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Using Social Media to Empower
After brigade, the photos and captions you post on social media will shape other's perspectives of you, community members, and Global Brigades. Learn how to responsibly share meaningful content from your Brigade that will continue to empower community members and inspire other global citizens.

Use our Social Media Guidebook as an easy resource to educate your chapter on the basics of ethical social media use.

Explore Instagram content from GB, parody accounts, and peer organizations to learn what to do and what not to do on social media. This activity and other great resources can be found in this Facilitator's Guide .

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Using Social Media to Empower After brigade, the photos and captions you post on social media will shape other's perspectives of you, community members, and Global Brigades. Learn how to responsibly share meaningful content from your Brigade that will continue to empower community members and inspire other global citizens.

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A Short Guide to the White Savior Complex

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A Short Guide to the White Savior Complex

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Radi-Aid is a former awareness campaign created by the Norwegian Students' and Academics' Assistance Fund (SAIH). Although we will no longer develop this campaign, we will keep all the resources available. Visit the Emerging from the satirical campaign and music video 'Radi-Aid: Africa for Norway', the campaign has focused on arranging the Radi-Aid Awards (2013-2017), celebrating the best - and the worst - of development fundraising videos. Along with this, we have produced several satirical, awareness-raising videos. In 2017, we also developed the Social Media Guide for Volunteers and Travelers. SAIH webpage for information about our current campaigning.

Charity campaigns risk being counterproductive to their own goals if they obscure the actual causes of poverty. We need more nuanced information about development and poverty, not oversimplified half-truths.

In many charity ads, poor people are portrayed as passive recipients of help, without the ability or desire to make their country a better place to live. This kind of portrayal creates a significant distinction between us and them.

The last years have shown increasing examples of creative and engaging portrayals in charity ads, demonstrating the many various ways a charity campaign can succeed without traditional and stereotypical representations.

Stereotypes and oversimplifications lead to poor debates and poor policies. NGO communicators play a crucial role in people's understanding of development in the world today, and therefore also a crucial role in fighting these representations.

The goal with Radi-Aid is to challenge the perceptions around issues of poverty and development, to change the way fundraising campaigns communicate, and to break down dominating stereotypical representations.

Since 2012, our videos have been selected as one of the best practices on development communication by OECD (2012), one of the best "Ads worth spreading" by TED (2014), and joined The Guardian's list of the best aid parodies (2014). In addition to wide international media attention, we have been invited to speak about our work at TedX talks, workshops and a numerous of conferences around the world. Our campaign also been exhibited at various exhibitions, including the German Colonial Museum in Berlin (2016).

They avoid one-sided representation and the single story

The target group is presented with ownership and has an active role in providing solutions, they speak for themselves and no "white hero" is speaking on behalf of them

Although the goal is to raise money, they avoid exploiting the suffering of people. People are portrayed with dignity - with potential, talents, strengths.

Some take use of humour and positivity, which helps to not focus on people's guilt or create apathy among potential donors/supporters, and highlights instead people's strengths and common humanity. It is okay, and even good to create feelings, but not feelings like pity/feeling sorry for.

They portray people in a way that resonate with the audience - situations, emotions etc. You feel solidarity and connected with them, instead of feeling sorry and disconnected from their reality

The potential donors/supporters are inspired to take action beyond donating

They respect their audience, by not exaggerating the story or suggesting that "with your donation, you have changed a life/saved the world"

They are clear and transparent about their role in the project

They provide context and manage to explain the underlying causes of problems, not presenting merely cheap and easy solutions to global issues.

Main objectives
Contact us
Hilde Sofie Pettersen
Head of Communication and Politics department
+47 473 70 190 / hilde.pettersen@saih.no
Radi-Aid aims at addressing the following issues:

How we can do it better

Previous nominees for the Golden Radiator in the Radi-Aid Awards have shown how powerful you can communicate in a nuanced, creative and engaging way, without using stereotypes - and still manage to raise money for your campaign. What characterize these campaigns, is that:

About SAIH
The Norwegian Students' and Academics' International Assistance Fund (SAIH) is the solidarity organization of students and academics in Norway. In addition to long-term development work, SAIH works with advocacy activities in Norway and internationally, in order to improve the conditions for education and development globally. SAIH runs annual campaigns on topics related to academic freedom and access to higher education. Read more about SAIH.

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Radi-Aid is a former awareness campaign created by the Norwegian Students' and Academics' Assistance Fund (SAIH). Although we will no longer develop this campaign, we will keep all the resources available. Visit the Emerging from the satirical campaign and music video ' Radi-Aid: Africa for Norway ', the campaign has focused on arranging the Radi-Aid Awards (2013-2017), celebrating the best - and the worst - of development fundraising videos.

