To not donate because I dislike voluntourism?

[notstevienicks]

I was in a charity shop today, passing the time before an appointment. I was in there maybe 10 mins. I arrived at the start of a speakerphone phone conversation between 2 women working there and another woman on the other end. They were talking about an upcoming trip and the itinerary etc. I was idly listening as I browsed and assumed they were planning a holiday but then the shop worker mentioned Uganda and I made the connection between that and the charity shop itself. It’s not a chain, but an independent Christian shop whose aim is to raise money for vulnerable single pregnant women in Uganda (including delivering health education to schools and churches in the country) according to their website.

I left the shop and noticed a sign in the window asking for donations towards the repair of a damaged water well and got out my purse to go back in and donate but then stopped myself. I’m already about voluntourism/ white saviourism and had just heard these women (at least 3 of them, maybe more are going on this trip I have no idea) talking about getting a good deal on their £2000 flights.

In their defence, they did chat about getting the cheapest flights possible even if it meant long layovers etc, plus they were talking about their garages full of donated items that would be shipped to Uganda (I have no idea what specifically) but I can’t help thinking about the fact that the 3 of them (at least) are taking £6000 (at least) out of the donations to travel to Uganda. Perhaps they’re good value and the work they do is worth it. Maybe they bring skills and knowledge that local people don’t have and therefore are invaluable. But I hate this “my 18 year old is going to Africa to build schools for 6 months” thing because they quite often do a shit job, take jobs away from local workers and it’s generally a huge waste of money that could be better spent directly helping local people. This explains my concerns well: afropunk.com/2018/06/white-savior-your-volunteer-trip-to-africa-was-more-beneficial-to-you-than-to-africa/?amp=1

Considering these women were of retirement age (and therefore not on a fun but meaningless pre uni gap year) and have been to Uganda many times before (according to my googling), AIBU to have put my purse away because I got annoyed by the thought of my measly £5 getting swallowed up by travel costs?

YANBU. After witnessing how flagrantly so many charities waste money, I never, ever donate cash anymore.

"pay for my holiday"

That can't be right.

My sibling did one of these trips whilst in college.

The task was to raise £1500 that will be donated/ used towards supplies. Sibling still had to lay for their own ticket.

There are some wasteful charities, but there are good ones as well. Instead of sitting on your wallet, perhaps you could research one that aligns with your values and priorities and send all your donations there.

It's not even just small charities that can mean well but end up causing more harm. I remember Comic Relief trumpeting about how they'd used British people's donations to provide whole villages with life-saving mosquito nets, but of course they'd bought loads of mass-factory-produced nets, which then had the knock-on effect of further impoverishing the local net-makers by inadvertently destroying their livelihoods.

If they'd just thought about it for a moment, they would have been much better buying all of the locals' existing stocks, as well as giving them the contract/assurance of buying all of their products from them ongoing for future projects - and only then buying in as many imported nets as they needed to make up the difference.

It's not just the difference between giving a man a fish and teaching a man how to fish, but actually taking away the small fish that the man already has.

i was hoping someone would link to ‘good value’ charities, thank you

I have already researched charities and donate to several. I ask each individual charity to provide me a list of things they need and I buy them. I am hardly "sitting on my wallet." 🙄

My Uncle ran an NGO which operated in several African countries. He's always held up as a hero, but he just made money off people like the women you're describing.

YANBU

It depends so much on the details. My sons did something like this, but they taught English to refugee children and women, helped stock and catalogue a children's library, and took the children on day lots of trips (the only chance they got to leave the camp). They also brought lots of teaching aids and showed the local (unqualified) teachers how to use these. They/my husband and I paid for absolutely everything - flights, accommodation, transport, food - and contributed several suitcases full of books, teaching materials and toys.

Id have an issue with the help being attached to missionary work and conversions. I indirectly know someone who does this kind of stuff in Uganda and although meek-seeming he is absolutely mad as a box of frogs with a white Messiah complex. They go on these missions and good grief, the stuff they write about "primitive beliefs" and the "scourge of Islam" is just awful. But they build schools and latrines so all's ok, eh?!

At lot of volunteers are breaking tourist visa conditions so are 'working' illegally in these countries. When I (legally) worked in Kenya the local authorities had a push to round up illegal volunteers, especially unqualified teachers, and drop them at the Tanzanian border. So people need to keep that in mind too.

How do you know that the money for flights isn't coming out of their own pocket?
How do you know that they don't have a specialist skill set that they are going to use/teach?

Not all people who go to volunteer for charities are trying to be 'white saviours'.

