As a West European who is going to be a volunteer in East Europe soon I am confronted with lack of understanding and denial. First this seems quite odd as international volunteering is established and young people are supported to do so. When I wondered about this circumstances I realised that east europe is a place where very few volunteers go. Instead people mostly go to places which they desired to visit for a long and promise a certain lifestyle as Australia, USA or France. On the other hand a lot volunteers choose so called developing countries preferably Africa.
Now it is to wonder why it seems so strange and dangerous to go to East Europe, which is geographically and culturally much nearer to West Europe, but it is socially accepted and supported to go to Africa or India.
There seems to be a longer tradition to go to Africa, as missionaries from Europe went there for hundreds of years and this leads to the main reason, why volunteering in so called developing countries finds so much social ackknowledgment. Racism. Racism and the resulting feeling of superiority. The volunteers get so much appreciation and support in our society because the ideology still exists that people in Africa or elsewhere are inferior to the Western world and therefore dependant to the help of Western people. As a result those volunteers (which isn't automatically their bad) are presented as heroes who are helping the weak and helpless Africans, Bolivian, Indians etc.
