to refuse to sponsor this young person

[EmmaGrundyForPM]

An acquaintance has sent out a mass message asking people she knows to sponsor her son to do a 10k run in the New Year.
Son is 17, Y13, and next summer is going to Uganda to build a playground in a primary school. He's raising funding for this with a target of £2500.

AIBU to think that, if the tables were turned, we wouldn't accept this? If I was told that a group of young people, with no experience, were coming to install playground equipment in my child's primary school, I would be outraged. As would other parents. And yet children in less wealthy countries are expected to be grateful for inexperienced people pitching up at their school.

When DS was in 6th form, there was an "opportunity" to go to Malawi for two weeks and volunteer in a school. I told DS I wouldn't support this, and he didn't go.

Why do schools and colleges run these trips, supposedly to "help" less fortunate children, when in fact it tends to be middle class children who go, because it looks good on their CV.

AIBU?

@ Moggerhanger
judging by your name and the mention of Borneo, I guess you live near a town beginning with B with a river running through it.

She not received any replies on her FB begging post..

And took work away from locals.

I hate this kind of thing OP

My dad is involved in a project connected to his church.

Basically a parishioner has invented a new water turbo device, his plan is that it can be used in Kenya where they have lots of fast flowing rivers to generate electricity. Electricity is available but very expensive so children do homework by

Yes a couple of white people have been out to Kenya, one is doing the work as part of her PhD.

BUT

The intention is that the locals will be building the turbos and selling them on. That they will be equipped with the tools and training to maintain them.

If this sort of thing was really beneficial it would be run by actual charities rather than commercial companies.

Charities want to raise money and want to benefit the communities they serve. If throwing unqualified British teenagers at an issue was helpful, you’d be seeing big campaigns by the larger charities to get kids to sign up. You don’t because while such charities may have their issues, they also have oversight and hopefully a genuine desire to actually help. Unskilled Western teenagers (I’ve been saying British but I know there are similar organisations in Australia and the US at least) are not helpful to the community, whatever benefits the actual traveller gets.

The comment previously about a naive volunteer telling a child to be ‘out and proud’ about possibly being a lesbian in a country where that is likely to get her gang raped or murdered sends shudders down my spine. There is a reason that for people from certain countries, proving they are homosexual is grounds for asylum in the UK.

Just to add, I know there are issues with having to ‘prove’ sexuality and convincing the immigration tribunals but the basic rule is there - gay people are persecuted in some countries to the extent they meet (high) requirements for permanent asylum.

There must be about three playgrounds for every school, the number of voluntourists that have been going over the years.

So if they need people for grunt work, the kids can raise the £2.5 K to spend of hiring local labour. And have a bunch left over for other good deeds. Not spunk it on flights and accommodation for teens.

Sorry

to spend ON hiring local labour

This is an interesting topic. I know some well-informed people on here have given their views, which has been eye-opening (I had issues with voluntourism before this thread, but didn't know the half of it - tearing down buildings to be re-built by the next lot of volunteers, for example.)

Are there any interviews or articles which feature opinions from the local people themselves? I see a lot of online interviews with former volunteers and with charity workers, many of whom are very disparaging about voluntourism schemes - but what about an interview with someone who was raised in one of the orphanages, or a local builder who had to fix a badly-constructed wall? I know that one PP said she was still in touch with some of the people she was helping and they came to visit her. This suggests that there may be some benefits to certain schemes?

A PP said that they stayed in Facebook contact with some of the teens they met, and when a couple of them came to the UK on holiday several years later they met up.

I don't think the relationship was a causal factor in them being able to visit the UK.

I do know of beneficial schemes, where a school/church/community group has developed a long term relationship with a similar organisation in a different country - just as a similar 'twinning' scheme can be of benefit to both sides when there is no disparity in resources. The main aim is of getting to know and understand a different culture, on both sides, that both partners have something to learn from the other.

Sometimes the better resourced partner will provide some resources for a particular need of the less resourced partner, but that emerges from relationship and understanding. Visits are small scale and two-way, even if funded largely by the wealthier partner.

One of the faith-based places I worked focussed on 'twinning' their programs with volunteers from the wealthier suburbs of the same city. E.g. the youth groups 'paid' for the youth work support (as well as developing useful skills)by planning and running holiday clubs for younger children. They paired up with the youth groups of a church in a wealthier suburb - the young people in the wealthier area raised the money for the holiday clubs (mostly for lunch for up to 250 children per day), and then came and ran the holiday club alongside the young people from the township youth groups.

It was amazing to see the barriers come down between young people living only a few miles from each other, but who came from very different worlds and who would otherwise never have met. That scheme ran for a number of years.

It would be great if there was more of a focus on this type of 'volunteering experience' in the UK, but of course there's no profit in it for the companies because it doesn't have the right sort of 'poor person' and the glamour of overseas travel.

Because it is! British teenagers do not have the right skillset. Workers in the country concerned will do.

If teens want some decent experience for their CVs, they can raise money and do work here. They can volunteer in a food bank, or marshal at a parkrun, or be a school governor if old enough. Just a few examples, or do the 10k but donate the money to charities instead.

They don't need to do long haul climate-destroying flights to take away jobs from the locals.

all building projects need inexperienced labourers to do grunt work

yes but they can hire local workers, not foreign teenagers

Yes, but that will not be enough for their 'I am better than youuuu social media postings'.

