Re mums bagpacking for their teenagers

[Carbosug]

A group of mums were bagpacking at the supermarket on sat to raise air fares and funds for their 17 year olds to take part in a third world project in Africa. I don't normally mind contributing to these things but usually its the kids themselves out earning the money for their trip.

AIBU to think they really should have got their kids involved and made them come along with them. I'd be much more inclined to contribute if I saw them working for the money and not leaving it to their parents.

I don’t agree that all volunteer tourism is bad. My sister is directly involved with a charity in a west African country who do rely on volunteers who teach, take children to hospital etc but I think the difference is the charity was founded and is run by someone from those villages who goes to a village and asks what they need etc with an actual understanding of what can be done to improve their lives with a big emphasis on education. They once had a volunteer go out determined to build a bread oven. They let him do it but warned him that it would never be used. It isn’t. But now they have an example that allows them to guide the volunteers to understand where they can actually make a difference.

I’m not sure how I feel about the bag packing - I’d just assume it was proud parents trying to help too.

Yes I can see the point re volunteering at home rather than flying halfway across the world. I wonder how many of the kids who go on these trips do any voluntary work in their own community.

Kaluha
That’s nice and sounds very benevolent. However the issue is that stories of buildings being built incorrectly by western teens and having to be torn down at more expense to the local community are not uncommon.

Kahlua much as your son may enjoy his holiday there is no benefit to the local community. Why doesn't your son raise money for the building project without going there as unskilled labour and 'buikding' it himself? Because he wants a holiday!

@Kahlua4me I promise you they are absolutely not needed there - local people could build the houses far more competently. What skills does your son have as a builder? Would we bring teens from another country to build houses here? Or do you think we would use local skilled workers who would then pass the earnings into their own community?

Bag packing? In my day you held a barn dance and made your friends/family buy tickets. I went to so many bloody barn dances in the 90s.

I spoke to someone who has looked in detail at the impact of 'school building' - they have seen instances where local workers were just brought in afterwards to fix it all - it is literally useless work that the 'voluntourists' were doing. Your son would be better off going travelling and just speaking to people/ reading about how they live to learn about different countries. Nothing wrong with travel to broaden the mind but it perpetuates the belief that people in these countries don't have the skill or ability to do their own work.

@Ubbesponytail if the volunteers are qualified teachers passing on their training to local teachers then possibly it is useful. But it is incredibly damaging to encourage kids / adults in the UK to think they can 'teach' children in a country they know nothing about. It also takes work and experience away from local people.

But would it not be better for local skilled people to teach local unskilled people to be builders rather than foreign teens!!! Investing in upskilling the local communities rather than 17 year olds from UK.
The whole idea that foreign teens are helpful in any way other than donating cash is madness!

My kids do backpacking for their sports club, which I support.

Having said that, I won’t donate to volunteer tourism.

The issue here for me is that I don't like anyone other than me packing my bags at the supermarket.

Of course some village in Ghana needs 17 year old Jemima to build a wall for them at a cost of £3000 that could easily be spent by employing local tradespeople thus helping the community

I agree. The teenagers may well get a lot out of the trip but it doesn't sit right they ask everyone else to pay. I would much rather raise the same funds so that locals can be paid to do the same projects.

The teenagers we're talking about have already rolled double sixes in the game of life. They live lives of luxury when compared to most of the world - I'm not sure convincing strangers to sponser their travel is really on. Even more so if it diverts funds from local people.

Just my opinion.

I remember being really upset at not being chosen to go on one of these when I was their age.

Now I'm an adult, I'm really glad I didn't go. I spend a lot of time doing 'proper' volunteering and it would feel really shameful to admit I'd done some voluntourism. It's awful the way these trips are marketed - and how they were (still are?) regarded by universities as something worthwhile for your UCAS form.

I don't think the kids who go on these holidays have any clue why they're a bad idea. The parents should have more sense, but as an idealistic young teen, I just wanted to help, and what's why I really wanted to do one of these trips.

