To think this is tone deaf and a dreadful use of charitable money?

[fuckthisprivilage]

I live in a very affluent area where most kids are at independent schools.

We have a local WhatsApp group and a teenager has posted offering to do odd jobs to earn money (several thousand pounds) towards paying for a school trip - a month long holiday to an amazing destination under the guise of doing "community work". Now personally I hate this kind of western saviour type shit but whatever, and there is nothing wrong with the kid offering to take on odd jobs to help fund a tiny fraction of it.

What's really boiled my piss is that some trustees of a local charity have now responded and encouraged him to apply for funding from them. WTF?!!! In what world should a charity be sponsoring a privileged child from a hugely privileged background to take a month long holiday that will cost five figures, in the middle of a COL crisis that is seeing families using food banks and kids that will literally NEVER experience even a week by the seaside during their entire childhoods? Surely it should be the responsibility of the parents to pay for this hugely indulgent experience, not a bloody charity?

Yanbu...what a load of shite

Yeah, it looks pretty bad.

Totally apart from that it is good for kids to work for things they want. My daughter had a school trip this year, she worked all summer to pay for the whole thing, about $3000.

I think I need more info on the ‘hugely indulgent experience’. I can kind of guess but where, doing what and gif how long?’

*for

What is the nature of the charity?

Very clever of the charity actually. If you think about it. Applying doesn't mean they will actually fund him. However all the MC mummies and daddies on the WhatsApp will see it and have the charity advertised to them.

Free advertising to people with money. Not bad.

YANBU, these types of trips are one of my pet peeves. Aye let’s fundraise £3000 so a poor village in whatever country can have the joy of an unqualified teenager building hospitals/teaching/whatever for a week, instead of sending them the money to use for materials and an actually useful local tradesperson to do the work.

Absolutely, I agree. I'm absolutely not blaming the teen himself, nor his parents, who I'm guessing are just following the guidance of the school. My annoyance is with the school for encouraging these children, who for no fault of their own live in a total bubble, to think of this as a justifiable fundraising exercise, and with the charity for encoraging it.

Its actually laughable that privileged teenagers with zero life experience think their skills set is so fantastic and superior that others should fund them to "help" people in developing countries.

I don't want to give specific details but it involves going to a developing but very exotic country to build a school or count turtles. That sort of thing.

Agreed. It's such an arrogant and imperialistic viewpoint

Well it depends on the aims of the charity, doesn't it? It's not illegal to set up a charity with the charitable aims of enabling 17 year olds to go to the Philippines or something.

People are then free to decide whether to donate to the charity which funds those sorts of trips, or not.

Yeah I can see your irritation. I guess let’s be charitable (ahem) and think about the possibility of this privileged young person experiencing a different culture and an environment where people don’t have it as easy as themselves. It might end up being life changing. You never know

Depends what the remit of the charity is really. Those sorts of experiences can be really good for getting privileged youngsters out of their bubble and more aware of the world out there. They'll come back and end up in influencial positions in society and will use this to better ends having had those experiences abroad.

To be fair, the remit of the charity is around supporting overseas development. So it does make sense. But I feel really strongly that that is best achieved by directly supporting grass roots projects on the ground, led by local communities, not parachuting in unqualified teenagers so they can feel good about themselves.

@RudsyFarmer they could do that by volunteering at a local club or school. No need to go abroad on a jolly to see poverty

They can do that on holiday. Or backpacking. Or actually training for something like teaching English which might be vaguely useful.

Spending thousands to do something anyone local could do gives the impression that people in majority world countries are thick, helpless and less effective than untrained British teenagers.

Instead of understanding that the issues are structural and the people in global south countries are variously hard-working, effective, intelligent and skilled.

Not all children at independent schools have a parent who can afford to fund extra trips overseas. Some children are on 100% bursaries. Some children are on smaller bursaries and their parent/s prioritise fees above all else. You can’t always tell who these children are.

Children are to be applauded for working to raise money for their trips. This trips can change their attitudes and the direction of their lives (sometimes).

I think going to places to work can be great for young people, that's not the question to me really. It's more that very well off people have private means to pursue things, and it's good for the kids themselves to contribute. In fact that is part of the point, righ?

YANBU. My DD got one of these trips peddled to her at school. We live in a pretty affluent area and the school suggested our kids go to a supermarket in a quite deprived area to pack bags to raise money. I’ve shopped in said supermarket and the bag packers are usually community groups keeping kids off drugs, homeless charities and the like….not “let’s help this privileged child raise money for a junket to India/Africa/Indonesia”. As you say, tone deaf.

White cringe in action is a lovely thing to watch. Keep it coming.

Good point

And did you mention this in the chat? Or just leave it?

You may be unaware of this, but there are thousands of wealthy charitable trusts, often funded by the Will and estate of some long-dead benefactor.
The benefactor has specified what the fund can be used for, and who may receive it, and it may be very specific and limited . "For young persons born in the Parish of Littlebottom, to do missionary work in Timbuktu". The trustees can often struggle to find qualified recipients; the invested fund multiplies.

https://www.dsc.org.uk/publication/the-directory-of-grant-making-trusts-2022-23/

I agree.

But you are free to donate or not to donate to that organisation. Others may feel differently.