Thanks everyone for responding. Thanks especially to those who shared their experiences of schemes like these and the negative impact they have. I'm also full of respect for those posters who started off thinking IWBU but then took the time and trouble to read through the thread and the articles linked to it.

No, they rip them up ready for the next lot as the bus back to the airport vanishes into the distance.

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER
On a similar tack, when dds were 15 and 18, we took them on a safari holiday to Kenya. Everywhere we went, children were clamouring for pens. At one point I bought a whole box of Bics, so as to have enough to dish out,
I still remember a dd saying with wonder, ‘They’re so happy, just to get a pen!’ And they were.

Bloody hell.
Even sixteen years ago as a young backpacker I knew this wasn't a good thing to do, how on earth can you be so naïve?
Did you not even read any travel advice, guidebooks, speak to local tour operators, etc? I thought it was widely known this is not good!

"Giving pens or anything else encourages children to see foreigners as a source of potential wealth transference, ready, willing and able to hand out goods or even cash on request, and that's an unhealthy relationship. It also incentivises begging, and that's a real problem. If begging becomes an income stream, what do they do to move foreigners to open their hearts and wallets when they are no longer young and cute children? It's a sad truth that begging in places like India is a well organised industry that involves human trafficking and other forms of exploitation, and the seeds of ruin can be sown early in life."
^ The most concise of about fifty bazillion articles on the subject. (Link)

Thank you. I saw the pen post when I had no time to reply, and my eyes almost rolled back into my head.

I genuinely thought that the days of giving out pens etc to kids had long gone, and that people were much better informed. It's depressing to think that poverty porn is still out there and tourists are still making these basic errors.

I don't think a few bic pens broke the bank. It may be the thin end of the wedge for some people but the poster hasn't said she gave money or anything else.

What a wonderful holiday that must have been!

But it looks great on a CV…..

Way to miss the point

There are ethical ways to volunteer abroad, if you so want to. As PP have said, it usually involves having a specific skill set. I know somebody who works in an allied health profession (think speech therapy, occupational therapy etc) who has gone to work in with Ukrainian refugees living in Poland. She doesn’t have kids or a partner in the UK so is quite free to do what she wants. She also has savings she is using to sustain herself. She previously learnt Russian in her spare time, and so can communicate with Ukrainian refugees to a proficient standard.

They were, rightfully so, very picky about what volunteers they needed and who they’d accept. The organisation she volunteered with, days after the invasion, had to make a public statement thanking those who wanted to help, but basically saying “thanks but no thanks” and asking them to donate instead. They wanted volunteers with very specific skills and experience. Those who only spoke English, or could only come to Poland for 3 weeks (or on a continuing one week a month basis) due to commitments were not going to be helpful.

If you are a young person who genuinely wants to volunteer abroad in a developing country, you should do it properly. Get plenty of volunteering experience in the UK first. Apply for a relevant degree, my local uni does a highly respected degree in disaster management. Ensure that once you do go over there you a providing something, rather than just purchasing an experience. I don’t work in a uni or admissions or anything, but I can imagine an admissions tutor witn extensive knowledge of disaster management etc would raise an eyebrow at somebody whose volunteering experience consisted of a bought, voluntourism ‘adventure’. I imagine it’s all very censored as well. You get to play with some cute kids in an ‘orphanage’ but certainly don’t get told of their backgrounds or about the locations of their parents who are likely alive and in terrible circumstances. You don’t get told of the fact that many of the children are older than they seem and mentally and physically delayed due to factors such as malnutrition and being born with drug dependency. You also, I’d imagine, don’t get told of the significant attachment trauma that you are inflicting on the kids.

The cost of his return flights to uganda, accomodation etc, is more than just paying for local labour. Probably quite a lot more - these are countries where local people may only earn less than £500 per month.

We sponsor a teacher in an African country. Their salary is £1200 PER YEAR. Not even close to £500 a month...

I don't have any intention of sponsoring a privileged British youth to do this sort of thing, I'd rather help by paying a skilled teacher who is part of the existing community.

The family voluntourism holidays mentioned by some posters on this thread are even more horrifying! At least the teenagers have the excuse of being young and naive.

How did you market the trip to your kids? “We can go on a Safari and then interact with some poor little African kids! We can make a difference!”. Christ.

I know a woman who in her younger years did lots of these trips to Africa...the usual cliche, "orphanages"...she comes from a very well off family and has married a rich man. Her horizons haven't been broadened at all...in fact, she has a very bizarre view of the world. People are either stinking rich like her or absolutely poverty stricken and living in slums. She genuinely seems to have no idea that there are a whole mass of people in the middle of these two extremes. Her world view is consequently quite narrow. Oh and whilst she loves posting up photos of herself when she was younger cuddling cute, black babies, back home in the UK she actually doesn't have a single friend who isn't white and extremely well off.

YANBU. I did this type of trip when I was younger and I cringe about it now. Flew half way round the world to do environmental conservation work. The impact of my air miles on the environment was presumably lost on me. I agree that white saviour tourism ethically dubious. If you are that concerned about volunteering, stay in the UK and do something to help your local community.

It's voluntourism. It is entirely self serving. British teenagers have nothing to offer the people of uganda (excepting perhaps money). Poor communities do not exist as a learning opportunity.
However, uganda has much to offer as a tourist destination!