Ethical Volunteering

Gap year students who volunteer at orphanages overseas are propping up a system that “irreparably harms children”, JK Rowling has said. The author, who founded children’s welfare charity Lumos, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that while students may have the “best of intentions”, they could be funding orphanages that abuse vulnerable children and sell them into sex work.

What’s your idea of a break? Whether you’re in college, or working a monotonous 9 to 5, some time off is always welcome to shake yourself and give your brain some new stimuli. If you're considering a sabbatical or looking forward to summer, you're probably looking to make some cheap travel plans. We’re all wistfully sighing at blogs and vlogs of solo travelers who ventured into a community far away to make a world of difference.

Hit the road and save the world! It’s a brilliant idea… but just how easy is it to actually make a difference whilst traveling? I have a confession to make… I have extremely mixed feelings about people volunteering abroad for a week here or a week there and then filling their Facebook page with pictures of them and beaming crowds of children. Do they have any child-care experience? Are they really able to make a difference to a child’s life in just one week or do they risk forming a connection with an at-risk individual and then, simply, leaving?

Volunteer tourism, or voluntourism, is no stranger to criticism. Media reports regularly support claims that profits and visitor experience are trumping the needs of host communities. Volunteer tourism is the intersection between tourism and volunteering. It involves travellers participating in organised short-term voluntary work to help communities, the environment and/or research in the places they visit.

With summer approaching, we are near prime “voluntourism” season. The approximately $2 billion dollar industry sends more than 1.6 million volunteer tourists around the globe each year, according to NPR. To the students gearing up to travel to developing countries and refurbish a school, build a well or assist in some kind of humanitarian venture that can be finished in two weeks – consider this: Volunteer work is not a photo opportunity.

STUDENTS BEGIN THEIR 21-day trip by traveling to a ranch in the Guanacaste province. As volunteers, they will work with students from local schools and teach them about modern environmental issues. The teens also learn about Costa Rica’s development issues and speak with natives about recent environmental changes within the region. Trip participants will also experience popular tourist attractions like whitewater rafting, horseback riding, and ziplining.

If you are thinking about volunteering abroad, we need to talk. I never expected that my volunteering experiences in Cambodia would lead me to have so many contentious discussions about responsible tourism, sustainable development, commercial ethics and modern slavery. It is never easy explaining to well-meaning, generous people that their desire to help others may inadvertently cause more harm than good.

While scrolling through my Facebook feed as a welcome distraction from the midweek workload, I stumbled upon pictures from my friend’s service trip to Guatemala over Easter Break. The photos from her five-day trip featured members of her group holding babies, smiling while young girls braided their hair, and taking selfies with kids from the local village. In every picture, both the volunteers and the children had big smiles on their faces, yet I couldn’t help but feel a mixed reaction to the message the album implied.