{"id":3759,"date":"2018-01-18T03:31:48","date_gmt":"2018-01-18T11:31:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/?p=3759"},"modified":"2018-03-07T12:34:49","modified_gmt":"2018-03-07T20:34:49","slug":"voluntourismbacklash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2018\/01\/voluntourismbacklash\/","title":{"rendered":"Voluntourism is fighting back"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I have voluntourism<\/em> in my Google Alerts<\/a>, so that I can get links to press releases, news articles that mention the term. I’m not fond of voluntourism, where volunteers pay large amounts of money to go abroad for a few weeks, or even several weeks, to engage in a short-term activity\u00a0that will give them a sense of helping people, animals or the environment. I look at this growing industry with great skepticism in terms of actually helping anyone, because it\u2019s focused on the wants of the volunteer \u2013 that feel-good, often highly photogenic experience \u2013 not the critical local needs of local people or the environment, and there\u2019s little screening of volunteers \u2013 most everyone is taken, so long as they can pay. What these foreigners bring through these voluntourism programs is often not skills, experience or capabilities that cannot be found locally \u2013 it\u2019s money, and I see no evidence that this money\u00a0benefits local people – maybe the people that run the program are “helped”, but not those meant to be helped by the volunteers. I don’t think all pay-to-volunteer schemes<\/a> are horrid, and I don’t think creating a vacation that has a social or environmental “good” goal (transire benefaciendo<\/b><\/i>) is a bad thing<\/a>, but I think there are a tremendous number of voluntourism programs out there that aren’t really benefitting communities in the developing world – and some are actually causing harm. I push back to questions about and posts\u00a0prompting voluntourism on Quora<\/a> and Reddit<\/a>, and I’ve been pleased to see more and more people doing the same. That push-back must be working, because now I’m also seeing a lot of voluntourism companies aggressively fighting back on the blogosphere, asserting that their programs are worthwhile (but never offering hard data to prove it).<\/p>\n

I’ve been happy to see the tide turning against many forms of voluntourism as people realize that work abroad should\u00a0make local people the number one priority, not the feel-good experience for a foreign volunteer. For instance,\u00a0Australian NGOs are refusing to place volunteers in orphanages abroad<\/a>, because of the exploitation of children, potential harm to children, and lack of any data showing such voluntourism helps children at all.<\/p>\n

The UK’s International Citizen Service (ICS), which has placed thousands of young people in volunteer roles around the world, is now under scrutiny<\/a>: Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO)<\/a> has taken action against ICS and other members of the UK consortium of organizations providing volunteering opportunities over safety concerns. The UK’s Department for International Development (DFID)<\/a>,\u00a0according to a report by VSO, regarded ICS as a \u201chigh-risk programme due to the security and safety issues\u201d involved. \u00a0\u201cICS safeguarding incidents have included death by drowning of two volunteers, sexual assaults, and the detention of volunteers by local police.\u201d\u00a0Volunteers live and work in countries where they may be exposed to petty and violent crime, political instability, endemic diseases and natural disasters.<\/p>\n

There’s even a growing backlash against medical voluntourism<\/a>, per reporting by Noelle Sullivan, a\u00a0member of the faculty in global health studies at Northwestern University, who says her\u00a0research shows that some people volunteering abroad for a few weeks, or several weeks, to engage in medical \u201chelp\u201d for people in developing countries \u201cdoes indeed cause harm.<\/p>\n

It must be taking its toll, because I got a link to a press release about how a certain African “foundation” has hired a PR agency “to change the public perception of medical volunteering or voluntourism.” I’m not going to link to the press release –\u00a0no free publicity here for a for-profit marketing company. But I had a look at the “foundation”‘s web site. The site is mostly about the gorgeous “luxury” accommodations for volunteers on a game reserve,\u00a0whcih has an onsite gym,\u00a0an infinity pool, a private patio “for stargazing,” and nearby opportunities for hiking, mountain biking,\u00a0golfing, weight training, yoga, abseiling,\u00a0white river rafting, tubing, kloofing, microlighting, helicopter rides, “and hot air ballooning!” The company can hook volunteers up with wildlife photography tours and photography courses, half day trips to an animal rehabilitation center “featured on National Geographic,”\u00a0and visits\u00a0for “pampering yourself at the local\u00a0spas.”\u00a0I’m surprised there aren’t workshops provided on how to take the perfect “Look how I’m helping these poor people” selfies… Oh, there is a page or two about the medical services volunteers will squeeze into their busy schedule enjoying all that hiking and hot air ballooning.<\/p>\n

Update: a blog from 2015<\/a>, where animal “help” becomes animal “torture”<\/p>\n

“The ‘turtle conservation program’ was shut down after the police came (there is a law in Fiji to protect turtles as they are threatened by extinction). A girl made a… ehh… Let’s say critical Facebook post. I think ‘inhuman’ and ‘animal torture’ were some of the words she used… I’m just glad that I got my money back without any problem because I know about 7 people who had to go to court to get some of their money back because the agencies made a lot of great promises without keeping them. What they offer is not really volunteer work, here they call it voluntourism. A lot of money which doesn’t actually help anybody but just finances the international agencies. I got quite disillusioned about volunteering here. I left the volunteer house as soon as possible and went to a resort. The turtles were set free, but they are probably dead because they have been in the tank for too long and weren’t able to survive anymore. I’m so sorry for them.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Also see:<\/p>\n