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?

I'm surprised you don't think a British teenager can identify as a Ugandan plumber tbh...

My DC school arranges these type of trips and my DS said it looked good (I think they were going to Costa Rica) but I explained why I didn't think it was a good idea to go (tbh I resent the fact they are all given a presentation in assembly about it , and it's not an opt-in thing)

The school encourage the kids to fundraise themselves but generally what happens is parents bulk buy a small item costing a few pounds and kid sells on at a profit. So relies on mum and dad "investing" a decent amount of money.

When it's something like "building a school" for example I wonder how a bunch of MC 15 year old with no experience would be received if they pitched up at the local building site, or presented themselves to the Local Authority offering to build a school!

A friends sons have done it and I wouldn't call her out for it but I don't want to buy a keyring/mini phone charger or whatever they're selling to fund it.

You do surprise me - the FY1's I work with were very busy on their electives having worked in rural clinics with insufficient qualified staff. Maybe it's like here and young newly qualified young hcp's would prefer to work in the cities and not out in the sticks

I’ve had two of these requests from wealthy parents - it’s called a holiday that you want to put on your CV for university and it smacks of white saviour complex. Absolutely furious I was.

I suspect like here lots of new qualified people bugger off to work abroad. I know a doctor and a nurse off to Australia for a better life. Meanwhile my local NHS hospital seems to recruit heavily from Ghana whose people I assume are moving here for a better life. Not entirely sure where Ghana will manage to recruit medics from.

I'm sure it depends on the country, but lack of opportunity is the biggest driver of brain drain. Why pay a local when a foreigner will do it for free? The clinics may have insufficient staff, but the cause is not lack of man power.
A far better use of money would be to pay a locally qualified person, who is experienced with the local conditions. A years salary for a nurse or midwife is more or less covered by the cost of a return ticket.
A foreign student thinking they are the only option is nothing but arrogance. An opportunity to try things they aren't yet allowed to do at home.

YANBU but you also don’t need to do anything. Just roll your eyes and don’t donate.

Teaching business is clearly ridiculous and patronising at best. At worst it seems to betray an archaic racist / colonial attitude that Brits are inherently more intelligent or capable than ‘uncivilised’ populations overseas.

I wouldn’t tar every project with the same brush though. I went abroad and built a playground for an orphanage in Africa with a charity in my late teens. We didn’t steal local employment opportunities because nobody was willing or able to pay for this playground. The local population were working hard to earn money and did not have the hours to spend volunteering. The Orphanage had requested the charity’s support, the charity provided the materials and employed a builder to lead the project. We volunteers provided manpower. It wouldn’t have happened otherwise, not because locals didn’t have the skills but because they didn’t have the time or money to donate. We did. It was a win-win really.

Why didn't you pay for the equipment and employ local tradesman for installation? How many hours of manpower could even one of your plane tickets covered? Don't kid yourself please.
Did you even do any due diligence regarding the legitimacy of the orphanage?

A previous work colleague of mine is currently campaigning hard on fb for funds for her teenage DD to go on one of these trips to somewhere in Africa.
I can't see what this DD has possibly got to offer - as based on my colleagues social media, all she seems to do is get into fights at school.

It’s just that it’s an excellent addition ti your child’s CV at such an early age especially where there is greater competition to even get onto certain HE courses never mind an actual job

Is it though @MoominMai?

I was a professional recruiter for years (retired now) and all it ever said to me is "here's someone who prioritises a holiday and Insta pics over considering the bigger picture", and I can't say that was a plus

Well “I” didn’t pay for anything directly because I was just a teenager. The charity did the diligence re the orphanage, but I do know they only worked on projects that had been requested by locals. It’s not like they rocked up and said “you guys need X”. There was a whole process to decide which projects would be most worthwhile. The whole point of this one is that it wouldn’t have happened otherwise.

I suppose I could have just sent the charity all my savings and said “please take all my savings to employ a local person while I just stay home.” But realistically how many people are going to do that?! With the travel to volunteer, everybody gains something, and the project actually happens.

In fact it could be argued that putting your own feelings of moral superiority above the practical reality of kids having / not having a playground is a rather short-sighted and privileged position to take…

How you wrap these things up can make all the difference. I often think fundraising these school projects would do much better if the focus shifted to the benefits for the young person, rather than the work to be undertaken. Seems more honest, especially when it’s done through a company like World Challenge.

e.g ‘please help my daughter develop her social conscience and employability through a life changing experience overseas.’ i.e. the daughter becomes the charity case. She does sound like she’d stand a good chance of benefitting from the experience and becoming a more productive member of society on her return. Not an unworthy cause, I’d donate to her!

Did you even do any due diligence regarding the legitimacy of the orphanage?

I admit that brought back an umpleasant memory, @Digdongdoo

A friend spent years in Nigeria, and apparently "pop up schools" were quite a thing, where prior to the arrival of certain western visitors a few winsome kids would be brought in, dressed in uniforms and given books about Britain, and taught what to say to the "rich foreigners"

I'm also told that very little of the money ever actually made it to the kids themselves, but of course that's a whole other subject

If you were so young you could neither pay for, nor research your own trip, why on earth would you think you had anything at all to offer anyone abroad?
As you say you were a teenager then. Now you are an adult with the ability to reflect and educate yourself. So do it please.

It's almost routine. Children are shipped into schools and orphanages. Sometimes stolen, sometimes struggling parents bribed or misled. Kids are kept in a permanent state of neglect, no matter how much money is donated. Because it brings in serious money. Not to mention the complete lack of safeguarding. Child abuse is scarily common in these settings.

Because it's racist and damaging? That's why people need to call it out.

How is ‘locals’ defined? How much of the money went into the pockets of the ‘locals’ (who may not be local at all) who requested the playground?

Who paid for the upkeep?

Even if this wasn’t the classic ‘building a playground’ where the work is demolished the minute the bus load of tourists leaves ready for the next bus load to build the same playground, this is still done more for the satisfaction of the tourists.

The cost of one plane tickets could fund a local workman and feed him and his family for months. If the voluntourism model didn’t exist, fundraising for local building projects might actually benefit the locals more than the tourists.

I find it awful - white saviour tours. If they want to help, they can work and send their part-time job money to real Africans on the ground, people who are running things. No names named, by my dc school did this - building huts or whatever, I refused to allow mine to go - they stayed in a nice resort hotel and were bussed daily to build these huts!!!! Posted pictures on Instagram, with 'billowing curtains'. And they had showers - not a bucket of water, but showers. I find it so distasteful - like going to a human zoo in the 1920s, shame on this nonsense. This engages me, really does. Nothing to do with the 'donate the money' aspect, but exactly with the tourism and white saviour bit.

If your child falls for this crap in assembly given by Kenyan/Ugandan/Sri Lankan you should be embarrassed that your child is so thick and ashamed by their hubris.

Bravo x 10

I think we need to 'call out'. Every time a chugger approaches me for Shelter with a spiel that 'young people can't afford houses' I tell them they should not be automatically entitled to a council house at 18 because they can't afford to rent privately and they don't want to live with their parents. Tough shit. Either rent privately or live with your parents. Don't want that? Go live where the employer provides accommodation - what my friend did, going into hospitality business just to get away from home. I support homeless veterans on the other hand through Erskine veterans charity contributions, but that is because I think veterans should be entitled to housing automatically, whilst teenagers - not. Yes, we need to 'call out'. We need to tell people we are not mugs, we know what their games is.

There are plenty of charities in the UK that need volunterrs

That's very sad.

Well with all due respect, that’s your opinion. But it can be worded to add a positive uniqueness to a young persons CV. Speaking as an ex employment advisor.