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?

This. It is widely agreed that the teenagers who go on these trips benefit massively. The issue is whether the damage to the locals is worth it and whether this sort of exploitation of developing countries for the benefit of residents of richer nations should still be occurring in the 21st century.

Exactly this. My anger is at the fact that the children and their families are being encouraged to think that this volunteerism is helpful and "worthy" rather than looking critically at what is really happening and how that money could be best spent to genuinely support local communities.

I have no axe to grind over the fact that wealthy families can afford these expensive experiences for their children.

Exactly this. My anger is at the fact that the children and their families are being encouraged to think that this volunteerism is helpful and "worthy" rather than looking critically at what is really happening and how that money could be best spent to genuinely support local communities.

It's a kind of racist feedback loop. A completely untrained, young white teenager is more effective than anyone in the actual country. And it's worth several thousand pounds to send them there while not paying a local person to do it. Gosh, Africans must be lazy, stupid and ineffective. Their best is worse than our worst.

One of the best lecturers I ever had schooled me in this. He works for the UN now with a doctorate, several Masters, a PhD and other qualifications. I as a young undergraduate wanted to work in East Africa because I was obsessed with sustainable development. He told me if I did I had better make sure I was bringing something useful. Development stories are full of well-meaning people from the North solutioning Africans in particular and missing the point entirely. Unless I was better qualified than locals (and he was already massively qualified!) he suggested I stay where I was. He also suggested I should assist my own community, since I knew it best. I've spent 30 years doing just that, although I've never lost my passion for sustainable development in sub-Saharan Africa.

TL:DR: do something good for where you are. Your good intentions are a tiny part of the road to hell Africa has been living for a long time. It's just the latest colonialism.