Voluntourism
Volunteerism = the use or involvement of volunteer labor, especially in community services.
Voluntourism = a form of tourism in which travelers participate in voluntary work, typically for a charity.
Part of this internship comes with an important ethical discussion around your role and the pitfalls of volunteerism. Many studies have identified inadvertent negative effects from well-intentioned foreigners serving in countries of the Global South (also called developing world).
The case of orphanages provides a stark example:
According to a recent UNICEF report, 75% of children in Cambodian orphanages have at least one living parent. Various reports from Haiti, Nepal, Cambodia and Uganda have found that in many cases, parents are told and even paid to have their children live there so that the orphanages can ask for funds and pocket the profits of expensive volunteer trips while mistreating, abusing, and neglecting the children.
In this sense, voluntourism can encourage the creation of a profitable business that takes advantage of vulnerable children and parents, as volunteers will pay to “help someone in need”.
In Bali, you may see similar dynamics play out with children being vendors on the streets or near touristic areas. In Indonesia, for example, there is a history of child exploitation in the sense of children being forced to sell bracelets, or even child trafficking in which they are forced to beg for money (read more here on organized begging rings).
What’s more, short-term visits to orphanages or schools can have detrimental effects on kids’ development and emotional well-being, creating attachment issues or separation anxiety instead of constant love and support.
Revolving door effect = Attachment issues stemming from consistent changes in teachers, leaders, and volunteers.
White Man’s Burden = a duty formerly asserted by white people to manage the affairs of nonwhite people whom they believed to be less “developed” or “civilized”
Reflection 11: With those things in mind, read this article. Then answer the following prompt:
- Reflect on your intentions and goals coming into this experience. What do you think of the Western Savior Complex ?
- After reading this, how do you plan to approach your service-learning trip?