28^th December 2007
Knowing your demographics is a key part of running any organization.  The most common type of volunteer that I've come across in my travels is as follows:

• Age: Twenty-something
  I think youth brings with it a certain amount of idealism.  You tend to care a lot about the world and injustices you see.  Maybe this gets beating out of you when you start the nine-to-five grind and have to worry about things like mortgages.
  
  
• Occupation: Student
  What is it about students and activism?  The two always seem to go hand-in-hand.  Just look at those brave Chinese students standing up to tanks in China.
  
  
• Country: U.S.A.
  The U.S. is the third biggest country in the world (a tick over 300 million) with the highest GDP.  It is no wonder more volunteers come from the U.S. than anywhere else in the world
  
  
• Sex: Female
  I'm not sure why this is.  Perhaps females tend to more idealistic.  Dunno.

So, this is where MeaningfulVolunteer.com should target is marketing. 

But this is the demographic other volunteer organizations are targeting as well!  Perhaps there is massive untapped market out there that everyone else is missing?  I think there is, and I think I have found it here in Korea.^*

Korean Volunteers
Just about every Korean I've talked to have expressed the following desires:

• A desire to travel
  Korea has very much a sameness to it.  There are rows and rows of cookie-cutter apartment blocks.  Every shop tends to be part of some chain-a-rather.  Heck, even the door handles have a sameness about them. 
  
  It is no wonder that Koreans want to get out a see the world!
  
  
• A desire to speak to native English speakers
  English - rightly or wrongly - is becoming the international language.  Chinese businessman will often meet with Japanese businessman and talk in English.
  
  The typical twenty-something Korean has reasonable English from years of English classes at their school and attending Hagwons (private English schools).  They need to practice their English with a native speaker to really get the language polished.  And therein lies the problem: There are just not enough native English speakers around!
  
  Being one of the few English speakers in Suwon, I am treated like a bit of a novelty.  Random people come up to me and say hi.  It is not nearly as bad as Africa or the Philippines though.
  
  The desire to find and speak to English speakers has led to the creations of sites like HanLingo (see if you can find a crazy New Zealander on there!).

I also think - and I don't know if this is an unfair generalization - that Koreans seem to be unaware of the struggles that people in places like Uganda and the Philippines face.  They know they are poor, and that there is something nasty called AIDS^**. 

Once I start babbling about my experiences in Africa, they tend to get very interested.  One friend of mine decided not to buy a $700 Louis Vuitton bag because she felt it wouldn't be right, given all the starving Africans!

I think Koreans have the compassion and willingness to help.  They just need to be told about it!

Volunteerism brings all these three ideas together.  A Korean volunteer will get to travel, interact with English speakers (i.e. the other volunteers) and get to have a meaningful impact on the world.

My challenge is to weave these three themes together.

What Not To Do
Here is a good way to make money.   Take a bunch of Koreans and promise them a tour-with-a-difference to the Philippines.  They give you money, and you provide them with all the sights and sounds in the Philippines - both the good and the bad.

You can show them the slums, and have them do something volunteer-ish, like planting mangroves.  You could also arrange a trip to Boracay, have them partake in local food and belt out a karaoke tune or two - Koreans lurv karaoke. 

There would be numerous photo opportunities, and everybody could leave with a warm fuzzy feeling that it wasn't just tourism, it was volunteer tourism.

Ugh.

If there was a story of the type of thing I don't want to with MeaningfulVolunteer.com, that would be it.  Back over here, I said that all MeaningfulVolunteer.com projects would have to pass the following tests:

• Do something.  Anything!
  Something (kinda) is being done here.  The odd mangrove has been planted.
  
  
• Would this have happened if you weren't there? 
  The mangrove planting is probably part of a large project.  I can just imagine some Filipinos looking on and shaking their heads, waiting for the Koreans to move on so that they can do some real work. 
  
  
• Will it carry on when you're gone?
  Planting a few feel-grove mangroves is not going to make much of a difference.

This is just classic volunteer tourism, which is what I don't want MeaningfulVolutneer.com to be about.

It is such an easy trap to fall into though.  I've pictured myself time and time again taking Koreans around the Philippines and giving them a poverty tour.

Trying to do it right
If that is doing it wrong, how can it be done right?

The lesson I have learnt time and time again on my travels is that People Group A is no better or worse than People Group B.  Ugandans are capable of great goodness, as are Filipinos.  New Zealanders are capable of great evil, as are Ghanaians.  We are all equally good and bad.

So, the question of how Koreans can meaningful contribute to a project is exactly the same question as for any other group.

The obvious problem though is the language barrier.  While some Koreans have great English, some do not.  This would disqualify the latter from being in an upfront role in an elementary of secondary school program. 

Other than that, I am sure Koreans could meaningful contribute to any one of the (slowing coming together!) MeaningfulVolunteer.com programs.  They are just as capable as anyone else.

I am trying to minimize the impact of the language barrier by learning to speak Korean.  Slow but steady progress so far,

Perhaps a major flaw
The conditions of my work visa here in the Korea are very specific.  I can only work for Benjamin's Hagwon. Starting up my own money-taking volunteer organization could get me kicked out of the country!  This is something I need to research.  Not only for now, but for long term as well.  Will I need to register as a company?  Will I need to pay Korean Tax?

A stop-gap measure may be to recruit for my good buddies at CERV Philippines and have them receive all the money. 

Wrap up
I think this idea has great potential.  It has some major hurdles in the form of visa issues and language barriers, but nothing insurmountable!

^*Does this all sound a bit corporate-y?  Keep in mind that MeaningfulVolunteer.com will be a non-profit company.  Any profit that it does make (fingers crossed!) will be funneled back into things like schools, micro-loan schemes and the like.

MeaningfulVolunteer.com needs to be run like a business for it to succeed.

^** Many Korean kids have told me that you get AIDS by touching someone with AIDS.

Wanna help in a real and tangible way?

Then visit GrassRootsUganda.com and purchase some crafts made by Ugandan ladies.  100% of the profits are returned to the ladies