77. Ethical Volunteering with Kimberly Haley-Coleman - Building Bridges Through Community Led Service

 "It's amazing how enduring humans can be with their willingness to look for good."

Kimberly Haley-Coleman is the founder and executive director of GlobeAware, a nonprofit building ethical, community-led volunteer service programmes across more than 25 countries. With a background spanning international business, nonprofit leadership, and global partnership building, Kimberly has spent years thinking deeply about how service, cultural exchange, and shared work can bring people together with dignity, curiosity, and compassion.

Topics we cover

✔︎ What ethical volunteering actually looks like — and why locally led, community-designed programmes are so different from voluntourism 
✔︎ How shared work breaks down assumptions faster than almost anything else — and what that means for building genuine cross-cultural empathy 
✔︎ How GlobeAware's programmes are responding to sweeping foreign aid cuts and what resilience looks like on the ground in 2026

Connect with Kimberly and Globe Aware

• Website www.globeaware.org
• Facebook https://www.facebook.com/globeaware
• Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimberlyglobeaware/
• Podcasts https://open.spotify.com/show/6n9cfb4QIVb2aqUD6XSttE
• Instagram https://www.instagram.com/globeaware/
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@globeaware
• X Twitter: https://twitter.com/GlobeAware
• Linkedin:  https://www.linkedin.com/company/globe-aware/
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@globe_aware
• Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globe_Aware
• Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/globeaware.bksy.social
• Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/globeaware/

Transcript

Welcome and Meet Kimberly Haley-Coleman

James Hodgson 0:01

Welcome to Humanism Now, a podcast about secular ethics, curiosity, and compassionate change. I'm your host, James Hodgson. This week we're delighted to be joined by Kimberly Haley Coleman, founder and executive director of GlobalWare, the nonprofit she helped build to create ethical, community-led volunteer service programs across more than 25 countries. With a background spanning international business, nonprofit leadership, and global partnership building, Kimberly has spent years thinking deeply about how service, cultural exchange, and shared work can bring people together with dignity, curiosity, and compassion. Today we'll be exploring what responsible global engagement looks like in practice, what volunteering can teach us about our common humanity, and how people can build bridges across cultures through service. Kimberly Haley Coleman, thank you so much for joining us and welcome to Humanism Now.

Kimberly Haley-Coleman 0:51

James, thank you so much for having me and for that intro. I would like you to introduce me each and every time that it's so beautiful and perfect.

James Hodgson 0:57

Well, it was a challenge to trim it down just to that, because I know you've got an incredible career and have had a huge impact around the world, and I'd love to dive into that just a little bit today and share that story for our listeners.

Why GlobalWare Exists

James Hodgson 1:08

So perhaps we can start with introducing Globalware, the organization which you founded. Why start Globalware? And what is the problem that you are addressing with the organization?

Kimberly Haley-Coleman 1:18

It's such a good question because even after all these years, I still struggle with making that a quick answer. So I'll hear words like, you know, service abroad or volunteer vacation. But when you mentioned uh global engagement, I actually feel like that is a far more accurate way of encapsulating what it is that is driving us in terms of a mission. And the reason I started it was years ago, um, I had grown up traveling and getting to do a lot of things internationally and had done a lot of traditional tourist consumer related activities and would find myself in places for work over the weekend, wanting to use my time in a meaningful way, my free time. And so I started trying to look for service and volunteering opportunities. And, you know, there's a very cultural component to that. You know, they're obviously uh in France, for example, far less volunteering-related society because so many of the functions that we are engaged in are the things that per-governmental organizations will already do. So for people who aren't from the US, they may not realize how much of those kinds of activities are handled by what we don't use the word non-government organizations. We we say nonprofit. But there is a difference between the way churches do it and the way our kind of organizations, they're regulated very differently. So we're doing a quick waiting capsulated is definitely to say short-term service abroad, but it's far more about the reciprocal nature, the magic that happens when someone is willing to go and experience a culture in a way that isn't just about, you know, taking photos of their churches and museums and getting off and on tourist buses, but getting to know a human being and what the real challenges and beauties are in their life and experiencing it alongside them as equals. Um, so that's really what it is we're doing. It's people just sign up and participate in the one-week program, regardless of any languages they speak or any skills they have. So that's really what it is we do is offer those experiences. And before this, it was primarily high school and colleges in the US or churches. And we have no religious affiliation. Nobody's converting anyone, no one is, you know, so we're really not. So while we're learning about the religious influences in any culture, it is a learning opportunity in that regard.

