Feel really conflicted ...

[SoreHeadInBed]

So DS (yr 9) has been given the opportunity to go on an amazing school trip along the lines of volunteering at a school for disadvantaged kids in Kenya. I think it is an incredible opportunity to see a country so different from the UK, and to learn about and help others, and make new friends across then globe. I'm sure DS will get a lot from the experience which will massively open his eyes.

But I have a few conflicting feelings:

1. This trip is v expensive (£1800). DH and I can't really afford it but it seems such a great opportunity we will make it happen and find the money. However, we r obviously lucky to be in a position to b able to do that. I feel really bad for the kids whose parents can not afford this trip. I just don't know if I agree with state secondary schools offering these v expensive trips. It seems v much like the rich will benefit and the poorer kids will be left out. I feel so uncomfortable with it. I wish I could afford to fund another kid so that those that can't afford it dont miss out, but sending DS will already be a big financial stretch and I can't afford to fund another child as well. Are such expensive trips the norm at all state schools? What do u think about it?

1. I feel really weird about a bunch of 13/14yr old privileged uk kids going to 'volunteer' at this school in Kenya. I mean, how much actually useful stuff can a bunch of 13yr olds do to help on a one week holiday? How must the kids in this school feel having a new.bunch of western kids come and look at them and 'volunteer' every week. I mean, if the kids actually will genuinely be doing good and helping this school, then good. I just question how much good they can actually do and the ethics of it all.

Anyway, those r my conflicts.

AIBU to be feeling both happy and grateful for the opportunity for DS, but also deeply uncomfortable with the whole thing?

It’s 4 weeks and actually £4,900 plus vaccinations. Dd is angry I said no. They did a really good assembly/sales pitch about how easy it is to raise that amount of money. Dd now “hates that we’re poor”… left me feeling crap. We’re not even poor. We agreed to the ski trip next year for £1400 as dd1 did that one.

Blimey! There is no way I could afford 5k! That's more than the coat of our last three family summer holidays combined!! I can't believe people actually can afford that, just for a school trip!

Voluntourism.

Often accompanied by a gofundme to donate towards the trip because it's "for charity" - the recipient being the person going on the trip for their expenses.

I wouldn't touch it with a bargepole and I would be really miffed at any school that thought this was an appropriate ask.

A year 9 kid has literally nothing to offer that would be useful to a poor community in Kenya. It reeks of white saviour-ism and is in really bad taste.

If I was year 9 pupil I would want to go. Of course I would.
But the answer would be no.

A lot of parents can't afford this. At all.
I think it's insane and bonkers that a state school plans "save the poor kids in Africa" trip. Year 9 pupils have nothing to offer Kenya - it's "a fell good" voluturism thing nothing else.

Not sure where i read it but there was an article about a company that ran these types of "volunteering/holidays" and they would literally knock down the shed that the kids had built , ready for the next lot of kids to build it again. Charging for materials every time etc. Some are super shonky. I had a friend who went as an adult and had the worst time and was ripped off severely. Cost her a fortune and nothing achieved. She was devestated.

Have a google of "voluntourism" OP. You are right to question the ethics of it.

That's a lot of money for a short holiday - and that's what it is, a holiday - in a place with a rather long list of security concerns (https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/kenya/safety-and-security)

And has he, or the organiser, considered the ethics of supporting a homophobic regime? Or the impact on gay or lesbian pupils of offering a school trip to a country that criminalises them?

I totally disagree with these kinds of trips for many reasons, not least the ones you’ve mentioned but also safety/health concerns etc. I find it amazing that most high schools have all but abolished local trips (usually for cost reasons) but still aim for these ludicrously expensive adventures.
I remember one our school ran, the cost was £3000 for the ‘opportunity’ of building walls in Morocco. A country I’d just returned from on a 20 euro Ryanair flight, ironically enough to look at the complexities of certain historic building techniques. In a country where the most highly skilled craftsmen earn very very little, I found it hard to understand why they’d need a group of British year 10s .Someone was surely making a fortune , and I’d like to think it went into the local economy but somehow I imagine the majority goes to greedy tour operators.

Building walls?!

Depriving local workers of a wage, to create a wall that probably won't last a month.

Which I suppose clears the way for the next lot of tourists to build it again.

Apparently the lowest primary teacher wage in Kenya is around 26,000 KSH a month. That's £155. So £1800 is just under a year's wages.

Ask questions - why doesn't the charity pay local skilled people to build the school? People are probably desperate for jobs. Locals will feel more invested if they've built it themselves.

Get DS to do some local volunteering instead - does the school have a student volunteering programme?

Comic Relief stopped sending celebrities to Africa in 2020. I think it's time for an assembly on white saviourism, voluntourism, community fundraising and what percentage of an activity cost actually ends up with the charity/beneficiaries.

