Teen youth exchange trip

[FaithDustAndALittlePixieDust]

Has anyone else’s child done one of these international youth volunteering trips?
My teenager is due to go on one later this year and, if I’m honest, I’m having mixed feelings about it.
I can absolutely see the positives. They’ll gain confidence, life experience, get the chance to travel and it will probably look good on future applications.
At the same time, it’s been a huge financial commitment and a huge amount of stress.
As a working single parent with health issues and other commitments, I found the fundraising side incredibly difficult. There simply weren’t enough hours in the day. I attended fundraising events when I was already exhausted and there were times it affected other areas of my life.
My child is also quite shy, so they’re not naturally the sort of person who enjoys asking people for money or selling things. In reality, a lot of the fundraising effort ended up falling on me.
What I’ve found difficult is that fundraising opportunities aren’t equal. Some families have far more time, resources and opportunities available to them than others. Nobody is doing anything wrong, but it does mean some young people start from a much more advantageous position.
When we first signed up, we were reassured there would be support available and that funding opportunities would help. In reality, I found very little external funding and most of the cost seemed to come from fundraising and parents’ pockets.
Maybe I’m looking at it all wrong, but now we’re getting close to the trip I’m questioning whether these opportunities are really as accessible as they’re made out to be.
I’m genuinely interested in hearing from parents whose children have done similar trips. Did they come back feeling it was worth it? Would you do it again?
Right now all I can think is that it’s been a huge amount of money, time and stress that I really didn’t have to spare.

It's basically a scam. Run by very profitable companies. Usually the volunteering involves building something which is then pulled down for the next next batch of muppets to rebuild.
Why would the locals want unskilled British teenagers to help tjrm instead of providing work for local indigenous tradesmen. If your dc genuinely wamt to help then stay at home amd give the money you have raised to the cause.

Voluntourism. It's mostly a scam. DS's school do it in year 12, but it's not building, more general help. Fundraising is done by the students in the school sphere. Special tuckshop days, events, etc. I doubt DS will want to go when in year 12 as it's a 'working' holiday. He doesn't like work..... 🤣

It's a way of fundraising while giving some people the feeling that they are doing something positive and exciting in the world . After costs are covered , everything else is profit for the company. Personally I think it is a perfectly valid scheme .

The fundraising part by the participants is a social nightmare. I am sick of people putting pressure on me to attend events to give money so they can go have an adventure especially adults . Wish this companies would just tell people how much they want . But then people wouldn't get the charity buzz and probably unwilling to spend that much money .

Thank you to everyone who has replied. It’s been really helpful hearing different perspectives.
Just to clarify, she isn’t going out to build schools or houses. She’ll be volunteering in a holiday club for disadvantaged children.
I think my issue is that if this were simply a £2,000 school trip, I probably wouldn’t have questioned it. Schools take children abroad all the time for educational and cultural experiences, and I’d see that as part of the cost.
What I’m struggling with is that she’s 15 and will be working roughly 8am to 3:30pm for five days of the trip, with only two days off, after families have spent years fundraising and contributing significant amounts of money. I’m sure she’ll gain valuable experience and make memories that last a lifetime, but I do think it’s fair to question whether that balance is right.
Just because something operates under the banner of a well known organisation doesn’t automatically mean the model itself can’t be questioned.

Same idea as the fake building volunteers. You think they want 15 year old people who dont speak the language working with vulnerable kids for 5 days and then buggering off snd a new lot clueless lot coming? The school/orphanage or whatever gets paid by tbe company to put up with the teenagers, give them a 'volunteering experience' . Thats how they survive-on your money, not the teenagers "help"!

My daughter has done two of this kind of trip through school and absolutely loved them - both were 'experiences of a lifetime'! But I do think it helps if you think of it as an "experience excursion", rather than "volunteering" per se. I agree with you and others about the fundraising - my daughter was involved in a bake sale at school and we just paid the rest ourselves. I'm sure it depends what company its with, but in my experience, they encourage kids to fundraise as part of the experience, which also helps with teambuilding but it's not mandatory if parents prefer to just pay it (and I appreciate this excludes some children from participating, which is a shame)

Mine showed some interest in one but we shut it down pretty quickly as we knew that he wouldn’t make the sustained effort in fundraising for this while he was also doing his Dofe volunteering etc .

We simply said if we end up paying for this then we can’t go to the US when we’d planned to - and he dropped the idea pretty quickly. He went on the school coach trip to Germany in Y10 - total cost including spending money was less than £500. But £3k for this adventure was ridiculous.

She’s a child and she’s going to be in a holiday club, not down the mines. So I think she will be fine in that she will be safe and I’m an environment where she is comfortable. I imagine they are interacting with the children who are there and helping out with activities. Doing things that are already familiar. The facility will need more staff if they are also looking after a load of teenagers from a foreign country, some of whom will be useful and some who will not be.

Gave these a wide berth. You could go on a good holiday for that! The fund raising is also absolutely cringe begging off family and friends.

Sometimes children are trafficked from their families for these unscupulous places to meet the demand for westerners' volunteering. The whole thing is really unethical. Pity you didn't do your research!

Vulnerable children deserve permanent staff who they can form meaningful relationships with, not a merry go round of western teens with a white saviour complex

BUT the decision's made and I think your daughter will gain plenty from the trip. I hope (genuinely) that she enjoys it, although I do think these trips are problematic

My Grandson went to help at a school in Nepal. He did a lot of fundraising as his parents are not wealthy. He had a fabulous trip and has some great memories . I did wonder if he would be ok as he is very quiet but he managed brilliantly.

We said no to this for a number of reasons. It’s a vanity project.

In what way would your DD be a better option in the children’s club setting than paying a local mother or carer and adding to the economy?

Plus with fundraising, DD’s school had bake sales as an example. My DD thought it was hilarious that DC whose parents couldn’t afford the trip were asked to spend money on tat to help pay for DC whose parents could afford the trip. Because in most cases fundraising was minimal and parents paid the fee.

If school really wanted to help they would link with the club, raise money, and send it to the country so that adults or locals could be paid to help, and spend the money locally. But they don’t really care about that. They want a subsidised fun trip for the DC.

We said no. We can spend our time and £ on better. We thought it was a scam. An expensive one.

YANBU but it sounds like the fundraising is done and your DD is committed to it now, so I would put the regrets behind you and try to think of it in a positive light.

If school (and pupils) really wanted to help, they could also volunteer at a local primary school in the UK, long term, all year round

These projects are absolutely morally abhorrent

Can you imagine us allowing teens from.. abroad to work in our holiday clubs ? With no local experience then to vanish? Particularly working with vulnerable children

If a teenager wants this experience they could volunteer in the UK with a local holiday project.

If the work needs to be done in a more deprived country then local people...who need the work themselves...should be doing it.

I have no words! I work in a related field and this is just 100 per cent wrong in so many ways.

If your child wants to travel just do it...this is a scam to make money for the companies involved.
It's also wrong asking for donations to pay the time of a.totally unqualified young person

It's.done now though im sure your kid will be fine..

I absolutely do not think it's a matter of it being unfair to uk pupils though ! It's completely done out ot choice and is an entirely commercial enterprise.

Girls from the local private school went to an African orphanage 🙈. You couldnt make it up. Imagine if privileged girls from Kenya visited a care home here ?!

Thank you to all replies, it’s wasn’t through school.