To think voluntourism needs to be called out?

[icreaminbarnsley]

I've had numerous requests this year by parents of teen dc who are going to various African countries to contribute to their crowdfunding "to help the people in [insert country]". They further explain that said child will be building schools/wells, teaching English, designing sanitation projects....but the latest I received was that their child would be "advising locals on how to set up a business". This in particular has really annoyed me, as the child is doing A Levels, has no business of their own, and no business acumen that I'm aware of. How can you be so brass necked and unaware to be spouting stuff like this? I totally get going to a different country is going to be a fantastic experience for the dc, but who is dressing it up to make it sound like these teens have something important to offer and are needed abroad, in areas that they have absolutely zero experience? I also get that the locals might benefit from the money that the dc need to pay to undertake such an experience, but is it really the locals who benefit, or is it the mainly the 'charitable' organizations that are based in the UK?

AIBU to feel we need to call this a unique opportunity to experience life in [insert country] and not delude ourselves into thinking the locals are benefitting from groups of western teens, who are not builders, engineers or business advisers?

It makes me groan.
I would mind it much less if the blurb was 'This is a unique opportunity for your child to see how people are really living in other countries and even to work alongside them for a while, helping them to build a well or school or taking on simple tasks in their business ventures.' Parents who can't afford the hefty fees then might ask family and kindly friends to contribute.
The idea that it is helping the recipients in any significant practical way is patronising nonsense, though there may be some two-way richness in the cultural exchange.

They probably already know how to fish far better than the average A level student from London!

Well, it's cringe-worthy. Not racist, however - unless we all think 'bloody patronising rubbish' = racist. I don't. It is what it is. My DS went to India for some organisation, but ex-H paid (I refused to have any part in it because I thought DS would be better going straight to university not swanning around on a gap year) and anyway DS has many relatives in India, so part of the trip was visiting family.

As a midwife- this sort of thing isn’t fair on the women (because actually you learn most about how to manage emergencies, which is the bit that actually needs intervention), as a second and third year student. So certainly a first-into-second year I would say is likely to be little actual use.

But the other thing is it’s really, really unfair on the student too even if they don’t realise it. The likelihood of them being put into traumatic situations where they are out of their depth is significant and if a baby or mother dies while they are the ‘most qualified’ person there, that will stay with them forever and is entirely preventable. If there are companies offering this to people they are doing everyone a disservice.

Yes, but I wonder what their social media content development skills are? And whether they have any experience of SEO ?
To say that these teenagers give nothing back is incorrect. M

Again my blunt lecturer said that when she'd had the neonatal death conversation with a previous cohort, one student mentioned the tragedies she'd experienced lambing on her farm as preparation for dead African babies.

I'm sure she mentioned farming on her midwifery application, but I bet she didn't say that dead lambs have prepared her for the inevitable loss one experiences as a midwife in the UK..

Still looking for a way to justify the (18 year old) white saviour eh?

I never allowed any of mine to do this and ignore any requests from friends for their dc. It's funny no one has ever called me out on it as I will click any link for a local charity etc.
Call it what it is. "My child wants to go and wash an elephant in Africa and spend a morning digging a well. It will make them a rounded individual"
Send a tenner to Wateraid instead

I can relate to this. I used to work with a woman who was forever sending out 'sponsor me' emails so she could go to litter picking in the Atlas Mountains; or climb Mount Everest for charity; work in an orphanage in Brazil, etc. Effectively, it appears she was determined that everyone else should fund her travel experiences under the guise of 'charity'. In the end, we all got very fed up of being continually hounded for money and her CFuckery.

I have just seen another begging post on the local fb community page, 2nd today - it must be the warm weather bringing them all out. they are off to do important conservation work and protect the turtles!!

Fully agree. Funny that you don’t see many 18 year olds volunteering in their own country. Of course going to Tanzania is much more interesting than helping a project in Blackpool or Stoke.

One of my friends went out to try to do something like this. She was an extremely experienced and talented nurse, but she had been doing an extremely gruelling job. The job had got to her a bit and she'd gone slightly loopy. She went to India for three months, where the local ignored her completely. She spent the whole time sitting in her room alone and couldn't eat the food. She then got some wild gut infection which was awful.

When she came home she had calmed down a great deal and she went back to the NHS to a much gentler job where she just had to do box ticking. I think the Indian folks did her a great favour tbh.

Will they be giving lectures on how to make dumb tic toks? 😂😂😂

Still looking to create issues where there aren’t any ?
I don’t think it’s part of the selection criteria that the teenagers have to be white from what I’ve read. So is it less of an issue if it’s a black teenager from Walthamstow?

They are not charities. These trips are organised by companies.

If that’s what’s needed to promote their businesses to be able to trade on a global stage then yes. It’s not without merit is it ?

The criticism wasn’t about the centre, if was about her and how she portrayed herself on social media (holding a black baby etc).
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-47400300

Are you serious?

You ever been around British teenagers? They struggle with remembering and typing in their school password that they've had since Y7 - even when it's the generic (because they never saw the point of following instructions to change it) !School123. They aren't social media and SEO experts from sticking a doggy ears filter on a TikTok - and that's before you take into account that in Nigeria alone, there's over 107 million internet users and banking/trading use is huge.

It's not a continent of helpless eight year olds using smoke signals or sound to communicate over distances, despite what racist tropes still prevail from exactly this sort of white saviour bollocks.

Very.

you can ramble on about TikTok’s all you like, they’ve created millionaires out of 18-year-olds. Why shouldn’t the African teenagers be given the opportunity to do the same?

I think it was a fairly poor example because he was mostly wrong, but there is also a point in there which I highlighted earlier. I love Stacey, but it didn't need to be her. It also didn't need to not be her. It should probably be some other people whether she's there or not.

You've clearly not used the internet recently. They're already there.

I have several British teenagers living under my roof all more than capable of remembering their passwords and very capable of manipulating Google to their own ends.
Sharing that knowledge would certainly not be harmful in the context of the trips that we’re describing now.

What comments do you think they'd get? You know there are hundreds of negative comments underneath an African woman putting her baby on her back. How do you think the West would handle seeing other ways of life?

It's not the bloody zoo! Thier not exhibits for your kid to gawk at! Christ almighty 😂