Category: Voluntourism

Online Volunteering – Squaring the Development Circle

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Globalization has brought about a new dimension to our lives since everything is to hand in this shrinking world where technology is making a real difference (for the better?). However, when you think of volunteering, the first image that springs to mind is this stereotype of young and idealistic Westerners who, eager to live the real story, embark themselves in a fascinating overseas adventure. (I beg the reader’s pardon, perhaps I should have written down voluntourism instead of volunteering).

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At the edge of the abyss – A volunteering movie

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I always remember this Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece while having to deal with an unpleasant situation from which I would rather stay away. His dolly zoom effect replicates perfectly the uncomfortable sensation that you experience when your stomach flinches and the subsequent spinning of the head begins.

Vertigo

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Voluntourism in orphanages: The love you give campaign

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Today I want to discuss with you the issue of volunteering with children and more specifically in orphanages. Although the debate around orphanage tourism is not new, it has lately reached new heights with orphanages being linked to cases of sexual abuse, modern slavery and human trafficking (see here). The bigger audience is thus becoming aware of its practices. The entire industry is based on what Leigh Mathews calls the ‘orphan myth’, which ‘is designed to ensure that there is a ready-made source of people, money and resources to support these children. However, the orphan myth is exactly that – a myth’ (Mathews, 2019, p. 46). It is estimated that over 80% of the children in orphanages have living parents.

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Thinking about taking a gap year to volunteer? – Read this first

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Taking a gap year and going abroad to a developing country to volunteer has for a long time been a vital and character forming rite of passage for many conscious and well-meaning youths of the Global North (the term mainly refers to the developed countries of Europe and North America but also Australia and New Zeeland). The desire to be of service and to make a difference in the life of those less fortunate is admirable and should be encouraged. But in our endeavor to do good and help others, we often convince ourselves that we need to travel to a remote village in the Global South – you guessed it, the term refers broadly to low income, less developed regions of South America, Asia and Africa – to build a school or teach English, even though we might not be native English speakers ourselves.

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