1. “Voluntourism”
Volunteer Tourism

2. What is it?
Voluntourism is travel which includes volunteering for a charitable cause
Examples: everything from low-skill work cleaning up local wildlife areas to providing high-skill medical aid
Voluntourism is one of the world’s fastest-growing travel niches.
It takes up a significant share of the $173-billion global youth travel industry.

3. Who Does It?
The majority of volunteers is made up of high school and college students
It caters to the increasing number of young people taking gap years.
A “Gap Year” is a year that many students take off between the end of high school and the start of university/college.
During this time, students may upgrade their marks, learn a language, learn a trade, earn money, do volunteer work, travel, or do an internship.

4. Older Volunteers Too
Recently there has also been an increase in baby boomer volunteers.
One possible explanation for the increase is that baby boomers are transitioning into a new stage of life and their focus may shift toward finding activities that give their life new meaning

5. Many students use these trips to boost their resumes, travel with friends, to gain world experience and see new countries, and to feel good about making a difference in the world
Why?

6. More than 55 million Americans have participated in a volunteer vacation, and about 100 million more are considering taking one.
Growing in popularity every year
How popular is it?

7. How can there be a problem with this?
Often it caters to the needs to of the tourist, NOT the needs of those being helped
At worst it can exploit the communities the projects are intended to help.

8. Orphanage Tourism
Some orphanages take children out into the main city where they play in the streets with one another or play instruments, in an attempt to garner donations from tourists and volunteers
Many also invite people to visit the orphanage itself and maybe even volunteer some time there
In order to ensure that such funding is never reduced, some orphanages are deliberately kept in decrepit conditions

9. More on orphanage tourism
It can be visiting an orphanage for a few hours as part of scheduled tour
Some people choose to spend longer periods volunteering in orphanages, paying for the opportunity to play and read with the children, or teaching them English
Many volunteers find the experience life-changing
But for many aid organisations, orphanage tourism is an unwelcome phenomenon; one that turns the most vulnerable members of society into mere tourist attractions.

10. One Volunteer Sums Up The Issues
What’s Wrong With Volunteer Travel, 10: 17, TED

11. Violating Their Privacy
'Ask yourself whether a similar situation would be allowed in your own country: busloads of tourists pouring into a children’s home for fleeting visits, being allowed to interact with and photograph the children? No it wouldn’t,' said Ngo Menghourng, the Cambodian communications officer for the NGO Friends International.

12. Orphanage Tourism in SE Asia
Very popular in Southeast Asia
In the north of Thailand, numerous orphanages are populated by the children from Thailand’s ethnic minority hill tribes, long the most disadvantaged people in Thai society.
Some orphanages in south Thailand charge up to US$400 a week for volunteers to spend time with children supposedly orphaned by the devastating 2004 tsunami.

13. Orphanage = Profitable $$$
Many of the less reputable orphanages have been set up solely to make money from visitor donations and volunteer fees
Orphanages that keep kids in squalor can attract far more funding
Some of these so-called orphanages are even more blatant scams: a system has emerged in which parents will rent their children out for the day to play with gullible backpackers

14. Who’s Protecting These Kids?
Worse still, is the fact that a number of people, including foreigners, who have set up orphanages are sexual predators and a few have been prosecuted for abusing the children in their care.
Some of these “orphanages” basically let you rent out a kid for a day trip

15. Most Aren’t Actually Orphans
Few volunteers are aware too, that most of the children they will work with are not orphans.
UNICEF estimates that 72%-90% of the thousands of children in Southeast Asian orphanages have at least one living parent, or other close relations.
Poverty Orphans: their families are so poor they believe they will have a better life living in an orphanage
In northern Thailand hill tribe families are told their children will receive an education by living in an orphanage

16. Even good intentions can hurt
When well-meaning people volunteer at these places, even if they are legitimate places, the children run the risk of psychological damage
The kids bond with volunteers, only to see them disappear from their lives after a couple of weeks
They feel constantly abandoned
UNICEF is concerned about the emotional loss
Volunteers feel that interacting with orphans is a great way to give back, it can have harmful effects.

17. Dos and Don’ts of Orphanage Tourism
Do think about volunteering for a minimum of a month or longer rather than a short-term stay.
Do work with the local staff. Teach the local staff how to speak English and you have created a sustainable impact.
Don’t visit orphanages as part of a brief tour or go to any that actively solicit tourists.
Don’t volunteer at any orphanage without thoroughly researching it. Is it regulated? Do they require background checks on volunteers?

18. On a lighter note, I found this funny

19. https://www. youtube. com/watch
Cambodia’s Orphan Tourism, 25:07
Video