Interesting article on "Voluntourism"

[PorkPieGuy]

I've felt this way a LONG time about how so many different groups feel the need to volunteer their time, energy, and MONEY to travel abroad to hang out at XYZ village doing basically nothing but hanging out, living with natives for a week or so, then leaving...basically doing no good whatsoever. While there are a number of groups that DO do good on their trips, I see so many self-serving trips that college-age students take to "volunteer" by passing out bags of rice, bottle of water, (amongst other things that any native would be happy to do), all while padding their own resume and posting "do-gooder" pics to Facebook. The $5k spent on a trip to Nigeria could be better spent on 5,000 pounds of rice as opposed to a kid passing out bottles of water for a week.

I'm not against volunteering, but this article does articulate A LOT of what I think about much of it:

http://almost.thedoctorschannel.com/...YJHBD3Blfp5.01

[Bingoccc]

Good article. I agree with the points. It happens all too often.

[sfden1]

Very interesting article and well balanced. It's not just criticism of the organizations that promote this, but offers a more positive and effective approach.

Voluntourism is a term I was not familiar with, so all new to me. Looks like a way of padding a resume rather than actually doing something positive. I found many of the comments that followed the article very informative as well, so take some time to read those (or at least some of them) if you can.

[ewalling]

Is this really the issue that Michelle Lynn Stayton wishes to make it? We have a pic of her winning smile at the end of the article, so we're clearly intended to notice her. Let's not blind ourselves to the possibility that she may be using pithy, whistle-blowing journalism, in this case outrage against third-world volunteerism, as a means of nailing it with a prize-winning article. Figuratively speaking, her own linen may be just as soiled as that of the people she is seeking to disparage.

[fazool]

I'm surprised none of these participants can ever find good deeds to do right here in America, where we are constantly bombarded with claims of extreme poverty, starvation and destitution.

I mean if you are going to help a group of people, make a difference in other humans' lives, make the world a better place, why not do it right here in America?

[Steve DeRosa]

Charity begins at home - and there's a whole bunch of folks in Appalachia and the Ozarks who would be extremely grateful for whatever help they could get...

[Bob Womack]

There are domestic examples, some of which have had international consequences. A ragged bunch from my home state took a little junket to New Orleans in 1814. On the advice of a pirate they decided to do a little work at the Rodriquez Canal. Pirates: who can trust 'em? The volunteer's efforts really got a Scots delegation hacked off at them, so much so that when I visited Falkirk in 1996 the Scot's National Champion Burns Cantor had to make mention of their little excursion to me when he learned of my home. This, despite his being a couple of sheets to the wind and profoundly jet lagged after a missed connection in Tenerife.

Now a guy named Jimmy Driftwood liked their efforts enough to write a little ditty that was Billboard's #1 hit for 1959.

Bob

[harmonics101]

I hope my response doesn't cause any volatile responses. I agree with the OP premise. Similar to the ' philanthropy ' movie and music stars boast about. Like the outreach that Madonna set up in Africa, where her millions in donations ended up being sucked up by corrupt operational personnel, or the lush and remote Crossroads Centre in Antiqua, sponsored by Eric Clapton.

Plenty of cities in the U.S.A. (or Britain) that could be established for the same purposes to help our own,

H

[HDRider]

Some kid goes to Uganda to paint a school instead of going to Panama City to get blasted drunk every night?

Yeah, I'm not gonna' be critical of that; not by a longshot.

When my son was in the Navy, his ship pulled into some port in South America. A bunch of guys from the crew signed up to go to this local orphanage and paint several buildings, as well as bring them clean water and food staples.

Now, I can't even begin to imagine how much money was spent to steam them down there, hire vans and drivers to take supplies and crew out to the site, and to donate the food, water and materials they would use.

You never know, maybe one of these college kids who spends money out of his trust fund is so moved by the experience that he changes his major, goes to med school and then moves to some mud-hut village in Nairobi to help cure the locals of whatever ails 'em.

Saying "all that money could go to..." is meaningless. If it was your money, you could have a say in how it's spent. But, it's not, so you don't, and I applaud any kid who decides to forgo the usual Spring break rituals to do something like that. Unless you're dropping your own fortune to help hillbillies in the United States, you have no right to be critical of someone spending money to try to do something for someone overseas.

A little bit of help is better than no help.

[harmonics101]

HD, there's a BIG difference from someone showing up on the Government's behalf, opposed to someone showing up on their own behalf.

But I agree, if the heart is in the right place (that is the difference), then it's all okay,

H

[HDRider]

Originally Posted by harmonics101

HD, there's a BIG difference from someone showing up on the Government's behalf, opposed to someone showing up on their own behalf.

If they were showing up on the government's behalf, they'd have been ordered to go. This was a project that was done at the white hat (E-6) & below level, from start to finish. There was no official endorsement from the government.

I just think it's disgusting that people will read something and decide that it's all worthless, and how dare these kids do this without helping their own right here in the United States. And such criticism often comes from those who do absolutely nothing themselves.

[harmonics101]

You mean that $5 that I texted to Haiti didn't help? <tic>

H

[HDRider]

Originally Posted by harmonics101

You mean that $5 that I texted to Haiti didn't help? <tic>

H

The point is that it's not up to anyone else to decide if you should do something different with that five bucks.

[harmonics101]

Originally Posted by HDRider

The point is that it's not up to anyone else to decide if you should do something different with that five bucks.

I agree, I think what the OP was having an issue with was the ' marketing ' of these sort of excursions, that are prevalent in the High Schools in America these days,

https://www.volunteerhq.org/high-sch...lunteer-abroad

H

[ewalling]

Originally Posted by HDRider

Saying "all that money could go to..." is meaningless. If it was your money, you could have a say in how it's spent. But, it's not, so you don't, and I applaud any kid who decides to forgo the usual Spring break rituals to do something like that. Unless you're dropping your own fortune to help hillbillies in the United States, you have no right to be critical of someone spending money to try to do something for someone overseas.

A little bit of help is better than no help.

I agree. Maybe there is some self-centeredness about such philanthropic endeavors, but that doesn't mean that they're the kind of sneerworthy hokum that this journalist would have us believe they are. And again, if she's an ambitious young journalist, she stands a far better chance of making her name by exposing some "shameful truth" than by presenting a balanced analysis of overseas volunteering.