The Best And Worst Practices of Voluntourism
Welcome to Live Well Travel Far’s first guest blog post! Carolyn Cresci shares her expertise on all things voluntourism and provides a critical lens to explore this type of travel. Check out her bio at the end of this blog for more information.
There’s no denying that voluntourism has skyrocketed in recent years, but— contrary to popular belief— this travel practice is actually causing more harm than good. Check out these often overlooked problems to voluntourism and solutions to curb some harmful travel practices.
What is Voluntourism?
Let’s start off with a little vocabulary lesson.
Volunteer tourism, nicknamed “voluntourism”, is when tourists (generally from the global north) visit other countries (generally in the global south) with the intention of providing services to local residents. Voluntourism usually consists of young people who travel to work for free on a project that is supposed to benefit the local community.
The voluntourism industry has grown 1633% since 2006 and was valued at US$2.6 Billion in 2014 (Tourism Research and Marketing, 2014). While it is possible that voluntourists can make positive contributions to the communities they hope to serve, there continues to be a lack of critical reflection on the industry. Best practices are often ignored by voluntourists themselves, host organizations, and the general public.
I have been a voluntourist many times. I first hand realized the negative consequences my presence had on communities, schools, and children. As time went on, I began to have feelings of discomfort about what I was doing. I couldn’t help but question if what I was doing was ethical and if I should be doing it at all. I realized that as a young, white, unqualified foreigner in a developing country, I didn’t have any reason to be acting in the way that I did. It’s taken a lot of self-reflecting and critical thinking to fully accept the harm my actions have caused.
It is important to remember that while the below information applies mainly to the “developed” world, we are not excused from poor volunteer practices. I have witnessed and refused to participate in “volunteering” at Mouri schools in New Zealand while on a backpacking trip, and I have been encouraged to work in poor neighborhoods here in the US as a way to “boost my resume”. We have a responsibility to make sure that our actions are not doing more harm than good.
The Problems with Voluntourism
The problems with voluntourism range widely, but below are a major few. If you’d like to jump to a specific section, simply click the title link.
Photosensitivity - specifically when dealing with consent and ethics
Displacement of labor – when voluntourists unintentionally replace what could be paid jobs for local people
Qualifications - often, voluntourists are not qualified for the work that they are doing, such as providing medical care, teaching classes, or constructing a building without having the correct degrees, experiences, or background knowledge preparing them to do so.
Burden – burden is placed on local staff by having to take care of and guide volunteers in a way that keeps them from performing their normal duties
Materials - voluntourists are often asked/encouraged to bring gifts and materials from their home countries, further hurting local economies and perpetuating a stereotype that goods are not readily available in host countries.
Exploitation of Children and Vulnerable Populations
Photo provided by Carolyn Cresci
Issues with children are perhaps the most complex aspect of voluntourism. In developed countries, you never see anyone working with children without proper qualifications.
One of the more pressing concerns in working with children is called “Orphanage Tourism”. In some cases, children are deliberately separated from their families and placed in orphanages so they can be used to attract fee-paying volunteers, donors, and potential adoptive families. Voluntourists then pay fees that they think help the orphanage, but in reality, their fees are the reason the orphanage exists in the first place.
Many volunteers in this sector are well-intentioned and normally are not aware of the damage they could cause to children. Nonetheless, their lack of qualification still negatively impacts children regardless of their good intentions.
Another concern here is that background checks are often not conducted on volunteers before they arrive, which can increase the risk of child exploitation and sexual abuse. More effort should be placed on keeping children in families, properly checking the skills and backgrounds of volunteer applicants, and developing a volunteer program that would benefit the children rather than cause harm.
Example:
When working at a “residential home” (very similar to an orphanage) in Tanzania, I was personally responsible for overseeing volunteer groups that came from high schools and colleges in the United States.
They came to our children’s home and hung out with the kids, made bracelets, had dance parties, painted rooms, sanded chairs, etc. These trips usually lasted just under two weeks. The volunteers would return home, and the children would get ready to welcome the next group of them, all the while feeling abandoned and hurt by the group that just left.
