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?

@fuckthisprivilage I couldn't agree more.

I mean it's more understanding politics and international relations but I suppose you can ignore all that.

When I was a student in the early 90s I was awarded a bursary for my year overseas as part of my languages degree, it was a lot of money for me at the time, think it was about £1000. As others have said, bequest from some long-dead person to fund overseas experiences for students in higher education in Glasgow.

These trips drive me crazy.

my teen has a passion for volunteer work. I don’t know where she got it because it didn’t come from me. She does local work and it does have a real impact. She is a normal teen who drives me crazy every day, but she is also just awesome.

if we want to send her on a trip abroad, we will just send her on a trip and we will pay for it ourselves. We won’t try to shoehorn in some inefficient volunteer work and then try to get other people to pay for her travel.

You're completely right and serious organisations in the sector don't support voluntourism. I'd look into complaining to them, say it makes them look really dodgy and doesn't exactly encourage support in the future. Who knows, maybe an overeager volunteer messed up with this one? Oh, and definitely do get onto the school as well.

Why can't they do work where they live? Oh silly me, they don't get a holiday out of it.

I'm glad you raised this, because this same school has had pupils doing EXACTLY that to raise money for a hockey trip to New Zealand,l. Interestingly they didn't make it overly clear what they were raising money for (I only knew because I asked) and they were doing this at the lowest priced supermarket in the local town where many, many customers would be struggling to feed their families comfortably. Made me utterly furious.

YANBU but I hope you've contacted the charity and told them how you feel?

Yanbu. I can't believe this still goes on. This time next year this kid's cover photo on FB will be of him holding a local infant

We have had the companies who run these trips come to my DCs school a few times but what they don’t include in the glossy presentation is that they make a profit from it. You are right, it is unreasonable for a charity to be funding the kid doing this which will ultimately result in a private UK company profiting. The money would be better donated to the actual project direct.

Have you seen White Saviour Barbie? So funny.

makes you wonder what the thought processes are in some people’s heads!

my DD ended up not going as she wasn’t prepared to give up her free time /graft for the money and told me that all her friends’ parents were more or less paying for them. So child makes some packet cup cakes, flogs them at school for 50p each and parent gives them a grand type thing. Not really fund raising - and I wasn’t prepared to do it. So she didn’t go. If there was more honesty (just call it an adventure holiday) and less virtue signalling, we could have afforded to pay for her. But I wasn’t prepared to pretend she was “doing good work”/self funding etc. if she wasn’t prepared to get stuck in.

Exactly this. I think it's actually much more harmful to let young people think that they have somehow genuinely earned something completely disproportionate to the effort they put in, than it would be just to acknowledge the fact that they are fortunate to have parents who can support them.

Likewise, better to let them just enjoy a fantastic holiday and remind them that they are bloody lucky, than to let them think that they are "volunteering".

If the second charity is set up to fund "enriching pupils' lives" or "teaching how other countries live" or whatever, then it's fair enough I suppose (although I share OP's views on how this money could be better spent in that community).

If it's to help overseas development or similar then it's a poor use of funds. The school and child need to be clear about who gets the tangible benefits of the trip.

This!!!

There was lengthy discussion of why these trips are a really bad idea on a previous thread.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4683091-to-refuse-to-sponsor-this-young-person?page=1

At best they are a junket for the person going. At worst, they do significant damage to the local economy as labourers can’t find paid work as it’s being done by European teenagers.

Add in traumatised children who get love bombed by different enthusiastic teenagers for a couple of weeks who then vanish, never to be seen again in the ‘work in an orphanage’ trips.

@CovertImage what is white cringe?

you don't know how that child is living @fuckthisprivilage do you? maybe their parents don't fund them/give them pocket money at all? maybe they're at independent school on a scholarship? maybe the parents/school are using this to teach the child the value of money? if the charity wants to ask the child to apply to them, let them. none of your business. don't support the charity if you don't like it. 🤷🏽‍♀️

Everything else aside, the fact you live in said affluent area and have just said ‘boils my piss’ makes me happy!

It’s for the CV. You know that.

I have heard of a setup where they ship in these teenagers who have paid a significant sum for the experience.

they spend a week or so building a wall. They leave, the wall is dismantled ready for the next batch of teenagers.

it’s basically a money making venture for the community. Seems a better idea than thinking unqualified teens will actually be any practical use.

Also, the locals in these countries are not NPCs (video game non-player characters) put on this earth to facilitate the ‘personal growth’ of European teenagers, no matter how much damage it does to them or their local economy.

Go and litter pick in Scunthorpe. All the ecological benefit, none of the damage. Of course, also no sunny holiday.

In terms of the CV / university applications, this doesn’t look as good as the voluntourism companies claim. Many people are wise to the total lack of value of these trips and would not give any credit and might even see it as a drawback.

My DD is just about to get to this year in school.... I abhor it. It's, as others have said, terrible, doesn't support local community, gives white saviour messages, etc etc... But she's determined she "needs" to go because all of her friends have/will. I'm biting my tongue and letting my fairly useless DH deal with it (he will let her go).

Maybe show her the thread I linked above? It demonstrates how going on this sort of trip is likely to be viewed by a lot of people.

Presumably the teens are supplying the manpower, and the charity has qualified tradespeople who can oversee the work?

IMO it’s from an incredibly privileged viewpoint that you are able to scoff at charitable ventures and label them “white saviour”.

If the people being helped are happy to accept the project, how arrogant to imagine that you are better placed to criticise it.