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Criticizing voluntourism seems almost as popular as voluntourism itself. After stories surfaced about Cambodian orphanages exploiting children (many of whom weren't orphans) to attract altruistic tourists, reporters and bloggers continue their assault.

The media criticism, though well-intentioned, takes a frustratingly one-dimensional view, portraying volunteers as young, selfie-obsessed do-gooders with savior complexes. If you believe what you read, voluntourism is a neocolonialist activity. Yet most critics have never volunteered abroad. Others were turned off by a single volunteer experience. And though media coverage remains focused on local impact, reporting rarely includes local perspectives, which seems-dare I say-neocolonialistic.

As a six-time volunteer, I've asked many of the questions raised by critics: Does voluntourism create dependency? What qualifies unskilled travelers to work in other countries? Here's a look at five common stereotypes about voluntourism, and why it's time for a refresh:

Only volunteers benefit.

Volunteer labor isn't perfect. Construction projects can take longer than necessary, skeptics note, because local workers need to manage and train volunteers-and fix their mistakes.

Voluntourism focuses more on feeling good than doing good, critics say. Jane Karigo, a Kenyan woman who founded a children's home where I worked near Mombasa, recalls a volunteer who gave a child an iPod, igniting jealous infighting among the residents. Another took the kids to a go-kart track, which Jane viewed as a frivolous waste of resources. "They will not care about go-karts when they are hungry," she noted.

Yet the scores of volunteers I've met in my travels seemed genuine about helping others. Of course, selflessness always involves personal gain. It gives us pleasure. But that doesn't mean volunteering can't produce results.

When I worked on a climate change program in Ecuador, the scientists were able to run more research projects with help from volunteer labor. In China, volunteers worked with college students who were learning English. It was a valuable service: the students knew the language, but needed practice speaking it. In the process, they learned about America while the volunteers learned about China.

Spontaneous exchanges like these are one of the many intangible benefits of volunteering. These benefits, argues Daniela Papi, founder of Learning Service, an advocacy group working to help people rethink volunteer travel, often get overlooked-"the friendships, the cross-cultural learning, and the life changes it inspires in volunteers who hopefully shift how they live, travel, and give in the future."

Voluntourism hurts local economies.

Generosity can have unexpected repercussions. After volunteering in Cambodia, Papi discovered that giving shoes and water filters to residents-actions she'd been encouraged to take on other volunteer trips-can divert business from local markets. Critics also charge that volunteer labor steals jobs, though Papi, who now approaches voluntourism with skepticism, disagrees: "The negative impact is the money and energy going into Band-Aid solutions rather than higher prioritized local needs."

Yet even experts who believe free labor can hurt local employment see economic benefits.

"There is no doubt that some volunteer programs shift jobs from locals to potentially less skilled labor," says Shannon O'Donnell, author of The Volunteer Traveler's Handbook. But she cautions against assuming this is the case in every scenario. "Many volunteer programs hire locals in other capacities: families to host and feed volunteers, shops that sell snacks and souvenirs."

International volunteering is part of a complex ecosystem that can, when done well, help a community grow in a direction they support.

In Costa Rica, my wife and I taught English at a rural elementary school. The principal used volunteers because he couldn't afford an English teacher. It wasn't a choice between volunteers and paid teachers; it was a choice between volunteers and not offering English class. As a volunteer in post-Katrina New Orleans, I counted spending money in the tourist-starved city among my most valuable contributions.

"The media tends to annihilate programs from a single economic aspect," says O'Donnell. "But international volunteering is part of a complex ecosystem that can, when done well, help a community grow in a direction they support."

Every project involves children in developing countries.

"I find it absurd when all volunteering is painted with the same brush," says Kirsty Henderson, author of The Underground Guide to International Volunteering. "Would people make negative comments if I volunteered with vulnerable kids in my hometown? I'm more culturally prepared to work there than in Thailand."

While kids are the focus of many projects, voluntourism opportunities are manifold. Earthwatch, an environmental science organization, offers projects as varied as archaeological excavations near Hadrian's Wall and scientific research at the Great Barrier Reef.

Programs are available throughout the United States, from trail maintenance with the American Hiking Society to animal welfare work with the Humane Society. The community-run Apostle Islands Sled Dog Race in Bayfield, Wisconsin, has been called a model voluntourism program by Voluntourism.org. Volunteer jobs include handling dogs, helping mushers, and assisting at checkpoints.