It has been proven that having this revolving door of visitors can cause psychological damage to kids. I watched these kids prepare literal songs and dances for each group that came – they performed every night. No one forced them to do this, but they had a subconscious understanding that they must keep volunteers happy in order to keep food on the table and to attend school.
I lived in this home, with these kids, for six months. I developed what I thought were intimate bonds with the children; I thought about this daily for years to come. Three years after I left this job, I returned to visit. Most of the children did not remember me personally, they were so confused by how many visitors they had. I realized that my “intimate bond” was an act they put on subconsciously, and only benefitted me.
Best practice:
Volunteers should not work with children unless they have significant training (teacher, social worker, etc.). Volunteers pay for their own background checks prior to volunteering. Volunteers do not work with children for short periods of time – only long-term volunteers should be around children to limit the chances of the children developing abandonment and psychological issues.
Photosensitivity
Oftentimes, volunteers will not gain consent before taking photos, and take photos of people living in desperate situations. This is informally referred to as “poverty porn”, which makes entertainment out of a vulnerable group for the volunteer’s social media likes.
A larger problem is getting ethical consent. Even if a person agrees to having their photo taken, he/she might not fully understand the context of what that photo will look like - especially if you are asking for consent from a child, or even their parent, who does not have the same access to the internet and social media. It is likely that a mother would not agree to their child’s photo being taken if she knew that her child will be used as a prop to advertise poverty for hundreds, if not thousands, of your followers to see.
It is important to avoid perpetuating negative stereotypes – photos from one rural village in Uganda will indicate to everyone who sees it online that this is what the whole country looks like, without knowing that there are luxurious areas, just like we have poor and wealthy neighborhoods in our own countries.
Example:
When I first started volunteering, I took tons of photos of myself holding small African children— the worse off they looked the better. My subconscious felt similar to “look how great I am! Look how much I am doing! Let me show everyone on my Instagram so they can praise me”. Without meaning to, I was telling every single one of my followers that I had helped poor children simply by being in their presence.
Best practice:
The most important aspect of taking photos in developing countries is what you do with it afterwards.
The following guides by Radi Aid help decide if a photo should be posted to social media, and if so, in what context. Captions can make a world of difference when taking photos as a visitor in another country. I keep these guides on my phone to review them and question myself before posting anything on a trip – whether I am volunteering or not.
If you are using a photo of a family or child living in poverty, you should blur out their faces and compensate the family financially.
Displacement of Labor
Photos provided by Carolyn Cresci
Voluntourists often pay for their volunteer experience. When broken down, they are actually paying to work and fill a role that might otherwise be a paying job for local people. Volunteers are then, unknowingly, displacing local workers. With high levels of poverty apparent across the globe, it is safe to say that work opportunities would be fit for the local youth population, rather than giving them to voluntourists.
Example:
While overseeing volunteers in Tanzania, it was estimated that each volunteer spent about $5,000 per person on their visit. This was mainly spent on the trip itself - flights, accommodation, tourist activities during their visit, etc. The organization did not charge a fee, though I believe that they should have. We had about 100 volunteers per year, which yielded $500,000. The children at the home only ate meat once a week, slept 6-8 people to a room, and often had family members spread across the country that were living in far worse situations, but were not helped by the organization.
Half a million dollars could have gone a lot farther than painting rooms and making bracelets had it been donated instead of spent on travel and personal expenses – we could have hired local workers for building expansion, purchased food from local businesses, hired more cooks, supported the children’s parents and family members, etc.
Best practice:
This is uncommon, but I have seen the most success when volunteers work with organizations to hire a local person and provide a salary. For example, if a volunteer is a skilled and qualified teacher, they might split the cost to hire a local qualified teacher with the host organization. Then, the volunteer teacher and local teacher can work together to develop lesson plans and the curriculum for the school. When the volunteer leaves, that project can still be carried out by the newly hired teacher who now has a salary for at least a year until another volunteer comes along.
If paying for additional help seems like a large out of pocket expense, opt for crowd-funding to cover the cost. In rural communities, the salary of a teacher can be as low at $4,000 or as high as $20,000 in cities. If volunteering in a rural community, sourcing a local teacher’s salary through crowdfunding can be achievable.
Qualifications
Voluntourists often fill roles that they are under-qualified for while knowingly lacking the proper skills sets. They simply try their best under the assumption that their help is better than what these communities already have.