James Hodgson 3:30

Not a prosthetizing opportunity. Right. Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. And I

Ethical Volunteering Vs. "Voluntourism"

James Hodgson 3:34

know you'd like to distinguish between ethical volunteering, and I guess this concept of service and experience that you mentioned, versus volunteerism. Can you explain that term and what the differences look like in practice?

Kimberly Haley-Coleman 3:45

Yes. And for us, that really comes down to a lot of it is who's in charge, who's benefiting, who are the decision makers. If an entity or an organization from outside a culture is dictating the terms, the materials, how things are done, for us, a lot has been lost. And so for us, the ethical piece of this is making sure that it's designed from within, first and foremost, by the community that you're serving alongside. That's locally designed, locally led. And the volunteers, again, it's it's a learning opportunity as much as anything. And I think a lot of people, perhaps the biggest misconception anyone might have is that they're coming in, you know, we're not saviors, we're not teaching anyone anything, and we're doing something alongside someone. And there are lots of other pieces to this, you know, we're not wanting to create dependencies. So we're not there giving out money and candy and things like that. We do have a filter of criteria that we sort past to know if a project will be uh something that's meaningful for us to do in conjunction with the local community. You know, we're not just going to go in a room and paint it by ourselves or stuff paperwork into envelopes for a local nonprofit. The whole idea is again the magic that happens when locals and uh visitors to that culture share an experience together. And it's not just poverty as a backdrop and to take photos for social media that we're learning. You know, if you're in a community in Guatemala and seeing that, hey, yes, they may not have running water in this community, but look at how many hours a day they're spending with their friends, their family, their loved one, their spiritual faith relative to um the visitors and what a beautiful thing that is, and how hard that might be to see if you were just visiting as a traditional tourist. So it's this, it's an experience designed to flesh that out so that we're it's designed to learn about the culture, respect that culture, and as soft power as well, in terms of the local hosting community being able to see visitors in a way that aren't just uh spending currency in that community, but actually about that experience, that shared time.

James Hodgson 5:54

And I know the leadership, if I understand correctly, the leadership comes from the local community.

Kimberly Haley-Coleman 5:58

Yes, the leadership comes from all of our coordinators, the people who are uh leading, shepherding our teams. And our teams, unless they're corporate groups, they tend to be 10 to 12 people. And that our coordinator is the one leading everything. They're the bilingual component, they're the ones who have their primary relationship with the community, making sure that the project is something that's actually needed and wanted, I mean, done in the correct way. With all the exceptions we have one exception in our Guatemala program. All the others, the our coordinator is from that community. And in our Guatemala case, she's lived there for 30, 35 years and is married to a Guatemalan. So she's kind of a transplant Canadian. Anyway, that is um a key component for us, um, that it is locally driven.

Examples from Work in Guatemala

James Hodgson 6:43

Could you give us an example of a project that's been particularly meaningful for you in experiencing that cultural exchange?

Kimberly Haley-Coleman 6:50

You know, since I just mentioned Guatemala, I'm gonna go ahead and use that as an example because I have so many. But and you had asked about ethical, responsible travel. And it's so I think you're right. It's good to give a concrete example of how this would look in practice. And so in our Guatemala program, we're installing concrete floors in the homes of single moms. And as we were talking about, not wanting to create dependency, and we also don't want to take jobs away from local workers. So when we're doing this, our volunteers are paying to participate. We're using that money to pay local staff who are the foreman on the project, who are overseeing how we do everything, right? And, you know, we will occasionally be criticized with economic efficiency arguments. And if I just sent a check to Guatemala for, you know, a thousand dollars, it would build more concrete floors than if I spent that money on an airplane and so on. But again, this really isn't about efficiency as much as the connection and what happens once you show a human being that their time is worth something you want to learn from them about them. And you really would struggle to learn the same things just by writing a check. So I don't like the word charity around what we do. I feel like it conjures um a different associations from what we actually do. But yeah, so when our volunteers are in the field, they're there for six nights, seven days, it's very short term. We're working 25 to 30 hours, we're learning about the culture. So we're cooking with them, eating with them, uh, you know, singing with them, playing soccer with them. We're still doing the cultural activities, but we tend to do them from a less traditional way. So in Guatemala, we're working with the family, or that's usually a young woman that we're putting these concrete foundations and walls to their house. And we're getting to know her and her family and her kids and see what her life is like, how she eats when we're pumping the water to carry it over in buckets to mix the concrete. Our volunteers are reconnecting to what it means to have running water. And when they come home feeling especially grateful for that, but also perhaps realizing that, gosh, I am not spending nearly as much time with the things that we all would agree are the most important, friends, family, again, compared to the many of the communities where we're carrying out our work. So it's just a chance to get that perspective of how we're leading our lives and what are the default principles that we're guiding our life by that we may not have even conditioned ourselves to question.

