To think fundraising to send teenagers to Africa is for their benefit not the orphans they are going out to 'help'

[Batwomanrisesagain]

I'm probably being a complete cow but just left my local supermarket where I was asked if I wanted to have my bags packed in return for a donation to help send local school children to Africa. They were going to help the orphans apparently. When I asked the teacher how, she said they would learn about their situation, gain greater insight then come home to raise money for them. I heard another packer tell a customer they planned to build an IT suite.
I asked why not just send the money they were fundraising directly out there to charities that are already working out there, she just shrugged.
So AIBU to think the fundraising is really for the benefit of the English school children, to pay for an 'enriching' experience and that actually if they want to go their parents should bloody well pay for it?
Or am I a complete cow (as the teacher clearly thought I was?)
I did bung them a quid as I felt guilty at not just keeping my mouth shut and saying no Thankyou....

I am sure that there are valid organisations but I doubt oxfam would want a bunch of unskilled painters out there.
If a local kid wanted to do some leg work in Calais or go to a deprived part of the uk then I would donate.
But not to goggle at some poor children in Africa.

I work in international development. In my experience, NGOs only really achieve change when they work in partnership with local governments and communities to develop local capability- i.e. give local people the skills they need and empower them (hate that word but....) to change things for themselves using the resources available to them. One orphanage model that has been very successful is One Sky in China, for exactly that reason. It's not about saying "I'm going to send you an 18 year old to look after the kids because the orphanage staff are crap". It's about saying to an orphanage worker " I will train you to deliver proper responsive care to these children". And largely, those workers do want to be trained. That is the problem with these saviour missions. It almost teaches middle class western kids that poor people are poor because they're somehow inadequate.

However, I'm not against English teaching if they get a TEFL, if it's for a school year and theres a proper program/ curriculum in place to ensure continuity from volunteer to volunteer.

They've done no harm and hopefully will come back with a wider world view that will influence their voting, charity and integration choices in future. I think it can only be a good thing to have your eyes opened to what other parts of the world struggle with and understand that they are people too.

The rest of the world does not exist as a prop to further anyone's education.

They've done no harm and hopefully will come back with a wider world view that will influence their voting, charity and integration choices in future. I think it can only be a good thing to have your eyes opened to what other parts of the world struggle with and understand that they are people too.

You really don't have to go there to see it. You just watch the news and times it by 1000.

The situation in Africa is complicated and very political. It's why things just don't seem to be ever getting better despite the decades of work being carried out there by charities. Did people see the meme that went viral on social media last year where it questioned how the rapper Akon was able to provide electricity to millions of African with one investment/project yet the charities and governments couldn't?

flibberdy did you log it with the police, your assault I mean?

Dd's school run a scheme every couple of years to a school in Ghana. The head of the Ghanaian school comes over from time to time to extol the virtues of the scheme but I am so glad dd chose not to get involved.

some of the stories on here make my blood run cold.