"You can volunteer at a school in Kenya, but you can also do accounting for an environmental agency in the United Kingdom," Henderson argues. "Volunteering is simply the act of giving your time for free."

All volunteers are college students.

When I volunteered in China with Global Volunteers, 11 Americans participated and only one was under the age of 40. In the Ecuadorian Andes, our crew included a sexagenarian Canadian, a septuagenarian Australian-and zero college students. In Costa Rica I met an 80-year-old volunteer with Cross-Cultural Solutions who later worked in Thailand.

"[Baby] Boomers volunteering overseas is a huge trend," says O'Donnell. "They have a deep interest in finding projects that resonate within their own lives and supporting those projects for years. They understand that change occurs gradually."

As for supposedly selfie-obsessed young volunteers, many Millennials use volunteering as a springboard to humanitarian careers. Tenteleni, a U.K.-based volunteer group, recently published a piece on 14 program alumni whose jobs now range from teaching to social work. Selfies are part of voluntourism, admits O'Donnell, "but this happens more with tour programs offering a feel-good pop-in visit to an orphanage-which is really pseudo volunteering."

Voluntourism creates dependency.

Dependency is a problem, and it's not just about giving local people money or things, says Papi. "It's about selling an image of poverty to Westerners and saying that-just by being them, without any responsibility to learn, shift, or qualify-they can 'help.'"

The negative stories, however, assume that all volunteer programs create dependency. The misconception may be a product of semantics. "Volunteer" implies offering services to people in need while "tourist" denotes camera-clad gawkers. The result? "Voluntourist" becomes a dirty word.

In a research paper for Voluntourist.org, Carlos Palacios, Ph.D., of Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, argues that voluntourism is the only type of travel that's vilified as colonialistic. Programs that describe themselves as service learning, cultural exchange, or educational tourism "have not got into this kind of trouble," he notes.

I came to see myself more as an intern than a volunteer: someone who did small but necessary work-dish washing, data entry, trash collecting-while receiving an education about a place and its challenges. I was taught by women like Jane Kargio in Kenya and Zhang Tao, who formed a special needs school in China despite few resources and long-held prejudices toward children with autism and developmental disabilities. These women are action heroes-the most impressive, committed people I've ever met.

"We call it volunteering or service learning, implying that we are helping, and as a byproduct we are learning, but that is backwards," Papi says. "Learning service-learning how to serve the rest of our lives by how we live-is the biggest impact. We sell a lie when we call it volunteering and make it seem like success comes from changing someone else."

Ken Budd is the author of the award-winning memoir The Voluntourist-A Six-Country Tale of Love, Loss, Fatherhood, Fate, and Singing Bon Jovi in Bethlehem . His earnings from the book are going back to the organizations and projects where he volunteered (which is probably neocolonialistic). Follow Ken on Twitter @Ken_Budd.

This story was originally published in 2015 and updated November 2018.

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Criticizing voluntourism seems almost as popular as voluntourism itself. After stories surfaced about Cambodian orphanages exploiting children (many of whom weren't orphans) to attract altruistic tourists, reporters and bloggers continue their assault. The media criticism, though well-intentioned, takes a frustratingly one-dimensional view, portraying volunteers as young, selfie-obsessed do-gooders with savior complexes.

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Evaluating the Ethics of Volunteering - Global Brigades Blog

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Evaluating the Ethics of Volunteering & Performative Activism

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Beyond Good Intentions: Evaluating the Ethics of Volunteering & Performative Activism

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By Volunteer Engagement Associate, Rebekah Kawas and Marketing Associate, Sydney Colbert

"Do not go with the intention of helping, go with the intention of learning, and the rest will come naturally."
- Reha Kakkar, "International Volunteering and the "White Saviour Industrial Complex"

White Saviorism and International Volunteering

One of the most controversial issues in the field of international volunteering is White Saviorism. White Saviorism refers to a complex where a white or privileged person provides aid to a Person of Color (POC) or a socially disadvantaged community for self-serving motives. Performative activism is one of these self-serving motives or using POC and disadvantaged communities as a backdrop to compose a philanthropic image of oneself. Volunteering with these motives has profoundly harmful effects on disadvantaged communities and perpetuates the idea of "an impoverished third-world country desperately waiting for the charity of the west" as described by Reha Kakkar, a writer for Affinity Magazine. Delving even further into the topic, historically, there is vast evidence ( here's an example) that racist and colonial perspectives in international aid have caused great trauma to under-resourced communities in the United States and around the globe.