James Hodgson 9:26

You mentioned learning and questioning so frequently in describing what you do. So I it it seems apparent that, you know, these ideas of entering with this open-mindedness, this curiosity about other cultures and the principle of everyone being equals and and learning from each other seems to be really fundamental to the programs. And whilst you mentioned obviously, you know, this is an this is a not a non-religious, but it's, you know, religion doesn't enter into this or pre-existing beliefs, political beliefs that, you know, leave them at the door. This is about everybody sharing together. I guess when individuals come, everybody comes with their uh assumptions, everyone comes with their own things that they want to

Benefits of Radical Openness

James Hodgson 10:01

bring. How do you find people changing as they adapt to your style of this radical learning or an openness to ideas?

Kimberly Haley-Coleman 10:09

Yeah, you know, I feel like one of the things we've seen that we've learned over time is that this kind of environment helps break down those assumptions faster than you'd imagine. That somebody may come into it thinking, well, I'm really here to to um help, and I'm gonna get in there and I'm gonna um teach them how I've learned how to do this. And you see very quickly on location, just by working together, the you you're moving past labels very quickly and seeing people as individuals instead of these categories. And uh and and again, it's going both ways. And of course, every person is bringing a different perspective to what we do. We have a lot of repeat volunteers that come at this in a from a very different perspective because they they've seen what happens, that when they show up, they kind of get rid of any thoughts they the experience was going to be about and and recognize that it's learning and showing, hey, I want to know about you, I want to learn about you. It really doesn't even matter the age. I think one of the other things we've really learned about this is whether you're eight years old or you're 92, because every culture and country is so different and we are all individual human beings, that there's something different on each location and even each moment you go and engage in this kind of experience. So uh I feel like that's been the beautiful thing. You know, I think it's perhaps not a big surprise that a lot of people, you know, in uh a Western European or a North American perspective, we're so focused on productivity and efficiency and timing and looking at our watches and looking at our calendars. And in the communities where we are conducting our programs, we tend not to see any of that. And so if you've got two different sets of people with different expectations and cultural conditioning trying to carry something about with very different expectations as far as that goes, it's both a challenge, it can be frustrating, and it's beautiful. And it's where we spend a lot of our time trying to make sure all of the materials and the tools are set up and ready, and also telling our volunteers, please try not to look at your watch. We're gonna be starting about, you know, a half hour after the sun comes up. And if it's raining in Costa Rica, people are gonna stop and take a coffee break. It's not gonna be on your calendar. So we've learned that most people, when they're in that environment, will learn much more quickly to adapt than they might if they were just reading about it or studying about it, but just living it and really getting to see and know. You know, when you've watched somebody pump water and carry it in a bucket, and then you're seeing all the moms bathing their children in it and boiling the water to drink it with your own eyeballs, it really does have an impact on how you think about water and how precious it is.

Start and End with Questions

James Hodgson 12:50

What's your general advice for teams where we've got bringing people together just to break down some of those barriers, to create more empathy, to build bridges and to be more productive as a group, leaving those assumptions at the door and entering with more, I don't know if it's empathy, if it's uh humility.