I used to work as an expat near where groups of 17/18 year olds used to help decorate a school (it was like a world challenge type thing or something). They'd paint the walls etc then a couple of weeks later the paint would be stripped and a new group would come out and do it again!

It was worth it though for the organisation to get some money from it.

'17 year olds to take part in a third world project in Africa'.

How can a 17 year old offer any help to a project in Africa.? What skills can they share in the UK? Africa's problems are not because they don't have the skills of a british 17 year old, but because of a multitude of reasons. Voluntourism is disgusting. Having your mom raise funds by packing backs is awful. A gloating returning hero teenager who just went to Uganda to paint some walls of an orphanage and go rafting are the WORST KIND. so this kid, will pay say £500 ticket, then £1000 for a month spending (how they need all this cash I don't know). Surely the project would be better off with the cash, not the kid taking a job of a local teacher/painter decorator. Also local communities should build their own schools and not have kids from Surrey. I get the spirit of responisble travel, which is different. Volunteering in own community is a good idea- but then, no cute snaps for instagram. These projects so often people do for the most ridiculour reasons,a nd 'i just wanna help' isnt enough of one. Ask the kid to volunteer for british red cross. Because these voluntourism companies are shocking and I've just seen so many after 12 years of working in central Africa, I want to cringe. And a mother packing bags at a supermarket? It's nice she really loves her kid, but they really need to do extensive research. At 16 I babysat and went interailing around europe. No parental contribution. At 21 I was out to Zambia and went to learn about bee keeping. No one asked me for any cash, I went to learn. Who are these niave parents?

I hate those trips. The idea that people in need are mere props to support the development of privileged teens makes me boak

In response to everyone who attacked me and my son for his upcoming trip.

My ds does actually volunteer at home as he is a young leader at scouts so he helps run the unit every week and has does so for the last year. He is actively involved in planning the activities and leads evenings frequently. As well as the weekly meetings he initiates and organises weekend trips away and helps run summer and Easter camps for cubs and scouts. Dh and I are actively involved too so we all do a lot of volunteering in our local community.

As for skills, he is doing engineering at school so is learning theory and we run our own electrical business which he helps at during the school holidays. He has the basic skills and knowledge for electrics, as well as plastering, painting, plumbing and bricklaying.

Our business is a small family run company and we take work experience students from the local secondary school and 3 colleges as well as having an apprentice. On top of that we are currently in talks with the local adolescent mental health unit to take their young people for work experience.

Finally, the project DS is on is a long term project run by the county scout group and this will be the fourth visit to that area and the improvements are very noticeable. Whilst out there they are teaching the locals the skills to manage and carry on themselves once the scout group leave.

Some volunteering may be simply tourism but I do not believe this one is and I am proud of DS for doing it instead of spending the summer on social media or Xbox.....

Voluntourism is a scourge, there are some serious colonial overtones to privileged western teens thinking they can possibly provide any real assistance in building or teaching in third world countries. My school ran an India trip in the sixth form where girls went over to 'teach' in a school, there was a week of 'teaching' and then two weeks of sightseeing, riding elephants etc. It was pure arrogance and all it really facilitated was these girls getting some nice photos of them clutching impoverished brown children and wearing saris for their Instagram accounts. About 30 of them went, that money could have paid multiple permanent teachers for the school for at least a year, rather than facilitating an ever changing roster of naive teenagers 'teaching' these children who have it hard enough as it is. I also know of someone who went to South America after graduating as a 'business consultant' like a 21 year old with no real life experience and a rudimentary grasp of the language can really help, their flight money on the other hand would be welcomed I'm sure. The parents packing the bags to raise the money is just none of their spoilt brats should be allowed anywhere near a building site or a classroom.

I doubt the scouts are teaching locals, anything that usi lng the cash to employ a local skilled person to teach them could not achieve. Its a jolly.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/qz.com/africa/665764/instagrams-white-savior-barbie-neatly-captures-whats-wrong-with-voluntourism-in-africa/amp/

This just sums it up!