College trip to India, any advice ?

[Hanorah]

My DSs are in the first year of college and have the chance to go on a trip to India next Feb. The college runs it every year, they fundraise for an orphanage and visit there, and also do some general tourist stuff.

I would love to hear from anyone whose kids have done something like this. Any tips, advice, anything to be wary of ? We have travelled a fair amount as a family but I've never been to India.

How does the college fundraise for the orphanage, is this a direct and ongoing relationship of many years standing or is some sort of volunteer tourism company asking via this college for people to volunteer for a stint in India involving an orphanage visit?.

Young people have actually been advised not to visit orphanages if they embark on a volunteer tourism programme. Many of the children in such places are not orphans and many people do become exploited. If your children do not have the skill sets to visit an orphanage in the UK then they should not visit such a place overseas either.

I would not go on this trip particularly if this is a sort of voluntourism project. That is big business and a lot of sound criticism has been levelled at such an industry.

What skills as well do these young people have, if the are not builders for instance then how are they going to build a wall? Such schemes take work away from the local people. In the great scheme of things their talents would be better employed elsewhere and not at all in the volunteer tourism sector overseas.

It is a direct and ongoing relationship of many years standing. It is a Catholic college, they have been running this trip for over ten years and it is done in association with a Catholic charity in India. They take educational materials over with them and do classroom type stuff with the kids, they are not doing anything which would take work away from local people.

The Methodist School my DDs attended started to visit Methodist charity schools in Zambia (I think it was). It appears to have been dropped now. Mine didn't go but it is just a bit of do-gooding and a holiday. It is chaperoned and safe. Just not everyone's cup of tea. We like our safaris without religious add ons!