Kimberly Haley-Coleman 13:06

Certainly the willingness to to listen, focusing on listening more than acting. We begin and end our day with questions that are designed as part of the structure. So for example, in um a Monday in Costa Rica, the day will start with a discussion saying, Did you know that in Costa Rica, we do not use traditional street addresses, which leads to an interesting conversation in terms of realizing, okay, well then how do you ship things to people? What if I'm buying something on Amazon? How does it get there? Well, you can still do that, but it's gonna be to James Hoggson, uh 500 meters south of the White Church, two kilometers after you're leaving Cartago in the province of Averia Cosary. You know, it's a paragraph. It's not the only culture that does it. Japan does that. So we we start with questions so that people can kind of trigger that part of their brain to look at life from a different angle than they might have done. And then in the evening, we begin with a reflective question. So it might be, what's something you're feeling especially grateful for today? And because I've mentioned it a couple times in water, somebody might say, Well, you know, I'm really loving when I go back to my accommodations that I can turn on a faucet. So I would say that it's the questions and active listening. And not just with our programs, with any programs. When you're traveling, it's such an opportunity to take things in and have your brain evolve and grow in ways that uh can be slower at home.

James Hodgson 14:32

Start with questions. I think so often we we start with what we want to say and questions may come later, but that just starting with complete questioning of assumptions, questioning of how things are done, um, and I guess being thrown into a different culture with the examples that you mention, you're kind of forced to forced to confront those. And I imagine that has a a long-term effect for people where they actually they then begin to view everything in their their daily lives so you can start to think about things differently.

Kimberly Haley-Coleman 14:57

Yeah, I think, you know, and it's really the undersung piece in all this. I think a lot of people top level would perhaps expect that there's going to be empathy built and we will be bridging divides. But it's really it's deeper than that because we certainly aren't wanting pity. We're not wanting people to feel bad for the communities where we are working, because again, for the reasons I mentioned, there are some really profound beauties in every country that may not be apparent with a casual glance. Life is complex. While we certainly obviously have all sorts of similar core concerns with basic needs, this kind of empathy I hope is more durable and shows how people think about global issues and communities in a different way. And each and every volunteer, it's amazing how many of them come to the program and experience and end up adding to it. You know, they they will start talking to a grandmother and they'll talk about this garden, they'll start adding things into the garden. This wasn't even on our project list, you know. So some of the beauty comes from that, the things that grow organically when you get humans together with this frame of mind, that it's not a competitive environment. And we've even seen some romantic relationships that have developed in this kind of environment. It's interesting just seeing humans in this kind of environment where they're there for this objective. Um, it can bring out really beautiful sides for everyone.

Aid Cuts And Local Resilience

James Hodgson 16:24

It's been amazing to hear about all the projects that you've you've run and the impact that they've had on the communities and the participants themselves. I think that's that's uh it's kind of a multiplier effect, you say the beauty of shared humanity. But can we talk a little bit about some of the challenges currently? I mean, we're recording this early 2026. We're about a year removed from fairly sweeping cuts to foreign aid budgets. Have you noticed a change, not just in funding, but I guess in the mood around these types of community-based, service-based activities?

Kimberly Haley-Coleman 16:53

Yeah, no, oh, it's been huge because as you mentioned, you know, here we are in the this spring, and you know, certainly fuel charges have gone up, funding in research and medical aid, so many things have been hit. You know, in uh South Africa, HIV medication had been largely provided by USAID. So much of it is gone, and it is impacting our communities quite quickly. And it it's interesting because we're seeing, while we're seeing lots of negative impacts in that sense in terms of budgeting and costs, one of the things that I was worried about hasn't materialized yet. And that is, uh, and maybe some of this is due to the long-term relationships that we have with our communities. But I had feared that there might be some negative emotions or resentment toward our volunteers. And we haven't seen that. We've really been seen as separate from uh all the other dynamics impacting the economic environment. Because there really has been, yes, very noticeable aid cuts and global changes right now. At a f I mean, really at a faster pace than we've ever seen. More than uh, well, I would say COVID was one big, huge change that we had to cope with, which largely meant not operating anything for you know a year, year and a half. So I I would definitely, so maybe I would say that was a bigger one, but otherwise, we've seen huge change and yet huge resilience on the part of our communities to continue to want to work with us and do what we can given the conditions that we're faced with. Uh so that has been very positive. Um, these are very, you know, small community-led efforts. And I know I had only mentioned the Guatemala one, but you know, in Cambodia, we're assembling and distributing wheelchairs to landmine victims. And a larger look at that is that, you know, it was both the Vietnamese and the US government that put those landmines there to begin with. And so you might think that there would be misgivings working with someone from North America because of that. And that is not what we've seen. We've just seen uh a real willingness to see our participants as human beings in the same sense that our our participants are doing with them. So while this all is happening and it's certainly having an impact, uh, it's amazing how enduring humans can be with their willingness to look for good.

