AGORA which literally means “gathering place” in Greek, seeks to relive the ancient assembly of philosophers, students, leaders, and the public in order to share and discuss ideas and current events. The forum aims to be a friendly and informal session with varying formats such as panel discussions, short lectures as well as debates, in order to generate and promote idea generation within the campus.
            
Our second AGORA session kicked off on the 5th of May 2015 with twelve participants together with our guest, Dr. Anita Lundberg, Senior Lecturer and Coordinator of Bachelor of Arts and Anthropology in JCU Singapore. Titled: “Sustainable Volunteering”, the discussion began with a short introduction of AGORA by GKS President, Ahmad, followed by the introduction of the topic by Dr. Anita.
            
Volunteering our time is one of the noble ways that we, as individuals can give back to the society. Various avenues are available, including teaching to the underprivileged, building of facilities, or simply spending time with others. As such, the main agenda of the discussion was a critical look on the current practices of volunteering abroad especially in the third world countries in ASEAN. While our intent is good, the AGORA questioned whether our presence as volunteers in these countries was beneficial to the society in ways that is sensitive to the society and culture as a whole.

Dr Anita noted that volunteering programmes have moved beyond its noble intent to help others to an alternative tourism industry aims to attract individuals, especially student. While some of the participants noted that our time spent in the countries is certainly beneficial to them as well as to ourselves, others pointed out that at times, the industry overlooked the real needs of the society.

Several anecdotal were shared including the blatant attitude of some company to assert and dictate what the society need to others who really seek to help the society in order to turn their life better. It was argued also that while our intent is good, volunteering abroad could be liken to Neo-Colonialisation where we as volunteers feels that we have the ability to change others with our practices without regards to the society’s need. 

As the session came to an end, all the participants agreed that volunteering should start from the ground up by the locals and we as volunteers should only be present to help what they as a society need. While we believe that we have the expertise, none of us could predict the impact of our culture on theirs. Therefore, in order for there to be a sustainable volunteerism, we as individuals should be reflective on our impact as volunteers and see beyond the obvious benefits of our help.