To think voluntourism needs to be called out?

Maybe that particular child is actually part of a group that will learn how to advise on a particular side of business in that country?

why are you annoyed and why would you be against it?

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

I think you are annoyed against people asking you to participate in crowdfunding…for their children. You don’t have to…but then don’t ask them too.

I totally agree OP. When school wanted all young adults to go on a similar trip I was dubious but we decided it would be good for our DC so we paid, under no illusions it would benefit the kids. No way would I have the temerity to ask others to effectively pay for my child’s school trip. As it happened the kids did much more genuine work than us parents had anticipated, but still I honestly think collectively the DC got more out of it than they were able to ‘deliver’.
I think it’s really out of order to ask other people to fund this for your child if you have the funds.
I feel very uncomfortable having to say no but have resorted to (in the same year) ‘I know it’s so expensive isn’t it, we are funding X this year’ or to just saying which charities I’m currently giving time and money to.
So I don’t ’call it out’ as such but no longer pay for other people’s children who could fund it themselves.

I remember living in an African country and seeing these red faced, immature, kids come from a western country. Totally ditzy and clueless, questionable hygiene.
we thought they were hilarious and gullible and felt they needed more help themselves.

Having worked for an environmental provider of these sorts of trips, I’ll just say that we used to call it “putting the con in conservation”! Don’t get me wrong it’s a fab experience for your child, and I would absolutely allow mine to do similar when they are old enough. But back in the day (20 years ago) when I worked overseas, the young adults whose parents had funded the trip never worked as hard, cared as much or learned so many things, as the ones who had worked to earn the money for the trip, so even though we could afford these sorts of things for our children, we will be making them earn at least half of the funds needed.

We did the real environmental research work in the periods of time that we didn’t have any ‘volun-tourists’ staying at our research station. While they were there we let them play at being teachers and research scientists, but they really just funded the proper work we did when they weren’t there!

No, you’re right.
I’ve had a successful business that I gave up when my late partner got poorly. I ran it for 9 years and left on a high. I still wouldn’t think I’m capable of giving business advice of any benefit to them unless I’d had experience in the field I’m offering advice in. I doubt opening a salon is going to be much use when they haven’t the funds for luxury services.

I know for a fact African people are sick of the brits going over to their country , raising money etc as it never gets to the right people. Inside they would like to build factories and be shown how to run small businesses so they can work which gives them a sense of pride, instead of young people telling them what to do, it's very condescending ...

They should actually offer these trips in a totally different, transparent and honest way.

They could offer a chance for a group visit/travel, to expand the minds of young people visiting, and a big part of it being the money spent on the trip going in to local projects. Eg. A PP mentioned people basically shadowing conservation workers - if this was advertised honestly as such "A chance to see what goes on" and the money you pay going directly to the project work, it would be ok. It's the idea that you're being helpful in any other way than fundraising that is the problem.

Over 20 years ago we had this sort of thing going on via school. It was advertised as tourism, completing a trek as part of it, and the final week "giving something back" which was the bullshit voluntourism part. Slightly better than some of these trips, but if it had been more "see some of the projects your fee is funding" I think it would have been ok.

(I didn't go. I looked into a similar thing a few years later, but thought £3000+ for 3 weeks was too much, so took myself off backpacking for 5 weeks on less than £1000! By then I was also very aware the trip was for me and sceptical of many of them.)

The issue with dodgy playgrounds has been known for years. There often are no ‘manufacturers’ - the playground equipment is built from scratch, often to standards that would never be acceptable in the UK.

https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2016/06/22/habitat-for-humility/

https://mancunion.com/2017/09/19/voluntourism-harms-communities-make-a-difference-stay-at-home/

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/sep/13/the-business-of-voluntourism-do-western-do-gooders-actually-do-harm

I refuse to donate to any parent who asked me to fund their child’s holiday. Even the pushy parent who wanted £12 for a lemon cake she’d made to raise funds.
I don’t call it out, but if pushed I’ll say I don’t agree with the scheme.

Honestly playground equipment is reasonably affordable in Africa. It's made locally where materials and labour are cheap. It's madness to think it needs huge amounts of investment or man hours from Brits.
Sometimes it deteriorates, sometimes it is dismantled and sold.
The money really isn't being spent on play equipment, nor is the presence of foreigners of any use in the slightest.

