Search Results for: voluntourism
Cambodia’s Orphan Business
This was sent to me from Al Jazeera, as it’s a topic I write about frequently.
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Reporter Juliana Ruhfus and director Matt Haan travel to Phnom Penh to investigate Cambodia’s orphan business, and end up as undercover volunteers in a failing orphanage. The resulting grounding breaking documentary reveals how ‘voluntourism’ - the fastest-growing sector of one of the fastest-growing care industries in the world - is fuelling a high-profit volunteering business that sees volunteers’ dreams exploited and Cambodian children separated from their families.
—watch the video here
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Good Intentions’ Top Posts for 2011
As the year draws to an end, I thought it might be interesting to look at which posts were the most popular in 2011. The results surprised me, perhaps they’ll surprise you as well. Compilation posts (where I collect links to other posts and articles on a similar topic) were the overall winners.
1. TOMS Shoes: Good Marketing – Bad Aid
Hands down the big winner. This post is so popular that it’s often the most hit post each day. If I had to guess I’d also say it’s the most linked-to post as well – which would explain why it continues to…
Guideline #4 for Volunteering Overseas
This is the final post in my Guidelines for Volunteering Overseas series. I’m back from hiatus and will start blogging again soon.
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Manage your expectations
Although volunteering overseas can be a life-changing experience, it’s also one of the hardest things you’ll ever do. Many people have an unrealistic expectation that their experience will be as glamorous as it seems in the Kashi commercials. Managing your expectation before you volunteer will help you have a more successful volunteer experience. Below are some of the common issues international volunteers face.
You will probably not get a volunteer position with an
…
Guideline #3 for Volunteering Overseas
Examine your motivations
The debate over voluntourism seems to be coalescing around one point – motivation matters. Before volunteering it’s important to have an honest conversation with yourself and examine your motivations and whether putting yourself in the lives of aid recipients is the best way to meet your (and their) needs.
If your goal is to help people, start by helping people in your own home town
As a Peace
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Guideline #1 for volunteering overseas
I’m on hiatus until early October. While I’m away, I’m reposting previous posts that I think my readers will enjoy. Here’s this week’s repost.
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While most development workers can tell stories of volunteers or volunteer projects that did more harm than good, most of us also got our start through volunteering or an internship. I personally was a Peace Corps Volunteer. With the debate raging over poverty tourism, disaster tourism and voluntourism (see links at end of post), I thought it might be a good time to develop guidelines for useful and appropriate overseas volunteer work.
Because there
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Voluntourism IS the Best Option
This week’s guest post is by Eric Hartman. Hartman is working on a book titled, Building a Better World: The Pedagogy and Practice of Global Service-Learning (with Kiely, R., Friedrichs, J., and Boettcher, C.). In the past several years he has served as a Lecturer in Global Studies at Arizona State University, Executive Director of Amizade Global Service-Learning, and adjunct faculty in political science, public administration, and history at West Virginia University. He recently took a position as a Change Management Consultant with Accenture and he continues to serve on the board at Amizade. He blogs semi-regularly at
Hug-an-orphan vacations
While I’m on “sabbatical” I’m reposting articles that readers may have missed.
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The growing popularity of short-term international volunteering (voluntourism) has led to the disturbing trend of hug-an-orphan vacations. While visiting a foreign country people take time to volunteer at an orphanage or else are persuaded to visit orphanages while on vacation. Volunteers and donors alike should immediately question the motivations and professionalism of any orphanage that allows or promotes this.
Orphanages may purposefully maintain substandard conditions to attract foreign donors
Orphanages can bring in a lot of foreign donations, and the best way to keep those donations
…
A solution to the critical shortage of debate teams and basketball coaches
While I’m away I’m sharing reposts of previous posts I think would interest my readers. This post originally appeared in March of 2010.
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In yesterday’s New York Times Nicholas Kristof proposed a solution to the critical shortage of debate teams and basketball coaches affecting developing countries.
In my mind, Teach for the World would be a one-year program placing young Americans in schools in developing countries. The Americans might teach English or computer skills, or coach basketball or debate teams.
