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 wouldn't 'call it out' but I would ignore requests for sponsorship.

Lots of adults defend it, and see nothing wrong with it, so I'm not ashamed that my (admittedly quite naive) 15 year old thinks it looks good when he's basically being given a sales pitch in assembly.

These sort of schemes exists everywhere. A report about the orphanage system in Haiti showed that some individuals made hundreds of thousands out of gullible American volunteers and the kids were barely fed.

Out of curiosity, how are you helping?

Voluntourism is not helping

all these kids could easily volunteer in England, but that’s of course not as exotic and won’t give you access to cute vulnerable kids that you can plaster on your instagram.

And I do volunteer my time for a board for a small charity in england and we are struggling to find volunteers that we desperately need.

“The people there don’t need Ugg boot wearing blondes telling them what to do” is how people who do this were once described on mumsnet.

This.

Voluntourism frequently actively causes damage to the communities where it occurs. It isn’t ‘help’ and it would literally be better for the people who take these trips to sit at home and do nothing (or, you know volunteer at the local charity down the road).

And that’s without taking into account the ecological damage of flying across the world to do unskilled manual labour that a local could do for a fraction of the cost and feed his family accordingly.

I think it's becoming a bit of a trope now actually. It's more associated with entitled posh kids with a saviour complex and nobody wants to employ them because they bring those traits to work.

Truly, why wouldn't you do that if you want to help?

Regularly donating to genuine researched charities and not begging money to go on a holiday and disguising it as a helping. 🤷🏿‍♀️

Exactly. A lot of the voluntourism is just for their own means. Just to look good.

No one is obliged to help anyone at any level. There is plenty of work that needs to be done in the UK, let alone across the world. So if you are going to help, it needs to be without compromising the local job market and a project with long term impact. Short term volunteering rarely supports communities to be more sustainable or provides skills or infrastructure which will make a difference to daily living. Simply put, it’s an experience for the volunteer, not the community they are supposed to be supporting. If you want long term impact, learn a trade or become something in industry and then seek to use those skills and experience in areas of the world that genuinely Ned that support. But if you do that, you are looking at months, if not years of your time. Few people care to help for the length of time it takes to have that impact.

I give a regular donation to a UK charity. Something that everyone will come across in their life at some point.

Definitely not to some shady project to make teenagers feel good about themselves.

This is nuts. There are plenty of actual schools and orphanages in the developing world that need a playground built. The idea that it’s all an elaborate scam with fake schools is just silly.

most of these voluntourism organizations work with local and international charities to identify projects that need help and funding. Of course there is a lot of corruption in development but that happens in the projects that those charities that the self righteous posters donate to as well. In fact probably more so because there’s no one on the ground to monitor them.

I worked on a habitat for humanity house build in Africa and the uk (my employer paid the Africa trip as team building). In neither case was I taking jobs away from locals. I was working alongside locals providing Labour and funding the build. In neither case were the houses fake houses. In both cases habitat was working with reputable local organizations to identify projects (in the uk a major housing association). In neither case was the houses fake houses nor was habitat building preventing local organizations from building houses. We were funding and building extra homes in both cases.

voluntourism is a way to raise money for projects. It’s also a useful and beneficial for both the recipient community and tourist. Yes it’s not the only way to help and it’s set up so the tourist gains from it. But overall if properly structured (most reputable organizations are) it can be very beneficial to everyone.

a reputable charity? Which one?

many international charities work with voluntourism organizations. That’s how the voluntourism organizations source their projects

It’s both an experience for the volunteer and useful for the local community. Voluntourism funds the project even if the volunteers are completely useless (should not be the case in a well run project).

People don’t need to be put off volunteering in the uk or elsewhere if they don’t have specialist skills although obviously it adds value if they do. Also people don’t always want to volunteer to do the stuff they do in their day job. There are lots of useful things people can do to help that can also be an interesting and enriching experience for themselves.

middle class people like to get carried away with dogmatic nonsense. All of a sudden medical students are not needed in rural Africa and it’s overflowing with qualified doctors. It’s silly.

And if you hadn’t been there but had nevertheless donated, the job would have been done by a paid local who could use the money to feed his children. For the cost of about 1/10 of your flight. You were literally taking food from the mouths of local children by insisting on travelling out there rather than just making a donation.

Also, why did ‘funding and building extra homes’ require you to build the homes yourself? Surely your flight / accommodation costs would have been better spent on the actual houses?

If you are a qualified construction worker, that’s different, of course but almost no voluntourists have relevant qualifications.

Sue Ryder Care. They have hospices and bereavement support. They also do research into neurological conditions.

It's better than some far flug project at the other end of the world!
And as I said, bereavement is something that will affect everyone at some stage in their lives.

Exactly this. It’s so insulting! I have friends who have ‘ built’ a school in an African country despite having zero building knowledge or experience.
Why not PAY a local team of actual builders! They would do a better job and wages are put in to the local community .

I’m sorry but you and your company have been totally scammed.

I have lived in several African countries and these project’s are regarded as a total joke. I’m sure you are kind and mean well. But your help in building anything is a performance project and not needed by the local community.
Why do projects run in the same place repeatedly? Why do they not have wonderful playgrounds everywhere by now? Talk to someone on the ground who is not on the payroll of these projects.

Are you suggesting that these playgrounds are built and then dismantled?

Do you have any evidence of this?

They do not need to be dismantled. They are usually of such poor quality and unsuitable for the local environment/ weather that they disintegrate.

Presumably you’ve got photographic evidence of this that you’ve fed back to the manufacturers ?

Often the old , cracked, unsuitable playground or wall that you are told you are replacing was probably built by well meaning volunteers last year! And so it goes on and on.

You're delusional honestly. Africa doesn't need labour. Your unwillingness to educate yourself even slightly, is proof that any "help" you give, is all about your own ego.