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?

Tell them to pay for their own gap year.

That charity would be better placed in paying for and sending a constuction team to train the local people how to create their own playgorunds, and allow them to pass on that knowledge.

It is nothing more than an instagram vanity trip.

Your reasoning for not wanting to donate is questionable IMO, but our answers are the same.

@Talia99

The charity I do volunteering work for cannot afford to take on any more paid employees than they already have. The ones who get paid a wage are locals. I spent a fortune on the project fees, which goes back into the community. And I spent my time training people up to go on and get well paid jobs.

It should have been for her son to decide if that’s true

Agree with you, though I think instead of sponsoring this particular young person, you should make a donation to a charity that will help someone on the ground in a developing country.

There is a difference between an experienced professional paying their way to provide needed skills training, and unqualified, inexperienced teenagers going on a patronising jolly.

The issue isn’t you as a teenager not knowing any better, it’s the structures and systems in place that perpetuate this sort of activity, which is harmful and offensive to these communities in so many ways.

It’s also the fact that, despite this having been explained multiple times on this thread, in quite a lot of detail, adult you, who SHOULD know better isn’t recognising that all this is incredibly fucked up. You’re still spouting nonsense like the above comments.

In Zambia I came across a group of private school sixth formers and their teachers, who'd been volunteering in an orphanage for a week. Yes. An orphanage for a week.

Over the communal evening meal at the camp where I found them, they were gushing over their favorite children, and how sad those children looked when they left. It was unspeakably awful.

Somewhere, one of these voluntourism companies is sending different groups of teenagers into this orphanage each week.
Orphans, already having lost any attachments they had, desperately trying to attach to teenagers who flood them with affection, and who then abandon them.

I was appalled that in this day and age, these trips are allowed to happen.

I world never, ever sponsor anyone to go on one of these trips. At best, the building ones deprive locals of work. At worst...well the story above. Plus the risk of sexual abuse.

What is? A lot of global charities use voluntourism as a way to fund their projects. Of course there should be safeguarding etc but I doubt there is less safeguarding in projects run by international charities than local organizations.

just be careful to pick a reputable project. And have a nice holiday.

It's funny that they never recruit from the local technical college isn't it....always middle class a level students, not apprentice bricklayers, joiners or plumbers!

I object to part funding a holiday, I'd rather give my money for more direct support

How do you know they don’t?

And unless there is a national MC club I’m not sure how you specifically target MC Kids?

@Reaqc you summarise the reality perfectly. I studied Developmental Studies as an undergraduate thinking potentially about working for an NGO (I was also a trained nurse at this point). I subsequently went on to train in a job which works with the most vulnerable in the UK and to be honest, far too many intelligent adults (let alone the press and politicians) do not/are not willing to understand and work with the issues which cause generations of families and young people being stuck in this cycle. How the hell can teenagers without a proper understanding of the cultural nuances or complex issues facing the developing world and no actual skills going out for a few weeks or even a year be a good thing? It is like a modern version of missionaries heading out to 'save people'. It is not a training ground for teenagers to learn skills they could actually learn in their local communities. Plenty of volunteering in the UK.

See the comment upthread about the skilled professional offering their time for free at a voluntourism drive at a university.

Away and patronise somebody else. If you think running a school trip is the height of stress you have had an incredibly sheltered and easy life.

Firstly it wont be just a group of kids building this.....they will be used as labourers....overseen by people with more experience. Visiting Malawi was an opportunity for your son to have first hand, experienced what life can be like in third world countries. Often it leaves a lasting impression and can shape the life of those fortunate children who visited. There is also a considerable cost attached to these visits...the money going to the Malawi schools. I think more kids should have these opportunities, it would ensure a less entitled generation for us, and hopefully more that are willing to consider working for non profit making organisations abroad.

@saraclara as someone who works with children in care and chaotic households your post really upsets me. Just imagine funding workers to offer stability and consistency instead for children? How the hell is this practice okay?

Where are you getting this from? As there’s quite a lot of easily accessible information that indicates it does an incredible amount of harm.

amp.theguardian.com/news/2018/sep/13/the-business-of-voluntourism-do-western-do-gooders-actually-do-harm

www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09669582.2016.1263308

www.worldtravelguide.net/features/feature/does-voluntourism-do-more-harm-than-good/

Brilliant. And if any Fijians want to clean ours, they’re sorely needed.

amp.theguardian.com/news/2018/sep/13/the-business-of-voluntourism-do-western-do-gooders-actually-do-harm

www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09669582.2016.1263308

www.worldtravelguide.net/features/feature/does-voluntourism-do-more-harm-than-good/

No one is forcing you to sponsor ( give them money) my daughter went on one of these trips, and they are pretty much forced to fundraise.
They did a lot as a group, and supermarkets and their customers were very generous, as I am I with similar when I see them in shops.
I think one of my friends sponsored her, no one else. Though they have been quick to ask for sponsorship money in the past.
We couldn’t afford the cost really, so family also very kindly funded and chipped in too.
As it turns out, it had a huge impact on her life, and she is now an outdoor leader, in a good position, with masses of training behind her, and has made us all very proud.

@Sigma33

Its annoying when people on here tar all charities/volunteers with the same brush. Yes the work is fun but can also exhausting. Very early starts and manual labour. And for the benefit of other people, not themselves. Some people on make it sound like a mallorca beach holiday with a meet and greet with locals thrown in.

I think this kind of 'Voluntourism' has well had it's day.

Money to fund local people improving their own environment in ways they think will best benefit them, is far better. IMO.

If a group of strangers popped into your child’s nursery and played with the kids like they were some sort of tourist attraction, that would be unacceptable, I assume? But it’s fine when you do it to a little Motswana? You gave money, after all. It’s only fair?

I honestly can’t believe people still think like this in 2022. You’re a hop and a skip away from singing about there not being snow in Africa this Christmastime.

100% that. And those strangers wouldn't be there on a one off visit. There'd be a whole parade of them, every week or every day.

All those posted saying "Yes, but the money goes into the community" are stunningly naive. Sadly many of the poorest African countries are corrupt. The money from these companies is highly unlikely to reach the villagers themselves.

Oh and less than half the volunteers when I was there were actually white. These countries need people to help, not specifically white people, but people. It doesn't matter if they are white, black or blue with purple spots. So it really is rarely a 'white saviour' thing.