| Volunteer Organizations have been present in East Africa for decades, and have been perceived by some to exist within a larger, emergent, volunteering industry. This industry specifically recruits, places, manages, and assists volunteers from other countries for the purpose of providing social welfare services to Tanzanian residents. This thesis sought to identify benefits that individuals may receive, either directly or indirectly, through their involvement with a volunteer organization; by way of volunteering, accepting services provided by volunteers, or becoming employed by the volunteer organization itself. The benefits or non-benefits that are received by individuals are highly variable, regardless of what intentions led to them, and this may inform larger investigations into the outcomes of the volunteer industry presence in Tanzania.;This thesis sought a broader understanding of human motivations to volunteer, as well as some of the social and cultural context that has been created through the volunteer industry in Usa River, Tanzania. In viewing the networks of volunteers, employees, and community members that are affiliated in one way or another to a specific organization, we realize that this industry does not operate independently, and that multiple layers and forces influence outcomes despite the strongest of intentions. Through the application of decentered power and grounded theories, we may realize that these relationships have the potential to create dynamics of power that can cause separation between volunteers, employees, and community members that influence outcomes of volunteer organization processes. The presence of a developing volunteer industry within Usa River may also have created a power dynamic that dictates and inhibits communication between volunteers and the community members that they intend to serve. This power has been shown to both provide benefits and non-benefits to each cohort of players assessed. A means of understanding the relationships between motivations and subsequent outcomes, in this context or any other, will provide advanced theoretical knowledge relating to Anthropology and related volunteer studies. |
