In April 2017 I started looking around for a project to support during my university summer holidays. By chance, I stumbled on an interesting project in Costa Rica run by VISIONEERS e.V. a few weeks later. The charity has been supporting the building of a vocational school there since 2015. A group of German volunteers had already travelled to Costa Rica a couple of times before to work on the school alongside the inhabitants of Límon 2000. Patrick and Isabel, two German volu

Since a few years ago, voluntary services in countries of the global south have shown a strong upward trend. Since then, going out into the world and gaining experience in a foreign culture has become more popular with young people. As promotional literature for new volunteers increases, voluntary service is also facing rising criticism. Can a conclusion be drawn from this contradiction? The Trend of Voluntary Service Studies on “volunteers in international voluntary services