To think if teenage girls from a private school can afford plane tickets ...

[Morgansports]

.... To visit the orphanage in Africa that they have been fundraising for, then the orphanage would be better served by just receiving the money they spent on their tickets. Seriously, what actual use to the orphanage is a group of hair-flicking, ugg boot wearing blondes???

And the bit that made me laugh is that other parents at the school were asked to help fundraise for the girls' trip.

AIBU?

I would love to know why the OP hates blond private school attending teenage girls tbh...
Why get angry with them? Why not at the system of charity funding itself and leave the poor kids out of it? They will look at it in mainly black & white terms, they will have been fundraising for the orphanage, given the opportunity to go & see their money in action and obviously jumped at the chance. What exactly have they done wrong?
Although if they wear ugg boots they should be grounded for life....

I think there are some huge generalisations going on in this thread about the apparently overindulged teenagers taking part in these trips and the type of work/experience they take part in whilst overseas.

Me and my ds have both taken part in overseas trips and I am entirely happy that neither of us asked others to pay our travel expenses and that each of us made a small but very real contribution to the places we visited.

It's 100% ok to hate people for being rich Flobba in modern Britain. Hating the poor happens too, but it's more of a private prejudice, IYSWIM.

Well if they are paying for their own plane tickets maybe the money is to make up rucksacks and put things inside like clean plate, cups, cutlery, toiletries and some crayons and books for them.

I have a friend who is working in Kenya and the amount of work that the westerners are doing like building sand dams and arriving with things we take for granted. It also makes the westerners realise how hard life can be.

Minipie, was your friend involved in a beach clean up, or a conservation project or something? I doubt she was just trying to raise money to go on a regular diving holiday.

No really, she was Outraged, honestly! no beach clean up/conservation involved IIRC.

I agree it's not a problem for people to ask for "sponsorships" or "donations" towards a holiday, as long as they are up front about it. But then, if they are up front about it, I'm going to say no as I'd rather give to an actual charity.

Then your friend has balls of steel Mini!

I can't believe anyone would do that!

seeker I agree with all of your points.

I think its really sad that an adult is trying to justify belittling and being so horrid to teenage girls because they are affluent.
Its disgusting. How can it be ok, OP? How?

Yup I was a little taken aback when I worked it out.

But then, Jusfloatingby points out that it's not uncommon for bag packers to be raising for a school or club trip. Not sure how different that is?

I think it is very eurocentric to completely side-step OPs actual point, which addresses a very important issue, and concentrate instead on her suppossed jealousy (of what? )

The trips I know of are usually fully funded by the participants. The extra fund raising is to go to the organisation they are "supporting". The act of fund raising raises both the awareness of the charities needs (nothing helps you learn something as much as explaining it), it also raises the profile of the Charity.

My DH did a charity cycle ride last year for Alzheimers. We paid all the costs ourselves, so everything raised went to the charity; it raised money from people who wouldn't have given money to that cause, reminded people who are occasional supporters and raised awareness of the cause. It also enabled my DH to do something he wanted to do with an organised group. As well as him knowing a lot more about the cause, and having heard stories from people who the charity has helped (some of whom he'd known for ages but they'd never spoken about the disease).

Sounds great mummytime. Shame the same can't be said of the trip the OP describes, where clearly funds are being raised not to support the orphanage but to pay for plane tickets

YABVU and very judgy.

You sound like you have a huge chip on your shoulder about private schools, blondes, Uggs and fund-raising. Luckily (for the charities who benefit hugely from what these girls and others do) most people seem to disagree with you.

I disagree with the OP.

My experience is that the students going on these trips have spent a long time raising the money to go on them and they often look for additional funds to help fill their luggage allowance with materials. I know of two girls who worked in Uganda two years ago. One was working as a teaching assistant and went on a course to ensure she could provide structured lessons. She raised the money for her flight herself by working at a local coffee shop. She did not stay in fancy accommodation and bought lots of teaching materials using her own money in the UK which she then left at the school. She had trained as a sports leader at school and organised sports days, football matches for the children at the school while she was there in her own time. She and another girl became very attached to some of the children and are sponsoring some of them through school and through university. This is a major undertaking for the girls and will allow the children they are helping & their families to have better lives. She did go trekking at the end of her stay in Uganda to make the most of having paid for her flight etc.

Another girl had attended various courses which allowed her to draw blood etc and worked in a Ugandan hospital as an assistant. This was helpful both for her and to the hospital who did have the option to decline her assistance. Her trip was arranged by a Westerner working at the hospital and so no company benefitted. She found the experience very challenging especially as on her first day she helped a 14 year old girl deliver a stillborn baby. She will never forget her time working there.