James Hodgson 19:09

Yeah, that's really powerful. This idea that once you get people together in the same place and they're working on the same project, all of that goes away. And it's uh the resilience you mentioned, I think is really strong.

Kimberly Haley-Coleman 19:21

Um which by the way, I you know, I want to mention that the concept behind your podcast, which is such a unique and interesting one. And I've been on a whole lot of podcasts, but yours in particular has such an interesting angle. So thank you for having me for that reason because I love that you're looking at this and uh humanism in general. It's something that we can all be just so passionate, excited about. Kudos to you for this podcast.

James Hodgson 19:44

Well, thank you. That's very wonderful to hear. It's very kind of you. However, I I wished it wasn't so unusual. I think I'm hoping there were lots more media and creators in this space, you know, and and there are there are many, but you know, I think we're unfortunately outnumbered when it comes to wanting to talk about uh the you know kindness and compassion and curiosity, which we we tried to focus on here.

Business, Education And AI Reality

James Hodgson 20:04

So shifting topics a little bit, you had a background in international business prior to entering the nonprofit world. What drew you to make the shift and and how does a background in business help in entering nonprofit space?

Kimberly Haley-Coleman 20:15

Well, so I will add to that a strange component that before I did that, I got a master's in art history and I had been in the museum world and nonprofit world in another sense. I was always interested in other cultures, whether it's a business economy side or the culture side. So it's interesting that um but I didn't know like so many what I was going to do with it. Certainly studying business in general is something that whether it's a for-profit or a nonprofit, figuring out how something can be sustainable is is an urgent, urgent thing that I really wish was something that's covered without having to go to graduate level studies. In the United States, we're still sorting all that out, really working on how do we get the uh kind of education people need. And I, you know, James, things are changing so quickly with AI and with the kinds of things that are available online. I'm I'm curious how that will shift. You know, even here where uh where I am, we've just decided to go with education vouchers, and that's likely to have really long-lasting reverberations that we don't know what that's gonna look like. So there's a lot happening in terms of education and giving people a background to carry out whatever it is they want to do. And I have a feeling that what I've done is my kids are getting out of college right now, and I just feel like the world is gonna be so different for them in terms of their foundations they bring. How do they how do they bring up all that and incorporate it into what's happening? Just so much shifting. But it was it was certainly foundational for me. Just basics, being able to look at financial statements and economic factors and how it can impact a society, and then how much policy can uh wrench or help into whatever's happening.

Is Volunteering Becoming an Exclusive Privilege?

James Hodgson 21:53

It's interesting you mentioned the changing economic shifts and and you know the work environment is changing so rapidly now. Do you worry? That having the opportunity, even to take the time to do a project like this, is becoming more exclusive with time?

Kimberly Haley-Coleman 22:06

Well, I I would say that's a big regret, period. The fact that the people who participate in our programs tend to be privileged. Um, you know, they have a passport, they've got the money to get on an airplane. So it really does. I mean, if I could wave a magic wand, I would make the carbon footprint a lot smaller for getting on an airplane. And certainly it'd be great if we could just snap our fingers and be in a culture because we have to acknowledge there is a large cost to it. And, you know, I feel like in the space I'm in, which is a very high-touch space, I will talk to people who, you know, there's these discussions where people are, you know, applying for grant using AI and then realizing that whoever's reading their grants is also AI. And it sounds like, you know, machine to machine at a certain point. And this feels very distant for from what I do. So I worry I may be losing touch with how things are going to the future. But it is hard to picture the programs we're doing because we're standing next to people doing things with our hands. I don't, you know, I may just not have a vision for what this looks like 20 years from now and how it will be morphed and changed by some of the new technology. And because right now, if when I think about it and I look at it and see it in my mind's eye, it's standing side by side next to someone. I'm sure AI will factor in there. I just on the front lines, it's hard to see what that is. So I would love somebody with a crystal ball to help me see it because I'm sure it's coming.

