To think voluntourism needs to be called out?

Neither was I asking about training in developing countries. The conversation has evolved. I'm not sure why you seem so condescending.

It seems like you are very ready to criticise others without having the ability to reflect on your own behaviour.

Also @IridescentRainbow , you haven’t said if this is the ‘grassroots’ in Tanzania where the trips are to check sponsorship money is being spent properly.

Because if so, shipping in foreign (usually white) teenagers to supervise the spending of funds by the local recipients comes across as incredibly racist (if I believed this was any more than a pretence for the benefit of the voluntourists which I don’t - no doubt the actual checks are going on ‘off-stage’ as it were).

You don't need to donage £2000. Subtract the flights, insurance, hotels, profit etc. You'll soon realise that the amount of money actually going towards anything resembling a good cause is pretty small.

Well that says a lot about the motives and character of the sort of people who go on these trips, doesn’t it….

Yes, I am open minded about it. But who is going to just donate £2000?

And how much good could they do with a £2,000 donation if most of the money wasn’t being spent on travel / accommodation?

The only grassroots in Tanzania I can find involves children. Is that the one you mean? Because the voluntourism programmes involving children are the worst of all - no proper DBS checks, no care for the trauma caused to children by people washing in and out of their lives every couple of weeks.

At least the useless building projects don’t always actively cause harm!

Even if the lass wanted to "form a relationship", @CandidHedgehog, I expect the local people have other things to worry about than sending messages and happy snaps to someone they'll almost certainly never meet again

No, no safari. The whole trip is working with a charity called Grassroots. The only building is building beds . You can google the charity.

This. She won’t ’form relationships’ with local people any more than I have a deep and abiding relationship with the desk clerk at a hotel I once stayed in.

And to be blunt, the locals are paid to indulge what they see as wealthy dilettantes. They don’t like them (who can blame them - nobody likes being patronised and exploited), they want their money.

These trips cause active damage to the local people. Nobody disputes they benefit the voluntourists. They absolutely do. The issue is whether in the 21st century, it is acceptable to exploit residents of developing countries for the benefit of comparatively wealthy westerners, i.e. classic colonialism.

Edited to say: And I believe most of the voluntourists do think they are helping. They need to be sat down and told they really, really aren’t. Something I think many would be horrified to realise.

For whom is that a good outcome? What sort of "connections" is a teenager going to make that will help anyone in any way?

Maybe you’re right, but if the best that comes out of this is that a child has a trip to another country where she meets and forms relationships with local people ( which she probably wouldn’t do on a dream family holiday), then it will all be worth the effort she has put in.

When I was in high school, there were two high schools very close to each other. Students from my high school asked why we weren't being offered this sort of trip that the other high school were doing

Our head teacher put on an assembly to talk about voluntourism and arranged for a voluntary trip, out of school hours, to help at a food bank and soup kitchen. (He also made sure it wasn't local, so there was no chance of running in to anyone from school who may need a similar service)

He was shocked at how many of us turned up

At the end, the centre gave out big bars of chocolate to everyone, and almost in unison we took them and turned around and handed them to somebody who was using the centres facilities

Our headteacher said he had never been prouder of his students than in that moment, he didn't know they were planning on giving us the chocolate

We went on to raise money for the centre, doing similar fundraising events to the other high school, off our own back, with all of the money going to the charity. Quite a few students volunteered again, without school input. I wish I could have, but my health declined and I wasn't able to. I did help with the fundraising though

It taught us a lot more than if our school has just said ok let's offer the same as the other school, and the charity benefited a lot more from 100% of funds raised and continued volunteering.

It meant more, because it was easier to imagine yourself/family member being in a situation where you needed that service, rather than "oh yea poor little Africans" and having a total disconnect between what they are going through and what is happening in our own country

Then there should be fundraising to train more local medics.

In the meantime, qualified volunteers for 6-12 month stints can volunteer to fill the gap.

None of this is relevant to the subject of this thread which is the voluntourism model of ‘volunteering’ where (to quote one of the articles I’ve linked previously), unskilled westerners treat visits to countries in Africa like a visit to the WestWorld theme park.

Of course there are. But they weren't what you asked about...

There are actually charities that support with this. I'm not sure why you think that there aren't.

Right. But supporting the ones that are trained should be the start point. And it isn't.

The numbers trained in many countries if far below the minimum required for safe care, even without emigration. This is the point.

Again, employing a local obstetrician would almost always be a more sustainable use of funds. It ought to be the default, foreigners only involved when there is truly no alternative.

Not if he/she volunteered for an extended period, was prepared to look at the bigger local picture, spending time with local birth attendants and understanding their role. And then looked to train and support such attendants to use locally available supplies to improve outcomes for women. And then use their network and contacts to fundraise and send regular supplies or cash to purchase supplies, again ensuring improved outcomes for women were sustained. I mean,that would be worthwhile and would make a difference, don’t you think?

To have a real impact the Obstetrician would have to build a good rapport with the local community. They would need a solid understanding of the local community, custons and norms. They would have to stay years not months and obviously be training other health care professionals coming directly from the targeted community.

These things are never blank and white.

Anyone coming into a community for say 12 months may do something good during their time, but they will not be able to implement change. Only a long term, generational change will make MSF dissappear. That takes time, training and needs proper local government support to have lasting effects.

It's wishful thinking to rock up with our values and norms and expet everyone in every country adopting them.

The local skills are available. Name me a country in the world that doesn't train medics? The best, most sustainable and ethical solution is to pay locals so they don't leave in the first place. But it isn't as glamorous to fundraise for, so it doesn't happen.
I didn't say NHS recruitment was to blame. I merely pointed out that developing countries have medics, and used the NHS staff as evidence.

What would you suggest when the local skills aren't available?

I agree that the NHS does recruit extensively from abroad, but we cannot blame individual healthcare workers for moving to developed countries when they are offered far better pay and working conditions.

Not if it was for an extended visit, no - though there's still the point that local people know their own issues best and could well make better use of the money spent - but most teens certainly aren't trained medical staff

Interesting, too, that for all the cries about "It really is worthwhile", absolutely nobody's responded to the many posts about simply donating the money raised instead

Sometimes. It's almost always more sustainable to fund local skills than to use temporary foreign imports.
You've only got to look at the number of foreign NHS workers to realise that the issue isn't lack of skills, it's lack of opportunity.

Would people here object to an Obstetrician volunteering with MSF, for example?