I know another local school goes on a rugby/football tour of South Africa every other year and they collect up football & rugby shirts & boots in the UK which they then distribute to an orphanage. The children who receive these clothes look very happy in the photos I have seen and if the orphanage did not want to receive them they could just decline the donation. The same boys also hold fund raising events so they can ensure that all the children who wish to join the tour can take part - this is handled by the school so no one is stigmatised for having received financial aid.

The schools I am involved with support a mixture of local & international charities each year and ask parents & pupils for their support. We have donated bicycles, scooters, dolls houses etc to a school which has a large number of children on FSMs to improve their lives. Older pupils provide support by running a homework club in a local library which is well attended. The pupils also help by mentoring younger pupils from other schools in an after-school orchestra.

My DCs school also does send groups out to a school in Africa. But this is an on going relationship, for example when there was a fire which destroyed the schools hard won computers, the DC's school asked around its contacts and got some second hand ones sent out there.
However if you saw them doing a bag pack (which I hate BTW) or a car wash, you might just think it was self-indulgent and have no idea of the on going commitment (the two schools have a SEN connection which is why they work together).

think it is very eurocentric to completely side-step OPs actual point, which addresses a very important issue, and concentrate instead on her suppossed jealousy (of what? )

I actually think everyone has commented on her point. But not everyone agrees.

However had the OP made a reasoned OP, this situation wouldn't be arising. Such comments about another female (especially a teenager) shows the OP in a truly bad light.

Also there is nothing 'eurocentric' about commenting on all parts of the OP, imo.
How is that a European trait? Or how is it focusing on European traits whilst excluding the rest of the world?

Thanks joan, forgot that inverse snobbery is all the rage...

We live on the LandsEnd-JohnOGroats cycle route. A lot of people raising a lot of money by doing something expensive they couldn't afford to do otherwise.

I have some sympathy with the OP's position, because it isn't an efficient use of raised funds. Earlier this year I raised over £600 by simply asking my friends to support the particular cause. Very low overheads, since most of the input required was intellectual, not material.

On the other hand, I do think this kind of gap year or holiday placement can be valuable. I just disagree with the way they are typically funded.

If they did old-school Young Enterprise style fundraising - selling goods or services for profit - then fair enough.

I havent read the whole thread but...I did a trip this year with an intl charity. I did have some reservations as the money I raised did cover my accomodation, food, water, the translator and bus hire as well as give a donation to the charity. (I paid my own flights, insurance etc)

However, I dont think I would have raised as much as that if I was just raising for the charity without the trip. Its not a nice thing, probably rather selfish, but I dont think Im alone in that.

Now that I have been there, my eyes have been opened. I have raised more money for them (significantly more than my original trip/donation cost), and made some changes in my life because of it. I think both the charity recipients and I benefited from the trip. I would do another.

How many of you have raised £10k for a charity you have not had a connection with (raising for cancer when you or someone you know/love his fighting it, going on a trip like I did etc )

If you donate regularly, how did you choose your charity? Why NSPCC and not save the rainforest? Why dont you donate more? I gave money to a cancer charity from my first paycheck when I was 15. When I was 19 my aunt was diagnosed with cancer. I upped my donation after that because while I always knew it was a good cause, I then had a connection with it and I felt I wanted to give more.

Theres a good book about giving (and encouraging giving) by Peter Singer called The Life You Can Save, if anyones interested.

DH did LAnds End John O Groats, its not the cost of doing it other wise, its having a back up van between 20 rather than on your own or for you and a friend. He raised £5000+ (we paid his costs as it made it easier to ask others for donations), and it was about a year's commitment,

I do dislike the companies that make a profit organising this kind of thing, especially some of the gap year ones. But then not everyone knows friendly Nuns working with Aids orphans personally; and I remember the hassles some medic friends had offering their services free for a term, sometimes free is not cheap enough.

It's her suggestion that they are "private school with Ugg boots and blonde hair". Smacks of jealousy. If you want to make your point properly then you should keep try to keep the nastiness out of it; otherwise it sounds like you're bitter.

jealous of private school education? of Ugg boots? being blonde? being a teenager? still a bit mystified....

Yanbu. I hate it when asked to donate to these charity trips. I think the benefits are almost all to the posh teenagers, in the life experience gained.

"Could you please give me money so I can go on the trip of a lifetime involving 3 days helping to build a school in Africa then 4 days climbing Mount Kilimanjaro?"

No. Fuck off.

Why assume its only posh teenagers that do these trips?

It's not, that's why they fundraise. So that everyone get the chance, regardless of whether their parents are posh and rich or not.