The program would be open to Americans 18 and over. It could be
…
Taking a Break
It’s been a long and difficult six years, and it’s taken a toll on my mental, physical and financial health. So I’ve decided it’s time to get away for a while and recharge my batteries. I’ve accepted a laid back job in Yellowstone National Park, a place where I worked many years ago and often think of as home.
I leave next Sunday and will be away until early October. Although I will have limited internet access while I’m in Yellowstone, I don’t plan to blog or tweet much during that time. I need to be able to step away…
Interesting articles, posts, and papers from March
This is a roundup of some of the Non-Japan related articles and posts I found interesting last month. For the articles and posts related to Japan, see this post.
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The New Bottom Billion – Center for Global Development Wonkcast - Discusses how 3/4th of the world’s poor live in middle income countries.
A spectrum of social entrepreneurship: TOMS, Indego, and Henry Ford - Short Sentences - Looks at the different ways companies engage in social entrepreneurship.
War of the Words - Whydev - Looks at the history behind terms such as “developing country” and “developed country”. Makes…
Designed to Fail
I recently saw a segment on my local TV news discussing an upcoming Hacking Poverty event to create apps for development. It was a two-day event taking place about an hour from where I live. I wrote for more information and decided to attend to see if I could help catch problems before they went too far.
It became quickly apparent that the person leading the event didn’t have much, if any, ICT4D (Information and Communication Technologies for Developments) experience. So I contacted my go-to people on this topic – Linda Raftree and Ken Banks – for resources…
Interesting articles and posts – January
I’ve fallen behind on my regular links page, my apologies for such a long list of interesting links.
Show me the Impact! – Pulling for the Underdog – Takes off of a recent article from Africa Can End Poverty and proposes an alternative approach to the Millennium Villages Project for finding what works.
Millennium Villages Project continues to systematically overstate its effects – Africa Can End Poverty – Uses a very clear graph of cell phone ownership to make the point that the Millennium Villages Project is over estimating their impact.
Whose Volunteer Experience Is This Anyway?
This article was written by Crystal Hayling and is cross-posted from The Center for Effective Philanthropy.
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2010 ushered in do-goodism 2.0. The opportunities to check-in, check-out, or slack-out “for good” have never been greater. Voluntourism is on the rise, as people want to see and feel more of their vacation destination than a five-star resort may offer. But there are downsides, as I recently discovered at a cocktail party fundraiser.
The otherwise delightful woman to whom I was speaking was explaining how she and her husband had recently traveled to Cambodia with their kids in…
Aid and Development Sayings
Truck and Chuck or Stop and Drop
Trips where goods are distributed. This can be a derogatory term referring to distributions that are done without a clear understanding of how to do it well or the impact of doing it poorly.
Analysis Paralysis
Over analyzing a situation so that no decision is ever actually made.
The Burn Rate
How quickly a nonprofit burns through their donations. This is important as the press and general public often determine how “effective” a charity is by how quickly it spends money.
Herding cats
What it feels like when trying…
Hug-an-Orphan Vacations
In light of the recently released report Inside the thriving industry of AIDS orphan tourism which discusses the commodification of orphans and the impact this has on the children, and the recent NPR story on the same topic, I’m reposting this article.——-
The growing popularity of short-term international volunteering (voluntourism) has led to the disturbing trend of hug-an-orphan vacations. While visiting a foreign country people take time to volunteer at an orphanage or else are persuaded to visit orphanages as part of their vacation. Volunteers and donors alike should immediately question the motivations and professionalism…
Standards
General Standards
InterAction Private Voluntary Organization (PVO) Standards
Independent Sector Principles for Good Governance and Ethical Practice
Colorado Nonprofit Principals and Practices
Principles of Partnership
“In order to help ensure that there is a common understanding of the concept of partnership,”
Association of Evangelical Relief and Development Organizations (AERDO) Gifts-in-Kind (GIK) Standards
Orphanages / Child Sponsorship
UN Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children (orphans, children separated from parents)
US Better Business Bureau – Donating to Child Sponsorship Organizations
InterAction Child Sponsorship Certification Standards…
Charity websites working to educate donors
I’ve long pushed for more honesty and transparency on charity websites. There is a critical need for more real information and fewer “happy stories“. Recently I’ve seen what I’m hoping is a new trend of charities working to educate their donors.
