I’ve never had an interview almost fall through because the interviewee was suffering from a tropical disease, but David Clemmons walks the walk as well as talks the talk. He says that discomfort among his recruits is one of the indicators of the success of a project. Clearly a man who faces down hardship and who regards nasty diseases as part of the job, he did the interview from his sickbed.

It took a while to track Clemmons down in the first place; he was in Bolivia “in the field” with no telephone access, looking to set up some project opportunities, as well as formalising a voluntourism institute in Latin America.

A few projects are in the pipeline in Bolivia, including at a village near San Javier, where a resident has proposed constructing cabanas to host voluntourists, as well as building a bridge across the Rio Arriva and developing a ‘beach’ to enjoy the river. Another potential project involves dinosaur fossil preservation and conservation.

It all sounds rather exciting, but Clemmons stresses voluntourism is not glamorous. Tourism is part of it, but being of service comes first. “The experiences can be raw: cold showers, if at all, lots of insects, sickness of various kinds and lengthy transfers from one destination to another,” he says. “If voluntourists are not experiencing discomfort I’m not doing my job.”

With its primary role being education, VolunTourism.org was set up 10 years ago in response to global changes, which Clemmons says threaten to derail the self-serving and self-indulgent travel industry.

“The tourism industry has, for many years, built a niche within destinations by distancing itself from the socio-economic, political and environmental challenges of a destination, instead highlighting the sun/sand side,” he says. “This approach is no longer sustainable in a world that is becoming ever aware of the limitations of human beings, the cutbacks in social investment on the part of governments and the fact that communities must fend for themselves to a greater degree in the face of global climate change, increases in population, and greater strains on natural resources.”

Voluntourists do both voluntary service and travel and tourism-related activities while at a destination. Trips last one to two weeks and involve voluntourists working with a local community on something of importance to its residents. Participants fund the trip themselves and the local community makes a contribution of labour, oversight, materials or supplies to bring the project to fruition.

According to Clemmons, one of the main challenges in setting up the organisation was the backlash from traditional thinkers who “wanted to shield volunteerism’s purity from the one-sided profit-seeking modality of tourism.” Clemmons, however, strongly believed there was a need for an organisation that could educate 21st century travellers trying to navigate their way through a host of ethical conumdrums, including global climate change; social, economic, and educational disparity; human rights abuses; overpopulation; religious fundamentalism and radicalism; and natural and man-made disasters.

Over the past 10 years, the organisation has undertaken research and sparked debate through workshops, seminars, conference presentations and the website. The 2009 Voluntourism Survey brought voluntourism to the public’s attention, and this research has been augmented with additional research from academics.

Clemmons liaises with communities, NGOs, tourism professionals, academics, students and public sector representatives, explaining what voluntourism has become and where it’s headed. He also hunts down project options and works with the pilot voluntourists to discover how they have responded to the experience and whether it would be possible to engage groups to come to that location.

Currently based in Bolivia, Clemmons had to relocate from Jordan because of the outbreak out of war in Syria. “We had spent months working on a plan to develop a robust voluntourism initiative in Jordan, when war broke out in Syria. There were already challenges due to the Arab Spring, however when the violence in Syria broke out, it was obvious travellers would be unlikely to come to the region,” he says. “The tourism industry in Jordan could not maintain itself under such pressures; a number of operators went bankrupt or simply closed their doors. Voluntourism, which requires investment on the part of the tourism sector, could not thrive under such conditions.”

Asked about his own motivation, Clemmons needs to think hard: “I suppose we all have our essential duty to fulfil in life. This happens to be mine.” And what has been the highest point? “There hasn’t been a highest high associated with our work at VolunTourism.org,” he says. “Our work is never done, and quite often represents a series of thankless tasks built upon one another. Our motto is a simple one: keep plugging along.”

So is there an upside? Emphatically, yes, says Clemmons. The destinations are exciting, exhilarating, of incredible interest with multi-cultural, historic, geographic, and environmental wonders with which to engage and explore. “Most important is the response from communities,” he says.

“With numerous interactions occurring in a given setting, the feedback from communities can truly tell us how successful these efforts are being in the minds and hearts of those who are most directly impacted.”