World adventure - aibu

[Alwayswakeearly]

My son has chance to join a world adventure to Tanzania in 18m (he’ll be 16) working on an education project - all aspects from teaching, running extra curricular activities to labouring for local tradesmen on classroom build. The opportunity includes a safari at the end. They will also work on reforestation in the area damaged by Mt Kilimanjaro tourism. The cost is £3k and participants must fundraise to get themselves there. Other than flights to/from they must take charge of their transport, accommodation and provisions when there with a guide on hand. One school of thought appears to be - why should people contribute to someone else’s adventure holiday. Of course if he earns money through part time or odd jobs which he intends to then it’s his earnings to spend on his trip but some will come from fundraising. My view is that this is getting Gen Z to be independent, accountable, giving them a lasting desire to improve the lives of those with much less (not just abroad) and becoming active in trying to stop man’s destruction of the planet and the amazing beasts that roam it. I understand most kids come back changed forever by their experience. Would you support fundraising for this kind of project or are you turned off by it?

Oh the other thing I forgot to say, DH wants to climb Kilimanjaro for his 50th so we researched going there as a family year after next. We simply cannot afford it as it was going to cost an absolute minimum of £10k for the 3 of us. I'd therefore be somewhat peeved about paying for your DS to do something that I couldn't do myself.

I was a bit badly bitten supporting a friend to do a charity abroad trip. I ended up spending a lot of my own time and money on her experience and found it a bit galling when I went along to a fundraiser ( £20 ticket), raffle tickets (£10), tombola (£2 a go) to be told what a noble, selfless person my DF was for doing this trip ( which she found personally beneficial and an amazing experience) for charity.

Let him do it if you want, but be prepared to either put your own hands in your pockets for most of it, or put a lot of time and effort into arranging suitable fund-raising events. By the way doesn't he have exams that he will need to concentrate on as well - I wouldn't be having a 14/15 year old distracted for 18 mths by this.

I did it aged 16.

It was fun but really the useful bit was holding down two part time jobs (waitress and babysitting) for 16 months in the run up to it to pay for it. And not spending the money I earnt - it taught me to save!

The charity bit is total window dressing, we painted a school and played football with the kids. We were 16 - we had no actual useful skills!
The trekking was hard but rewarding and there was some resilience required in getting up, putting wet socks on and trudging onwards on morning where it rained hard.

But really the working and saving bit was the most useful life lesson.
I paid for it all myself (my parents paid for boots, rucksack, clothing etc).
Most people had parents pay a chunk of it and saved birth, Xmas money plus part time job money (easier if you are 16 and can get proper jobs in cafes/shops etc, hard when under 16. People worked in supermarkets, cafes, the local library, etc. Suspect it may be harder to get those jobs now though).

We did one fundraising quiz and made about 50 quid per student. It was done as a team building exercise really, having to plan and organise it. It would never had paid for any of us to go.

But it is a holiday. There was no noticeable difference is useful life skills or awareness of the world between us and the students who didn't go by the time we sat our a levels.

Doing DofE in the UK would achieve the same ends but cheaper.

My daughter had the opportunity to do similar last year. It didn't sit comfortably with either of us as it felt patronising and entitled.

DD was talking about doing WC to India cost around 4k. We live in fairly middle class area but the teacher helped them arrange bag packing in supermarket 6 miles away in area of low socioeconomic status and high unemployment to which I said "no way" - it ended up looking like they would be doing a few cake bakes and then being "sponsored" by friends and family. She wasn't prepared to put the graft in to earn the money so she didn't go. BF went and spent much of the time snapchatting how shit it was! So I'm on the fence but think it depends on the child. It does smack of middle class child junket though.

saltandvinegarcrisps1 - that sounds similar to the fundraising done by DS's (private) school to send the drum and pipes band off on jollies to far flung lands. The people in Morrison's and Asda seemed strangely resistant to hand over their funds to get their bags packed, so I think they've stopped doing that now.

Bad enough as a non drum/pipes playing parent when people I don't hear from all year ask us along to the fundraising evening which is another extortionate money grab to fund their DCs holidays.

I wouldnt donate. Most of these schemes have crap or little result for the receipients. Its all about the person going...

Absolutely not. Entitled rich kids ( he has a toilet, drinking water, free education, enough food - he's rich) are of no use at all in these places. He will be taking work from those that need it , using resources and teaching unqualified. These trips are just pricey holidays for suckers.

Plenty needs doing in the UK , although he won't get as good a tan.