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Question: The Downside of Voluntourism

Answer: The problems with voluntourism generally arise because people are not informed enough on local situations. It is also because the organisation or volunteers do not approach the work with the right mindset. Being informed makes the issues fairly easy to avoid.

1- Orphanage volunteering
Many people want to volunteer with children. As one of the most vulnerable groups in society, helping them can make the most difference in a community. For instance, improving the education of a generation will benefit the community in the long-term. However, volunteering with children can have a negative impact, with orphanage volunteering being the most obvious example of this. Studies have repeatedly shown that orphanages do more harm than good in child development. They have also proven that children need to grow up in families, be that their biological one or an adoptive one. It’s for this reason that most countries in the West no longer have orphanages in their own countries. However, people still frequently volunteer at orphanages in the developing world.

These institutions often expose the children to terrible conditions, abuse and sometimes even human trafficking. Furthermore, according to British charity Lumos, 80% of children in orphanages actually have a living parent. Parents still send their children to orphanages because they believe they will have better opportunities or will be better looked after. These orphanages often survive due to foreign donations and foreign volunteers who come to do some good. But they in fact just perpetuate the harmful institutionalisation of children. They also take money away from potential aid. This aid would enable families to look after their own children and thus keep the family together. You can learn more in the article we have written about the dangers of orphanage volunteering.

2- Unskilled volunteers for construction missions
Another common problem is that volunteers often don’t have the skills or experience necessary to help. For example, groups of students are often tasked with building wells or schools but have no knowledge of construction. As a result, they do poor job while simultaneously taking away paid work from qualified locals. There is a place for volunteers carrying out physical tasks, but always in support of trained, paid local staff.

3- Misuse of donations
Frequently, the money that volunteers bring in is used to improve the experience for future volunteers, not for the actual charity work. Thus the organisation starts to run more like a tourist organisation than a charity. Similarly, volunteers are often more concerned about their own experience and pay less attention to the actual impact they are having on the community. They do not stop to think about whether they will actually contribute anything before setting off on their trip.

4- Focus on short-term solutions
Often volunteering distracts from the structural issues behind poverty and inequality and stops them from being addressed. Thus, organisations and governments alike use volunteering as an excuse not to invest in long-term solutions to deeper issues. Instead, they rely on short-term, ‘band-aid’ solutions. These are not going to improve the situation in the long run, ultimately leaving levels of poverty and inequality unchanged.

5- Encourages dependency
Voluntourism has frequently been referred to as a form of neo-colonialism, which is true in certain cases. For example, it can often perpetuate the notion that developing countries require the help of ‘superior’ westerners to improve their situation. In reality, what they need is better trained locals and improved infrastructure. They could therefore help themselves and end their dependency on foreign aid and volunteers. Thus, voluntourism can be beneficial if you are going to contribute to the training or long-term development of an individual or community.

(Source: Globalteer , 20 Oct 2021)

Source Link: https://www.globalteer.org/voluntourism/