Are Gap year placement/end of 6th form volunteer trips safe for 18yr olds.

[soul2000]

In the wake of the horrific acid attack on the two girls in Zandizbar is it reasonable to think that these trips are to dangerous for well meaning young and often naive students/pupils to undertake these trips unsupervised or not in a collective group with proper secruity.

I think they are generally fairly safe, though there are always risks in travelling. But I think there's something v patronising about the whole thing and I'd be surprised if the locals much appreciate all these do-gooding 18 year rich kids swarming around their country. Good article about this on bbc news a couple of months ago.

It depends on what jobs the kids are doing. My DSis spent a year working in an orphanage with over 50 children and 2 women to care for them all. She didn't think she had all the answers, she just had a pair of hands that could help with nappy changing and feeding etc.

On the whole "is it safe", students were killed in my university when they were hit by a car and they were playing "chicken" in the road, another was killed when she fell off a bridge messing about, there was an accident when lots of people, including students that I knew, were killed when a barge sank on the Thames. 18 is an age when people are learning about life and many of them are taking risks and experimenting. I really don't think that being abroad is any more dangerous than being in the UK.

I think I'd rather my daughter got a paid job at 18 than waste time volunteering.

Ooo can I Like your post amicissimma.

You may as well just stop your 18year old going anywhere. They could get in with the wrong crowd at uni, could get run over on their way to their new job, or catch a horrible disease from someone in a queue for the dole office ( not that I am saying people on the dole carry horrible diseases before get flamed).

Life isa risk, and it is better to regret doing something rather than spending the rest of your life regretting not having done it!

according to the news it was the third attack on them during their stay on the island. So it doesnt sound wrong place wrong time at all and they were targeted, they are advising young people not to go just now. Of course "life is a risk" etc but most people dont intentionally put their selves in harms way, going there right now sounds like it could be doing just that

To answer your question, yes? these placements are generally very safe.

However, I strongly argue that the projects that these gap year/6th form trips are misguided 95% of the time. There is no reason that the work that they are doing cannot be achieved by in-country assistance. There are all sorts of reasons for development to come from in-country human resources. However, employing local people won't give paying privileged foreign students an exotic holiday, a warm feeling inside and a few lines to write on their CVs will it?!

IMO the managed gap-yah 'experiences' are a holiday with a little bit of childcare thrown in. DCs would be better of nannying or similar, or at the very least committing to a long term project. When I was a CSV I did it for a full year, I had training, etc - I didn't just fanny around doing potato prints in a school. I have very little time for companies like I-to-I who rip 4k of wealthy teens in the guise of do-goodery.

And I agree with cory - these kind of trips present themselves as safer than independent travel when I very much doubt they are.

But wrt the op - away you go with yourself. One bad thing happens so all 18 yos should stay at home? That's just plain daft.

As others have said, many of these gap year and "volunteering" companies are just glorified and expensive holidays, with little or no real benefit to the lucky recipients of our charitably-minded teenagers' efforts. How many 18 year olds go to teach in African orphanages for a couple of months before buggering off with their backpacks, never to be seen again?

These children have lost parents, families and every adult dear to them, and a bunch of western kids rocking up for a few weeks before shipping out does more harm than good in terms of building relationships.

In answer to the OP, spending time overseas is no less dangerous than spending time in the UK and I suspect there might be more to the acid-slinging story than meets the eye. One of the girls had been attacked before for singing during Ramadan so she doesn't seem to have been overly observant of local custom.

If someone is looking to give their time for free overseas, the ethicalvolunteers website has some great tips on how to find a good opportunity and gives advice on what questions to ask potential travel companies to make sure that you're doing something of benefit and not just booking yourself an overpriced holiday.

At 18 i was not safe to go on a college trip to Paris without getting spiked!. On a serious note i think students can have the idea they are going to safe places and as some other posters have said these Countries do not have the same resources to handle problems with health or secruity. There are risks everywhere but some places have less risk than other places, especially in these present times where militant religious groups could target young western girls working.

The age of the girls/women is totally irrelevant, 18 is fine to be out living your life and travelling. Things like attacks can happen to anyone, 18, 21 or 50..

Not strictly relevant to the OP, but I echo what's been said above me about these gap year 'volunteering' trips. I think they patronising to the locals as well as not particularly helpful. Poor kids at these schools have to put up with a different set of young people every few months and that's quite unsettling I imagine.

There are lots of volunteering opportunities in this country, but I strongly suspect most of them fancy a holiday.. There's nothing wrong with taking a year out to just travel for fun if they want a holiday, there's no need to 'justify' it by turning it into a charity thing.

It's cv building unfortunately Remote. I'd actually have much more respect for a cv that read 'spent whole year dossing about with no fake charity work just because I could.' but Im probably in a minority or these trips wouldn't be so popular.

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You are not alone, wilsonfrickett! I would feel nuff respect if I saw a cv with that written on it!

Well, statistically the person most likely to kill your daughter is...your daughter. I think life should be lived, risks and all. I would rather my dd was doing a Gap year and hopefully having some thrilling experiences than sitting in her bedroom stressing over what some low life had written about her on Ask fm or similar and then hanging herself as a result.