To think voluntourism needs to be called out?

How you wrap these things up can make all the difference. I often think fundraising these school projects would do much better if the focus shifted to the benefits for the young person, rather than the work to be undertaken. Seems more honest, especially when it’s done through a company like World Challenge.

e.g ‘please help my daughter develop her social conscience and employability through a life changing experience overseas.’ i.e. the daughter becomes the charity case. She does sound like she’d stand a good chance of benefitting from the experience and becoming a more productive member of society on her return. Not an unworthy cause, I’d donate to her!

Well “I” didn’t pay for anything directly because I was just a teenager. The charity did the diligence re the orphanage, but I do know they only worked on projects that had been requested by locals. It’s not like they rocked up and said “you guys need X”. There was a whole process to decide which projects would be most worthwhile. The whole point of this one is that it wouldn’t have happened otherwise.

I suppose I could have just sent the charity all my savings and said “please take all my savings to employ a local person while I just stay home.” But realistically how many people are going to do that?! With the travel to volunteer, everybody gains something, and the project actually happens.

In fact it could be argued that putting your own feelings of moral superiority above the practical reality of kids having / not having a playground is a rather short-sighted and privileged position to take…

It’s just that it’s an excellent addition ti your child’s CV at such an early age especially where there is greater competition to even get onto certain HE courses never mind an actual job

Is it though @MoominMai?

I was a professional recruiter for years (retired now) and all it ever said to me is "here's someone who prioritises a holiday and Insta pics over considering the bigger picture", and I can't say that was a plus

A previous work colleague of mine is currently campaigning hard on fb for funds for her teenage DD to go on one of these trips to somewhere in Africa.
I can't see what this DD has possibly got to offer - as based on my colleagues social media, all she seems to do is get into fights at school.

Why didn't you pay for the equipment and employ local tradesman for installation? How many hours of manpower could even one of your plane tickets covered? Don't kid yourself please.
Did you even do any due diligence regarding the legitimacy of the orphanage?

Teaching business is clearly ridiculous and patronising at best. At worst it seems to betray an archaic racist / colonial attitude that Brits are inherently more intelligent or capable than ‘uncivilised’ populations overseas.

I wouldn’t tar every project with the same brush though. I went abroad and built a playground for an orphanage in Africa with a charity in my late teens. We didn’t steal local employment opportunities because nobody was willing or able to pay for this playground. The local population were working hard to earn money and did not have the hours to spend volunteering. The Orphanage had requested the charity’s support, the charity provided the materials and employed a builder to lead the project. We volunteers provided manpower. It wouldn’t have happened otherwise, not because locals didn’t have the skills but because they didn’t have the time or money to donate. We did. It was a win-win really.

YANBU but you also don’t need to do anything. Just roll your eyes and don’t donate.

I'm sure it depends on the country, but lack of opportunity is the biggest driver of brain drain. Why pay a local when a foreigner will do it for free? The clinics may have insufficient staff, but the cause is not lack of man power.
A far better use of money would be to pay a locally qualified person, who is experienced with the local conditions. A years salary for a nurse or midwife is more or less covered by the cost of a return ticket.
A foreign student thinking they are the only option is nothing but arrogance. An opportunity to try things they aren't yet allowed to do at home.

I suspect like here lots of new qualified people bugger off to work abroad. I know a doctor and a nurse off to Australia for a better life. Meanwhile my local NHS hospital seems to recruit heavily from Ghana whose people I assume are moving here for a better life. Not entirely sure where Ghana will manage to recruit medics from.

I’ve had two of these requests from wealthy parents - it’s called a holiday that you want to put on your CV for university and it smacks of white saviour complex. Absolutely furious I was.

You do surprise me - the FY1's I work with were very busy on their electives having worked in rural clinics with insufficient qualified staff. Maybe it's like here and young newly qualified young hcp's would prefer to work in the cities and not out in the sticks

My DC school arranges these type of trips and my DS said it looked good (I think they were going to Costa Rica) but I explained why I didn't think it was a good idea to go (tbh I resent the fact they are all given a presentation in assembly about it , and it's not an opt-in thing)

The school encourage the kids to fundraise themselves but generally what happens is parents bulk buy a small item costing a few pounds and kid sells on at a profit. So relies on mum and dad "investing" a decent amount of money.

When it's something like "building a school" for example I wonder how a bunch of MC 15 year old with no experience would be received if they pitched up at the local building site, or presented themselves to the Local Authority offering to build a school!

A friends sons have done it and I wouldn't call her out for it but I don't want to buy a keyring/mini phone charger or whatever they're selling to fund it.

I'm surprised you don't think a British teenager can identify as a Ugandan plumber tbh...

16 year old was going to solve Ugandas santitation issues

😆😆

YABU. Just don’t contribute.
Each to their own. I never contribute to these things, but know lots of people who do.

That would probably mean confronting our own social issues.

It's better if these type of issues are witnessed far away and unrelated to oneself.
-'Sarcasm of course--

It's not a good thing. Africa has more than enough medical students of it's own. Not remotely close to a shortage. So many that there aren't enough jobs to go around. A huge portion of them leave to work abroad. Africa really does not need British medical students.

Better to have schoolchildren the opportunity to:

travel to XYZ country for opportunity to live in poverty with poor sanitation with potential for disease. Attend a school without a gym or science facilities!

those trips and gap years are 100% scammers - the orphanage donation buy cars and overseas properties for organizers. Doesn’t help at all to ruin money maker poor orphanage by making it a rich orphanage.

I feel nearly qualified medical, nursing or midwifery students going to other countries is a good thing - they can do a lot of good in some rural areas where there is a shortage of trained healthcare workers plus will return with an understanding of how to think about any patient they will be treating in the future.
A bunch of sixth formers going to Africa to build schools, toilet blocks and hospitals is just a money making exercise and something to put on the UCAS personal statement. Would rather see was a member of guides or scouts for ten years and have been a junior leader since the age of 14.

After the African teenager has been taught to use TikTok by the British teenager how are they accessing TikTok?
Who’s providing the device?
Who is funding the mobile data or internet access?

I teach in a school in rural Tanzania.

We have scholarship students from African countries. The majority have their first device when they get here. A Congolese student was asked if he had used a computer before he said “we saw one in a geography class once”.

We have donated laptops to local schools - they get used in the office not just by students.

Our students do volunteer in the local community but it is always long term and working with the community not for them.

This.

If it makes you feel any better, Americans come over to Europe to volunteer in order to boost their college applications. Greece, Portugal and Spain all have schemes. There is a gap in the market for setting something up in the UK. We could get some wealthy American teens to come and do litter picking or classroom support.

I'm very amused by the notion that African teenagers can't navigate social media without help 😂

They can’t do anything too useful or else they would be taking jobs from locals. It is a pretty harmless form of tourism. It will create jobs for all the people providing the food, transport and accommodation. It is slightly patronising to ‘call it out’ on behalf of the host countries. They are perfectly capable of putting a stop to it, if they don’t like it.

A student midwife early in their course will not have the experience or knowledge to be able to intervene effectively in any kind of complication.
It’s also unfair on the student, because if something goes wrong, they will be unable to assist, but will have to cope with the aftermath and trauma of complications.
Repeatedly sending virtually unqualified people to act as midwives also means that the government of the country in question have less of a reason to provide decent healthcare.
There are far better ways to support women in the developing world. Fundraising or support to train African midwife’s etc
Its really just a misplaced jolly and highly unethical.