Here's a good read:
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/sep/13/the-business-of-voluntourism-do-western-do-gooders-actually-do-harm
“We … were so bad at the most basic construction work that each night the men had to take down the structurally unsound bricks we had laid and rebuild the structure so that, when we woke up in the morning, we would be unaware of our failure.”

Yes, it's icky. A PP makes a fantastic point about taking jobs away from local people in terms of building work, for white/western kids to come and have a crack at it and feel virtuous. Very white saviourism.

I refuse to allow my kids to go abroad without me or their dad. They can go on the outward bound type trips in the UK.

As for your other point, I agree it's like poverty tourism, what exactly will they be doing I wonder?

It’s 4 weeks and actually £4,900 plus vaccinations. Dd is angry I said no. They did a really good assembly/sales pitch about how easy it is to raise that amount of money. Dd now “hates that we’re poor”… left me feeling crap. We’re not even poor. We agreed to the ski trip next year for £1400 as dd1 did that one.

Yeah, I went to a private school and didn't go on the expensive ski trips and cruises. I wasn't very happy about that, but my parents spent a lot of money on my education and they weren't that rich so I understood. Most of my schoolfriends and I sent our children to state schools. We did get asked to send them on expensive trips like this, but we said no. I think also this is a bit tokenistic, I mean if they went to Kenya for six months (extremely unlikely I know) they could actually do a bit of work with the local children, but what can they do in a week? I do know people who went to Kenya as missionaries and sent their children to school there, now that was living the life. I would also object about the environmental cost of flying out there for a week. Why can''t they just have a penfriend from there who they sponsor or something?

I would join a ski trip but not this one because I don't agree with white saviour poverty tourism operating under the guise of volunteerism.

£4.900 is crazy. £5.500 (minimum!) then a passport, insurance, vaccinations and pocket money are sorted.

I don't get any parents accept that for a teenager. Or can afford it, tbh.

1800 quid would pay someone in Kenya for a year, in many cases. What are 13 yo kids doing 'volunteering' for a week that is worth more than that? The answer is nothing. It's just a holiday for them that pays for stuff for the charity. Hopefully. Depending on the ethics of the charity.

I hate this kind of thing but if the charity is at least making bank, it may be worth funding the holiday. But your child won't learn anything if they don't learn about charity ethics and the majority world. And white saviours and privilege and all of that.

I don't think it's completely normal for trips like this in state schools for year 9 (I assume?) I know some of our state secondaries go to New York, South Africa and Borneo but this isn't until 6th form. And it's more about project work. From years 7-11 it's usually always within Europe, skiing trip, or Paris trip etc...as for the price, a skiing trip in year 9 is £2000 so schools do offer such expensive trips that probably aren't affordable by many parents.
I think going to Kenya is an amazing experience for say sixth formers, but I am not sure 13/14 year olds will fully appreciate the reasons for being there or why volunteering is a good thing.

After reading the comments, what will you do OP?

£1800 per pupil would be better spent on useful
items for the school or area they're planning to visit,

I also think the money if there, is best saved for later trips sixth form , interrailing, festivals and so on.

Completely agree. I know a young person who did this. It had a whiff of the 'white saviour' about it.
As others have said, it is vv expensive, money that could be used in a more effective way. Your post also shows the conflict in this process - if you are 'volunteering' you are not on holiday, if you are on holiday, you are not volunteering.
Not a fan of this

I don't think a year 9 child has anything to offer that requires going abroad at a cost of £££ to volunteer rather than somebody local offering it.

Save your money and send him on the school trip to France/Spain or wherever else which will be less than half the price. Make a donation to a reputable charity if you want to.

My son is year ten and will go on his third school trip abroad shortly. Ordinary see the sights trips not saviour trips. None more expensive than £700. He has also not gone on multiple trips that have run including exotic and long haul locations and skiing. They are certainly not deprived if they don't do them all. Some kids won't have been on any

We shut down any talk of the fundraising trips early on with "We don't want to badger people for money and people don't want to donate money for you to go on a massive jolly that costs thousands." I feel the same about adults that want you to pay for them to climb Kilimanjaro. I know you are not talking about fundraising for your child to go but it's all a money making machine just the same. They don't care how you pay the £££ as long as you do.

I would too. Surely there’d be issues around 13-14 year olds building wells/schools and I can’t think in what other way they could actually be useful.

Re the cost, perhaps you could tell him he has to earn half the money himself by doing jobs around the house, packing bags at the supermarket etc?

The cost of it wouldn't bother me, there will always be things that some can afford and some can't.

I wouldn't agree to it however on the basis that I don't agree with voluntourism.