and accept short-term volunteers. </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW81661949 BCX0">Two of these organizations have purely locally based staff and two of these organizations have staff that work from the Western world. </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW81661949 BCX0">Semi-structured interviews with high level staff from each organization and a qua</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW81661949 BCX0">litative </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW81661949 BCX0">website analysis w</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW81661949 BCX0">ere </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW81661949 BCX0">conducted for each case study</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW81661949 BCX0">. </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW81661949 BCX0">An analysis </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW81661949 BCX0">was</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW81661949 BCX0"> conducted o</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW81661949 BCX0">n</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW81661949 BCX0"> the findings from both the interviews and website analysis followed by a discussion of </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW81661949 BCX0">the limitations of this study.</span> <span class="NormalTextRun SCXW81661949 BCX0">Six r</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW81661949 BCX0">ecommendations for organizations that host short-term volunteers coming from the global West were proposed </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW81661949 BCX0">in hopes to encourage practices that are ethical.&nbsp;</span></span><span class="EOP SCXW81661949 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:1,&quot;335551620&quot;:1,&quot;335559740&quot;:480}">&nbsp;</span>