If we consider ourselves "Global Citizens", individuals that care about global issues and have a desire to build a more equal, fair, and sustainable world, then we must challenge ourselves to recognize the ways in which we may ignore or perpetuate injustices in our world. Subsequently, let's regularly examine our intentions and ensure that we are putting the rights, respect, and desires of the community first and foremost in our practices. Good intentions are not enough for the communities that we aim to empower.

How Global Brigades Addresses White Saviorism

Volunteering abroad has the power of being an impactful lifelong experience for all involved. Global Brigades sees the lives of countless community members and volunteers alike transformed over the years as they work in unity to reach the community's unique health and economic goals. These goals are intentionally designed to be holistic, sustainable, and most importantly, community-led and maintained.That is why we make sure to hear from all involved in our programs when concerns are raised about the practice of international volunteers and Global Brigades as an international nonprofit organization.

With this in mind, there are typically four ways communities become GB partners:

1. Local governments suggest regions.

2. Community Leaders request to partner.

3. In-country GB staff identifies potential partners during visits.

4. Partner organizations suggest collaborations for support.

From this, partnerships have the ability to begin with a request from the local government or community leaders themselves. This allows Global Brigades to hear from and work directly with the local community to determine what their own health and economic goals are. This is at the core of how we address white saviorism - listening to the needs of a community to determine if a partnership is feasible while simultaneously upholding the goals of the Holistic Model. Community partnerships also begin hand-in-hand with the Global Brigades Monitoring and Evaluation team by utilizing needs assessment tools alongside community leaders and members to get an accurate picture of the community. Furthermore, Monitoring and Evaluation work internationally and year-round to track data at the community level. This helps in listening to the voices of local stakeholders, like members, businesses, or households, that guide Global Brigades' mission as communities know best.

This open stream of communication is paired with in-country GB teams local to the area diligently executing programming on a regular and equitable basis using their intimate knowledge of cultural context and program impact. Year-round engagement of our programs like this allow student volunteers to be only one piece of what we do. Even on Brigade, volunteer projects are led by local professionals in their respective fields, whether it be a healthcare provider, engineer, or technician. With project outcomes geared specifically toward community impact, The Empowered 100 initiative is the collective guideline to ensure partner communities receive the entirety of the Holistic Model as it relates to their community's unique situation and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals of:

Goal 3: Good Health and Well-Being
Goal 6: Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth Clean Health and Sanitation
Global Brigades' implementation of the Holistic Model with these goals as guidance works to resolve health, economic, and WASH (water & sanitation) disparities in communities that are otherwise under-resourced.

On this note, we believe it is crucial to sufficiently prepare volunteers with this knowledge. So, what are we adding to our brigade preparation materials to make sure all stakeholders have access to this background information? Global Brigades is relaunching its Volunteer Resource Site (VRS) to be more user-friendly and include topics such as Ethical Volunteering, Sustainable Development, and the White Savior Complex. Chapter Leaders and volunteers across all of our universities will be able to utilize these resources to prepare themselves before volunteering with us on Brigade. Typically white saviors are those that come into a community with little training, knowledge, or care about the country or people they plan to work with. Our updated VRS will help us alleviate this gap to ensure GB volunteers have extensive knowledge of our organization, international volunteering, the projects they'll be working on, and the cultural context for the communities they plan to partner with. Catch a sneak peek of the new VRS navigation page below.

How You Can Grow as a Global Citizen

This growing virtual environment we will see in the VRS also extends to the launch of the new TeleBrigades program for Medical, Business, Engineering, and Public Health Chapters to volunteer during the time of postponed in-person brigades and beyond. Use this opportunity as an option for you and your group to be a part of global impact while avoiding costly travel and the negative environmental impact associated with flying. TeleBrigades allows Chapters to see the in-country impact GB staff has on the ground year-round through organizational funding.

As you continue on your journey to becoming a Global Citizen with new initiatives like this, make sure you identify what's important when sharing your experience about a brigade, TeleBrigade, or any volunteer opportunity you take part in. Keep in mind GB's 3Cs when telling your friends and family about your experience as a volunteer or when you post on social media. Challenge yourself to ask questions about the photos you take and the importance of consent. This guides all of us toward content that centers the story on partner communities, local staff, and the holistic approach to the work completed. With thousands of volunteers each year, we set an example for how others perceive international development work and it's our responsibility to shed an accurate light on the full scope.

