Anna Mdee is now a Research Fellow with the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) working on Social Development and Chronic Poverty.  She is also Visiting Professor at Mzumbe University in Tanzania. She has been researching and teaching international development issues for over 15 years.  Her interest in Volunteer Tourism is something of a side line.  In the past she has been a volunteer, organised volunteer placements and written about volunteer tourism in ‘developing’ countries.  This interest is a pragmatic concern about how an individual can ‘do something’ about poverty; rather than an academic analysis.  More than 20 years of close involvement with one village in Tanzania has given her plenty of time to think about this dilemma.