Example:
In your own community, would you feel comfortable sending your child to school to be taught by a foreign teacher with no qualifications or background checks? Are you comfortable with the teacher changing bi-weekly, therefore the same lesson being taught over and over with no structure? Would you be okay with these “teachers” also building the school your child attends – with no construction background or safety guidelines for building? Or worse – would you send your child to a hospital where the “doctor” is a foreign college student who is not yet qualified to work in their own country?
Best practice:
Volunteers should never volunteer in any role that they would not be comfortable filling or legally allowed to fill in their own country. Period.
Burden
Photo provided by Carolyn Cresci
A burden is placed on local staff by having to take care of and guide volunteers in a way that keeps them from performing their normal duties.
Example:
I worked at an organization in Uganda that had a volunteer program, but not enough resources. They had been accepting any volunteer that would come in the hopes that this would increase their donations stream. They did not have the budget to hire anyone to oversee volunteers, so it fell into the hands of the Executive Director. When volunteers came, she was forced to stop doing her daily work - which was critical to keeping the organization running and children healthy – in order to come up with small projects for volunteers to complete, in the hopes that they would donate money after their visit.
Best practice:
Voluntourists need to prepare substantial fees for their experience to make up for the burden, and donate a significant amount into the organization. Or, instead of volunteering, donate so the organization can have the funds to keep up the work without the burden of taking care of voluntourists.
Materials
Voluntourists are often encouraged to bring donated gifts and materials from their home countries, which critically hurts local economies.
Example:
I worked at a school in Tanzania that annually shipped a 20-foot shipping container from the US. The shipping container was filled with books, clothes, and prepared food collected from donors in the US.
The money it cost to send the shipping container over (approximately $2000 USD), could have purchased all of these things in Tanzania and stimulated the economies and local businesses – businesses that were owned by the community members we were trying to serve in the first place.
Further, the children’s books in the shipping container were not culturally relevant or appropriate. The prepared meals that were delivered were heated up and fed to kids at lunch time, despite the fact that our school was situated in an agricultural community, with fresh foods available next to our property for a fraction of the price.
Donating materials internationally not only keeps poor communities poor, it perpetuates the stereotype that goods are not readily available in host countries, when in fact they are – often at the same quality for a lower price.
Best practice:
Voluntourists should ask the organization they are visiting for a list of things that they need. Once the voluntourists arrive, they should go to a local market or shopping mall and purchase everything locally completely out of their own pocket.
So, what are the best voluntourism practices?
If volunteers hold specific skills that the community needs, that doesn’t take local jobs and are not a burden to the local staff (doctors, for example), then continue to volunteer long-term with an organization.
If volunteers want to teach, then only do so if qualified, and participate in hiring a local teacher to help with the curriculum and ensure the progress continues once the volunteer has gone. Again, this should be as long-term as possible.
In general, the longer a volunteer stays, the better it can be for the community and organization. While every situation is different, there are, unfortunately, not many productive ways to go about volunteering in the short term.
If volunteers must insist on doing short-term work, create a job description of your expertise and send it to the organization so they can assign volunteers to a role they see fit — even if it’s “boring.” Always ask what the organization needs, as opposed to having a preconceived idea of how you should be of service. Be open to doing administrative work, or helping the organization build their website.
That said, the most important part is making sure the organization is compensated fairly. Always pay your way, pay your dues, and donate to the organization. Oftentimes, donations are far more impactful than being an unqualified and short-term volunteer.
Meet the Writer:
Carolyn Cresci, an ex-humanitarian aid worker who has both worked and volunteered in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Peru, the Philippines, India, and has visited an additional 30+ developing countries with specific interest in how the aid sector harms communities. She holds an M.A in International Affairs with a concentration in Development and has completed ample primary and secondary research on voluntourism and the pros/cons of the humanitarian aid sector. She currently resides in New Jersey and works on the backend for an international non-governmental organization run almost entirely by local workers. Carolyn does freelance consulting for organizations looking to strengthen and improve their volunteer practices and individuals looking to be matched with organizations. Inquiries can be sent to carolyn.cresci@gmail.com, or visit her on Instagram @carolynrcresci