However, Global Brigades' responsibility to equity also transcends to teaching volunteers how critical it is to think globally and act locally. What does this mean? This means actively volunteering as a Chapter pre-brigade, exercising your right to vote, and taking a stance on the local initiatives that are important to you to name a few. Find movements that allow you to explore your role as an ethical volunteer. This could be doing your own research, generating discussion with the people you care about, or supporting local businesses. Taking this type of action can help keep you connected to your community and foster better team relationships among your Chapter when you talk about and experience these things together.

Resources for Ethical Volunteering

Whether you volunteer with Global Brigades, travel on your own as a Global Citizen, or participate locally in your community, there is a vast array of resources that you can use to educate yourself on White Saviorism and various current topics in international volunteering. Remember to not assume that your intentions are what's best for the needs of a particular community. When making the decision to volunteer abroad, let's educate ourselves thoroughly on the historical and cultural context of a community and come with an attitude of humility and openness to learning. Armed with this information, we can become stronger partners, more informed individuals, and true Global Citizens making positive change in our world. Check out the resources we've compiled below to help you build your own personal Global Citizen Curriculum:

Understanding GB:

Essential Reading

Taking Action Locally

Taking Action Virtually

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Addressing White Saviorism Together - Global Brigades Blog

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By Volunteer Engagement Associate, Rebekah Kawas and Marketing Associate, Sydney Colbert "Do not go with the intention of helping, go with the intention of learning, and the rest will come naturally." - Reha Kakkar, "International Volunteering and the "White Saviour Industrial Complex" One of the most controversial issues in the field of international volunteering is White Saviorism.

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When we are confined to our beliefs we limit our scope, our effectiveness, and our ability to fully empathize.

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When we are confined to our beliefs we limit our scope, our effectiveness, and our ability to fully empathize.

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I think that many of our volunteers have a surface-level understanding through their research for applications. As someone who has been in their shoes, I know that this is insufficient, but I do know that we have the resources in place to ensure they have a full understanding prior to the brigade. 

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I think that many of our volunteers have a surface-level understanding through their research for applications. As someone who has been in their shoes, I know that this is insufficient, but I do know that we have the resources in place to ensure they have a full understanding prior to the brigade. 

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if we do not step out of our own shoes, we risk not reaching our potential as an individual. furthermore, we would be setting a bad example for the rest of our brigade/group members

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if we do not step out of our own shoes, we risk not reaching our potential as an individual. furthermore, we would be setting a bad example for the rest of our brigade/group members

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Our CHW told us we needed to cover different material in our curriculum for public health

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In a group for an internship abroad in Uganda, we were told to teach the women financial literacy. When we began lessons with what banking/checking/savings is we were told that they already know how to do that and that they were more interested in learning other things like how they should make/grow a business (book-keeping etc).

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In a group for an internship abroad in Uganda, we were told to teach the women financial literacy. When we began lessons with what banking/checking/savings is we were told that they already know how to do that and that they were more interested in learning other things like how they should make/grow a business (book-keeping etc).

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Going into any event, let alone volunteering, with preconceived notions can be dangerous because it subconsciously shapes our behaviors in a way that may be harmful even if our intentions are good

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If you don't listen you're going to come off as horribly arrogant. Aside from the lack of your effectiveness of your own ill informed ideas you are going to lose respect of locals who can actually provide you with the answers. That's a stereotype we have to be careful not to fall into.

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I think most people associate would naturally associate ethical volunteering with just being a good person, so I definitely think the resources on the GB site and videos like the TED talk we watched are important to open people's eyes to America's patronizing stereotype.

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A lot of things are structured to let us to make us believe that The US is superior- and even with the common use of "third world countries" it makes people think of developing countries negatively. When in reality, that term is outdated and is a derogatory term. So when we are surrounded by that bias it impacts the work we do. 

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A lot of things are structured to let us to make us believe that The US is superior- and even with the common use of "third world countries" it makes people think of developing countries negatively. When in reality, that term is outdated and is a derogatory term. So when we are surrounded by that bias it impacts the work we do. 

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The key thing in my opinion is that everyone comes from different backgrounds and has their own biases. We can't get everything perfectly and their will always be some difference in opinion but making sure to expose people to the realities that aid work of all types is complicated is one of the most important things GB does. Basically good intentions can only go so far after all, to truly have the best outcome you have to have a mindset set around service.

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Americans went to an African country to build sanitation systems/toilets. When they returned a year later for a similar project, they saw that none of the infrastructure was used (it was actually dismantled with the parts used for other things). When asked why the community did not use the sanitation systems, they said that (1) they were never instructed on how to use it, nor directed the project and (2) why would they adapt to foreign ideas of what is "better" when what they've been doing has worked for hundreds of years