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?

@ wordfactory- that is exactly what Himalaya has been saying - that the air fare of the flicky girls should be spent training up a local play worker. For permanent employment.

Fascinating discussion. To be honest, I am shocked that these supposedly excellent private schools, which pride themselves on encouraging critical thinking, do not talk about the moral and political issues around charity and volunteering. I am surprised that so many intelligent posters cannot see the colonial aspect of all this. As Smithsonite says, there is research on the gap year that is pretty damning, e.g. Gap year students delivering babies. Imagine the horror of the average MNer if an unqualified 18 year old rocked up during her labour.

FWIW on the life lessons side - I work in a top ten university. A lot of our students have done volunteerin abroad in gap years. It is completely impossible to tell the difference between those who have, and those who came straight from school. I can say with absolute confidence that they would all have learnt 100% more life lessons if they had been behind the till in Asda for a year.

Some research: www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/hubs/gapyear/8107555/Volunteer-holidays-do-more-harm-than-good.html

LaQueen - only on Mumsnet, and in the UN, UNICEF, Oxfam etc... they may be more polite and less disparaging in these institutions...but none of them are saying that it is a good idea.

Eternal, please don't say third world. You mean developing world surely. I am describing rather accurately a group of SCHOOLCHILDREN who are currently getting their 'experience of a lifetime' at huge expense and courtesy of some poor, hugely disadvantaged African children. They're not bad kids these girls - they are just unskilled, how could they be anything else?? They are children.

The fundamental difference of opinion here OP is that I (and everyone else arguing against you). Happen to think of teenagers as bright, articulate, responsible human beings often with a keen social conscience and a desire to help. We see people who are able and willing to help. Not as replacement doctors or social workers, but as helpers at an age/skill appropriate level. And we applaud their efforts.

I'm so pleased I've been offline for hours and come back to find exotic and LaQueen (and others) so eloquently fighting this argument. You are so off the mark OP it's genuinely horrifying.

Laqueen - I don't think it is negative, self-seeking and twisted. Just misguided.

It is the responsibility of schools to guide their pupils in thinking about these tough issues, and it is the responsibility of organisations which say they work for the benefit of poor vulnerable children to put the best interests of those children first.

Teatimesthree- I am more shocked by the lack of critical understanding regarding these issues from the adults on this thread. It is really depressing. I work with vulnerable adults and children in the UK and have put together many programmes and services including a couple for African kids trafficked here and I never work with volunteers full stop (let alone teenagers) This is because they can cause huge amounts of harm and put themselves and others at risk.
That's before you even get into what these programmes abroad do to the local economies.

and weirdly enough I spent my gap year working on the til in Asda.

Since this country is just about kept together by volunteers I think it is a very sad attitude.

um no its not! what a ridiculous thing to say.

It isn't ridiculous

Home Start
Kid's Company
Action for Children
Barnado's
Whizz Kids
Riding for the Disabled
Scouts
Guides
Volunteer reading

All just off the top of my head-many more if you look them up. All volunteers.

Kid's company here is an excellent example-just what they would be doing abroad-playing, teaching dances etc.

that is NOT this country being kept together by volunteers. Also there is a difference between Kids Company STAFF who will be CRB checked and trained in child protection and the volunteers who will work with them in a closely supervised way. i would be extremely surprised if they took on volunteers who were allowed to dip into a vulnerably child's life for ten days without very close supervision and exit work. For goodness sake - you have just listed a bunch of charities- what has that got to do with the very serious ethical challenges of a teenage girl flying on a short term trip to see an orphanage in Africa? Which will (as someone said upthread) be full of kids who have life experiences that she cannot begin to imagine or have the experience to deal with?

Exotic - I used to work for Kids Company, believe me they do not let untrained short term volunteers work with vulnerable kids.

They let them come and paint walls etc... for corporate days out, but not because this a good way of painting walls, but as a way of building fundraising relationships,

Kids Company volunteering also mentions if you look, CRB checks, training and support and a minimum commitment of 12 weeks. The site also talks about potential volunteers being interviewed for the position- i.e. if you are doing it for the wrong reasons you will not be offered a volunteering position. FFS.

Some of these children will be disturbed, some exhibit disturbing behaviour, withdrawn, tics, aggression, self harm, depression.

All these are possibilities. How does your average teen, from whatever school, deal with this? In a young child?

eternalhope started her post with;

I have only read small parts of thread so apologies if I have missed stuff

then asked questions that have been over and over in the thread.....

so i was just letting her know...yes she had missed stuff

i fail to see how that is aggressive or sarcastic

AND exotic fruit (am irritated now) i am not against volunteering - I have combined volunteering with my professional work for twenty years and will continue to do so as long as I can, i am against sloppy volunteer placement which can cause long term damage and harm to everyone concerned, PARTICULARLY when it involves vulnerable people.

laqueen your post at 1958 is a complete fabrication...you are having a totally straw-man arguement

no one is sneering and no-one is saying that if inner city youths were to do the trip, it would be more useful in anyway, than if rich suburban kids did it

Only, only, only on Mumsnet can some people trying their best to help, support and brighten the lives of people in less advantaged situations than themselves...be something to sneer at, and disparage

And, we can then wrap ourselves in moral indignations, and busy ourselves splitting hairs in order to climb more quickly on to the moral highground...from which vantage point you can view a kind-hearted 18 year old student, teaching an African orphan to read, or reading them a story as something negative, and self-seeking, and twisted...

WTAF

laqueen you are so far up your own arse, its hard to believe

The fundamental difference of opinion here OP is that I (and everyone else arguing against you). Happen to think of teenagers as bright, articulate, responsible human beings often with a keen social conscience and a desire to help. We see people who are able and willing to help. Not as replacement doctors or social workers, but as helpers at an age/skill appropriate level. And we applaud their efforts

felicity i also think teenagers are bright, articulate, responsible human beings on the whole, with a keen social conscience and a desire to help.....But that does not make them useful as volunteers with vulnerable children in Africa for 10 days! and it doesn't negate the fact that their airfare would be more beneficial if sent as cash

Kid's company want an hour a week for at least an academic term. They want CRB checks and an interview-who wouldn't?
While I don't think it a very good idea to go on these expeditions I can't see why, if they are going anyway- which they will, they can't be useful and play some games of rounders or hopscotch etc.under supervision-rather like a big sister.
The fact is they are not going to send their airfare as cash.

sigh. exotic fruits read some of the links Himalaya has posted. They really explain how these programmes challenge vulnerable children's stability and stagnate the local economies very accessibly and clearly. As will all the main charities that work in international development if you choose to do any further research.

Procrasstinator. I thought you were unnecessarily rude to a new poster. I said as such. You deny it. [shrug]

Nobody in their right mind would think these youngsters are going to solve the complex emotional issues these children have. Once there surely they'll be playing games with the children, teaching them a little English, painting walls etc so that the vastly over stretched experts on the ground can get on with their work.

As I said in an earlier post our school has a very close relationship with a specific African school. We send teachers out there most holidays and their teachers come over here for teacher training especially in subjects where knowledge is unfortunately thin on the ground. Both schools value this relationship. I would hope that no one would ever judge this to be an example of colonialism or say the airfares could be better spent on paying locals to do the job.

and it doesn't negate the fact that their airfare would be more beneficial if sent as cash

Yes well, their Jack Wills bill would be better of sent as cash. As would there ski trip money. As would half yours or my families weekly shop bill. But charity doesn't work like that, lets be honest.