To think voluntourism needs to be called out?

It is acceptable if the person is bringing skills: for example as a doctor, midwife or nurse. Unfortunately, this is still looked down on by some people, despite their being a huge deficit of skilled healthcare professionals in many developing countries.

I would still see them as an eye-opening and sexually exploratory positive thing for any youngster to do

Brilliant, @PermanentTemporary!!

They still exist, Fizbosshoes, though I rather doubt the pics would earn as many "likes" as those with a bunch of saucer-eyed smiling kiddies

Probably more chance of getting a phone signal though

https://www.timetravel-britain.com/articles/travel/hedges.shtml

This is a good start:

traveltrade.visitwales.com/fact-sheets/wellbeing-outdoors/volunteering-holidays

@Fizbosshoes there were! British Trust for Conservation Volunteers, plus the National Trust did slightly less crusty ones, or there were ones that involved working in cathedrals. I went on several, they were about £30 for a week back then and I learned to dry stone wall, lay a hedge and generally to slash scrub about. (I haven't maintained any of those skills unfortunately.) I looked into them again and they have got hugely more expensive but I would still see them as an eye-opening and sexually exploratory positive thing for any youngster to do.

I don't know if they still exist but I'm pretty sure 20 or 30 years ago you could go on volunteer holidays to build dry stone walls in the UK (I imagine other options were available, I can't remember)

What is she planning on doing in Tanzania?
That fairly critical information is missing from your comment. If a safari is included then there will be almost no money going to the project.

Would they be as well off going on an actual holiday to those locations and spending their money in the local economies.

And on top of everything else, going on trips like this can actively damage university applications / some job applications.

That is particularly the case if the young person is applying for a field that is actually adjacent to where they volunteered - for example, actual child care professionals are likely to be horrified by a non-stop rotation of teenagers caring for orphanage children for a couple of weeks at a time with no background checks. That’s enormously damaging for the children (and doesn’t even go into the fact many of these children have parents but are in the orphanage because that’s best for raising cash from voluntourists - supporting children at home isn’t nearly so profitable).

The ‘building’ projects just show a lack of good judgment (common to most teenagers!)- but for some reason one the teenagers in question are encouraged to put on an application / CV

Sad indeed

All credit to the lass for working so hard to fund her trip, but why on earth didn 't someone point out the obvious about donating the money so that it could do so much more good than funding a flight, accommodation for visitors and the rest?

Further to my post above, Pippa Biddle (anti-voluntourism campaigner) ‘worked’ in Tanzania.

www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/jun/10/voluntourism-new-book-explores-how-volunteer-trips-harm-rather-than-help

Totally poverty porn as well.

This is really sad. So much effort put in by a well meaning child to fund what is most likely a scam that at best won’t help and at worst will actively damage the community she thinks she’s helping.

DC need to learn to differentiate between clever marketing, coaxed into spending ££££ and actually being useful by doing something worthwhile

Spot on, @DancefloorAcrobatics, and this is an important life skill in itself, but it doesn't lend itself to Insta pics so isn't likely to be so appealing

I'm reminded of a couple of teens I know who went, and while their parents jabbered about how much they got out of it and how worthwhile it all was - which was to be expected given how much they'd spent - most of the kids' takeaway was that they couldn't get a good enough signal on their phones

I have been supporting a young girl who is having to raise £2000 to pay for her school trip to Tanzania. She’s arranged walks, quizzes, tours of historic villages, raffles, cream teas. She’s done menial jobs for neighbours for minimal money and has put in all her savings. If she needs money after all her efforts I will gladly contribute. I am not so sure I would have been willing to contribute to someone who is not willing to do anything to help themselves and is just asking for crowdfunding, or asking for money for sponsoring something that is only enjoyable to them.

There is a better less glamorous way:

https://traveltrade.visitwales.com/fact-sheets/wellbeing-outdoors/volunteering-holidays

I would like to add that when DC participated, it was practically mandated the year group should ALL go by 6th Form Head and we are not in Europe so about 10 white faces out of 100+. I think we need to take the ‘white’ out of this and be more considering the other important points raised. We already knew it was no longer a stepping stone to get into Uni/job as do most people now.
At least the 6th Form did a lot of work to check out the company the kids would be ‘helping’, they made the kids do the unskilled quite hard work and they were v honest about how much of the cost went to supplying materials, local tradespeople etc. They will work with the same Company for a minimum of 5 years and other fundraising is done. It’s not perfect, I still have reservations but the point made earlier is valid, maybe these countries could do the things themselves but they are not and so the locals do benefit.

All these parents saying it sounds like such a great opportunity they couldn't possibly say no. Please say no.
Send them on a fabulous holiday and have them assemble some ikea ĺfurniture for their nan instead. Same experience, without the damage.
You're not doing your kids (let alone anyone else) any favours by feeding into the delusion that they are helping.

I think these are great opportunities for young people but we have to stop pretending they’re of huge benefit to the communities they visit. My son wanted to do a £5000 trip to help with building work for four weeks but £5000 would pay the salaries of two professional builders in that country for an entire year which is a completely different scenario to an 17-year-old with no experience of building at all. I told him that, if he wanted to do it, then he should develop some useful skills and volunteer as an adult.

But should we really be using residents of poorer countries as teaching tools for our teenagers?

Also a lot of these projects don’t just ‘not help’, they cause active damage to the local community. Surely benefiting the (usually white) teenager at the expense of the local (usually non-white) community is classic colonialism?

And that’s without the racism (no, untrained Tarquin and Jacinta are not automatically better at doing things/ building things than a local just because they are white / from Western countries).

Will that child help massively the country? Probably not…will he feel very useful? Very much so so…yeah worth it

That's utter shite!
DC need to learn to differentiate between clever marketing, coaxed into spending ££££ and actually being useful by doing something worthwhile.

There is plenty of research how tourism can be of benefit to local communities and historic sites - but volunteerisem isn't included.... I wonder why.

The only "voluntourism" I'm willing to fund is when people with actual skills go to do something worth doing. E.g i donated to a local doctor who regularly goes out to poor country with a charity and vaccinates kids in rural villages who can't get to clinics.

I can't stand stupid enterprises (usually peddled by christians ime) teaching people to use sewing machines or repair cars etc, it rarely leads to real economic improvement.

When my youngest DSS wanted to do a scheme like this I did some research. I found that many of them are complete scams in that, it doesn’t cost anything like what is paid and the projects are often torn down & site cleared for the next group. When I said this, none of them wanted to hear it so off he went. He did enjoy it and it was an ‘experience’ but frankly he could have worked for a genuine charity at a fraction of the cost.

Omg yes! It’s just a white saviour complex. My son who is completely useless at anything using his hands, went off to build a community centre courtesy of a government grant. that money could have been better spent paying locals to build it themselves as they would do it faster, cheaper, and it would benefit those struggling to get work.

totally ridiculous but obviously wouldn’t say no because of my principles when he wanted to go. Took 4 flights to do it, so great for the environment too. 🙄

@Firethehorse , totally agree…a simple « I am funding this myself this year for X » is a clear message that you will not participate.