James Hodgson 23:27

Is is AI or technology assisting in any of your projects in any way?

Kimberly Haley-Coleman 23:31

Here's where it's helping. So, you know, if somebody were to call and say, hey, you know, I'm looking to go to Southeast Asia in a month that's not rainy, and I want to do something in a community, but I don't want to be in a city or whatever. They give all these things. So now we do have a database where we've pulled all of our materials in to help with that kind of thing. And we certainly use it in more practical logistical sense. Like if we've got accounting here, accounting here, why is this off $44? You know, little things like that. But we really haven't found any sort of heavy lifting that it can do. And again, it may just be my lack of expertise or vision, but we just haven't seen I, you know, maybe if we talk a year from now, I'll have very different viewpoints.

James Hodgson 24:29

Nothing

How To Join And Closing Reflections

James Hodgson 24:30

can replace those interpersonal relationships, meeting in person, collaborating, having those shared experiences which you're facilitating. So yeah, I don't think it's a threat to that space anytime soon. If listeners are inspired and would like to join one of your programs, or just if someone wants to start working in this space in general, what what would be your advice?

Kimberly Haley-Coleman 24:49

So if well if they were wanting to do it with Globalware, where everywhere anyone might look with those words, Globalware, you know, our YouTube channel, our podcasts, our all of our social media. And I encourage that because little clips and videos seeing where people are serving on a daily basis, it gives you a sense for is that something I could see myself doing, or does that just not look like something I would enjoy? It's an easier way of doing that in little clips. And we try and do with YouTube and our podcast, we try and do practical information, things like, hey, if you're applying for Kaza visa to go to Zimbabwe, I won't practically show somebody filling it out and where they turn it in. You know, we try and have uh practical information that will apply for people, whether they're going on our program or just trying to go someplace on their own. Things like this is what the bathrooms look like in northern Thailand. You know, we we have little clips of that kind of content. So I would just encourage people to search, you know, whether it's Google or Bing Globalware, and it'll get you on the right path. We love talking to people on the phone too, because we recognize a lot of times people who haven't done this kind of thing. It starts with, you know, they're afraid. What are the bathrooms going to be like? I don't know how to hold a hammer, who's gonna pick me up when I

Changing Minds

Kimberly Haley-Coleman 26:02

get there? Is it safe? You know, all of those questions. And um, it's really hard to replace a human being for that. So um, when somebody calls, we actually answer the phone and have humans um talk through some of this.

James Hodgson 26:16

And before we go, our standard closing question what's something which you've changed your mind on recently and what inspired that change?

Kimberly Haley-Coleman 26:21

I've realized this work is just really fluid and that we really can't assume in our positions at Global Ware that we know what's needed at any point. It just seems to always be changing. The communities change, and the dynamics impacting their culture can change. So if I've learned anything, it's just this urgent need to stay adaptable and humble. And so I've shifted from thinking in terms of solutions that we're thinking on and to thinking in terms of keeping strong partnerships. It's really hard not to think solution-based coming from again a Western culture that somehow we're it's in the back of our minds with everything we do. But it's much more honest and effective for us, we've found, particularly with everything that's happening now, to approach it that way and being partnership-led instead of solution-led, which sounds like the antithesis of what we should be doing. Solution, solution, solution. We've just over time, and particularly this last year, year and a half,

Rating, Sharing And Ko Fi

Kimberly Haley-Coleman 27:20

found that partnerships are where where we want to be focused for things to go well, to continue to really that's our foundation. Wonderful.

James Hodgson 27:28

Kimberly Haley Coleman, thank you so much for joining us on Humanism Now.

Kimberly Haley-Coleman 27:31

Thank you so much for having me, James. I really do appreciate it.

James Hodgson 27:34

Thanks for listening to this episode of Humanism Now. If you enjoy the podcast, please leave us a rating and review. And why not share this episode with a friend? It really helps more people hear about the show. And we're building a growing community over on Ko Fi. Special thanks to our supporters. If you would like to join them, links are in the show notes. You can follow us on all social media at HumanismNowPod, and thanks once again for listening to HumanismNow.