*I do think this "white saviour" meme is a bit silly, it is quite often just one person caring for another, and skin colour doesn't come into it.

I have noticed that is I take in a refugee trafficked from Nigeria I am mocked and jeered at as a "white saviour" - but if I take in one from Ukraine , or Afghanistan I am not*

Slight detail but that's amazing - the emotional toll on you must be quite tough though?

*derail

I hadn’t considered that their travel costs could be paid for from their personal funds 🤔

I definitely think this is a good thing to think around. A lot of it is abhorrent IMO and only serves the people who think they are helping. I know someone who went to Thailand as part of a Christian mission and spent a few hours listening to prostitutes talking about her upsetting their work is. She gave them some food and some clothing and they had to listen to her preach about Jesus.

This was several years ago and she still claims that she helped prostitutes. She will dine out on the horrendous nature of the situations they were in for years. And this is common. Those gap year orphanage building exercises are there so middle class kids can feel great about themselves.

It may be that teenagers going to dig wells in Africa benefits the teenager more than the locals - but is that entirely without merit? They may end up caring more about other parts of the world than they would if they'd just stayed home, worked in the local pub and continued their education.

I've travelled a lot in developing countries (no digging of wells, latrines or any other holes in the ground) and I remember some things very clearly: the elderly woman picking her way over the rubble of a refugee camp in Palestine, saying 'We are not animals. Why do they make us live like animals.' The young men trying to sell their paintings in Mozambique, just after the civil war ended and while hardly any tourists had returned - and right before the new infrastructure of their town got washed away in flooding. Those parts of Africa which at the time had bubonic and a massive AIDS rate and people off their faces lying in the street with massive untreated wounds.

I still care about what happens to the Palestinians in a way I might not if I hadn't been there. I'm still aware of climactic disasters in Southern Africa.

Those 'kids' feeling good about themselves might find their knowledge tempered by maturity. I'd hate to be so narrow that I shot them down for even trying to see more of the world, or to forge wider connections.

As for the charity shop, I would think it unlikely the charity is funding their travel.

It may be that teenagers going to dig wells in Africa benefits the teenager more than the locals - but is that entirely without merit? They may end up caring more about other parts of the world than they would if they'd just stayed home, worked in the local pub and continued their education.

I still care about what happens to the Palestinians in a way I might not if I hadn't been there. I'm still aware of climactic disasters in Southern Africa.

But are you doing anything about either thing? Because teenagers just 'caring' doesn't undo any of the damage that voluntourinng does to the communities they do it in.

I'm still reeling from meetin a bunch of British sixth formers who'd just volunteered in an orphanage in Zambia for A WEEK (before setting off on a safari). Their complete obliviousness to the damage they'd caused the children that they were simpering about when I met them "Oh llittle X loved me so much...did you see how sad he was when I said goodbye?" (presumably before the next bunch of middle class grls turned up to do the same the following week).

It was all I could do not to rant at their teachers (who were also bein sentimental about the kids) and ask them what the fuck they were thinking of.

I'm sorry, but those girls learning to care didnt have any kind of trade off for those children. And of course those kids might well have been bought from their parents by 'orphanages' that make money out of these teens and teir stupd teacers.

Volunteer in developing countries wisely and after a lot of checks and balances, or dont do it at all.

If they work for Medicins sans Frontiers great. Or Engineers without Borders, wonderful. But a Cameroonian man I knew as a bright-eyed wannabe saviour said, "why do you think your skills are needed, we have intelligent and skilled people in Africa?" I still remember him, he works for the UN now. I don't.

If you're 'building a school' as a young tourist, it is simply to extract your cash, it's rebuilt after you eave by actual bricklayers.

Flights to Uganda aren’t £2000. When I flew there it was around £600 return, so they’re probably talking about the total cost of the flights.

I also very much doubt that donations will be paying for the flights! Most volunteer projects ensure volunteers fund their own travel. I’ve heard of a lot of people doing volunteer work abroad and literally nobody has had their flights paid for!

You sound very judgey of a group of women who are trying to do a kind thing to help another group of women. I feel that women should support each other regardless of race or ethnicity - I’m not going to judge anyone who is doing that.

um what???
I think you will find that most of subsaharan Africa came out of the stone age before we did....

Have you actually done either of those things?

Without white people, most of Sub-Saharan Africa would literally be a Stone Age country.

Good grief. If only there was a 'hitting head on my desk' emoji.

That's just pretty much summed up what white saviourism is all about.

Nothing you’ve described sounds like voluntourism. Volunteering abroad is not automatically voluntourism.