They’re not going to help anyone. They’re middle class lefties (or children of) who are going off on a jolly. But of course a normal holiday or time away without any pretense wouldn’t be virtuous enough, it would t come with brownie points or the status symbol or ‘be kind’, ‘socially conscious’ or whatever the new label is.

It has to be in Africa, with ample pictures ‘helping’ poor black kids to satisfy their white saviour syndrome.

And then they come back, go to university, sorry, propaganda centres, to study their Mickey Mouse humanities degrees, join the public sector to lecture us all on flying too much, eating too much meat, driving too much, not sitting around in freezing homes yo build our characters and generally being too frivolous and climate change deniers.

Why would I have taken photos? It’s a common occurrence . Also manufacturers are not responsible for their stuff being shoddily erected. They are probably quite happy with the frequent repeat orders anyway!

You're delusional honestly. Africa doesn't need labour. Your unwillingness to educate yourself even slightly, is proof that any "help" you give, is all about your own ego.

Often the old , cracked, unsuitable playground or wall that you are told you are replacing was probably built by well meaning volunteers last year! And so it goes on and on.

Presumably you’ve got photographic evidence of this that you’ve fed back to the manufacturers ?

They do not need to be dismantled. They are usually of such poor quality and unsuitable for the local environment/ weather that they disintegrate.

Are you suggesting that these playgrounds are built and then dismantled?

Do you have any evidence of this?

I’m sorry but you and your company have been totally scammed.

I have lived in several African countries and these project’s are regarded as a total joke. I’m sure you are kind and mean well. But your help in building anything is a performance project and not needed by the local community.
Why do projects run in the same place repeatedly? Why do they not have wonderful playgrounds everywhere by now? Talk to someone on the ground who is not on the payroll of these projects.

Exactly this. It’s so insulting! I have friends who have ‘ built’ a school in an African country despite having zero building knowledge or experience.
Why not PAY a local team of actual builders! They would do a better job and wages are put in to the local community .

Sue Ryder Care. They have hospices and bereavement support. They also do research into neurological conditions.

It's better than some far flug project at the other end of the world!
And as I said, bereavement is something that will affect everyone at some stage in their lives.

And if you hadn’t been there but had nevertheless donated, the job would have been done by a paid local who could use the money to feed his children. For the cost of about 1/10 of your flight. You were literally taking food from the mouths of local children by insisting on travelling out there rather than just making a donation.

Also, why did ‘funding and building extra homes’ require you to build the homes yourself? Surely your flight / accommodation costs would have been better spent on the actual houses?

If you are a qualified construction worker, that’s different, of course but almost no voluntourists have relevant qualifications.

It’s both an experience for the volunteer and useful for the local community. Voluntourism funds the project even if the volunteers are completely useless (should not be the case in a well run project).

People don’t need to be put off volunteering in the uk or elsewhere if they don’t have specialist skills although obviously it adds value if they do. Also people don’t always want to volunteer to do the stuff they do in their day job. There are lots of useful things people can do to help that can also be an interesting and enriching experience for themselves.

middle class people like to get carried away with dogmatic nonsense. All of a sudden medical students are not needed in rural Africa and it’s overflowing with qualified doctors. It’s silly.

a reputable charity? Which one?

many international charities work with voluntourism organizations. That’s how the voluntourism organizations source their projects

This is nuts. There are plenty of actual schools and orphanages in the developing world that need a playground built. The idea that it’s all an elaborate scam with fake schools is just silly.

most of these voluntourism organizations work with local and international charities to identify projects that need help and funding. Of course there is a lot of corruption in development but that happens in the projects that those charities that the self righteous posters donate to as well. In fact probably more so because there’s no one on the ground to monitor them.

I worked on a habitat for humanity house build in Africa and the uk (my employer paid the Africa trip as team building). In neither case was I taking jobs away from locals. I was working alongside locals providing Labour and funding the build. In neither case were the houses fake houses. In both cases habitat was working with reputable local organizations to identify projects (in the uk a major housing association). In neither case was the houses fake houses nor was habitat building preventing local organizations from building houses. We were funding and building extra homes in both cases.

voluntourism is a way to raise money for projects. It’s also a useful and beneficial for both the recipient community and tourist. Yes it’s not the only way to help and it’s set up so the tourist gains from it. But overall if properly structured (most reputable organizations are) it can be very beneficial to everyone.