- Pepy Tours does a nice job with their blog Lessons I Learned. I appreciate the fact that Daniela delves into the issues surrounding voluntourism. I also respect that she is willing to admit her own organization’s mistakes and what they have learned from them.
The Poverty Tourism Debate – a compilation post
The subject of poverty tourism keeps resurfacing in the aid world. The general crux of the debate is whether it’s OK to pay to look at poor people/areas. Proponents state that visiting other areas helps us understand the world and become more compassionate and better donors. Opponents argue that it’s exploitative of poor people and really doesn’t add much to the viewers understanding of complicated issues.
The following is a list of blogs/articles that debate this topic. Please feel free to recommend others.
Recent posts
Slumming It - Expad.ie – “I’m not in favour of having a quick, purposeless gawp…
My Smart Aid Wishlist
There’s been a lot of chatter over Twitter lately about how to get the smart aid message out to the average donor. Suggestions have been put forth and a working group is brainstorming ideas for moving this forward. In thinking about the possibilities I have developed my wishlist for what a Smart Giving Movement could accomplish:
A Musing on Tree Plantings and Past Aid Mistakes
The recent discussion about the tree planting voluntourism excursion offered through the Royal Caribbean Cruiselines brought to mind my own experiences leading volunteer tree plantings.
These community tree planting events consumed many years of my life when I was an undergraduate. For three years I oversaw the restoration of Denzil Stewart Nature Park. This included a yearly Trees and Trails Day where hundreds of community volunteers would come to the park to help plant native trees and shrubs and work on the nature trail. These volunteer days took months of preparation. It would have been…
A plane full of volunteers bound for Haiti
As we sat in the airport awaiting our flight to Haiti, I was amazed at the number of teenagers clad in matching t-shirts going to Haiti to help with the recovery efforts. It reminded me of when I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand and a Thai asked me “Why do Americans send high school students to help in Thailand”. I was 27 at the time, a decade out of high school, but I understood what he was trying to say. Why are we sending over volunteers that do not have the skills and experience needed to solve whatever…
CDC Cautions Volunteers to Haiti
While researching which immunizations I might need before I head to Haiti for an upcoming consultancy, I was surprised to find the Center for Disease Control cautioning people against going to Haiti to volunteer. Here is what they say:
… The U.S. Embassy’s ability to provide emergency consular services is limited, and the U.S. government has discontinued evacuation assistance. Persons who wish to help with relief efforts in Haiti need to be aware that, despite their good intentions, travel to Haiti will increase the burden on a country that is struggling to support its citizens in need. Living
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A solution to the critical shortage of debate teams and basketball coaches
In yesterday’s New York Times Nicholas Kristof proposed a solution to the critical shortage of debate teams and basketball coaches affecting developing countries.
In my mind, Teach for the World would be a one-year program placing young Americans in schools in developing countries. The Americans might teach English or computer skills, or coach basketball or debate teams.
The program would be open to Americans 18 and over. It could be used for a gap year between high school and college, but more commonly would offer a detour between college and graduate school…
Voluntourism: What could go wrong when trying to do right?
This is a guest post from Daniela Papi. Daniela is the founder of PEPY, a hybrid organization based in Siem Reap, Cambodia. You can read more about the lessons Daniela and her team are learning by following her blog: Lessons I Learned
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During the past eight years, as I have joined and then lead volunteer programs in Asia, I have seen many of the same mistakes repeated when it comes to international “voluntourism”, I have made many of these mistakes myself. I know how easy it is to offer a trip that is easy…
Sometimes, You Need to Do Something
This is a guest post written by Alanna Shaikh, the author of the great blog Blood and Milk as well as a regular contributor to the UN Dispatch.
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When a humanitarian disaster happens, you want to do something. Donating money feels cold and bloodless. It doesn’t really feel like helping. It doesn’t feel like enough.
The problem with this, of course, is that overseas volunteering is very rarely a good idea. Basically, it displaces local labor and prevents capacity from developing in country. It can, at times, be worse than doing nothing. Saundra…
The problem with Stop and Droppers
After the tsunami there was a rush of people bringing their own goods to deliver to the tsunami survivors in Thailand. These people became known as Stop and Droppers because they would stop in a village, drop off stuff, and leave. This was partially driven by their distrust in large aid organizations, they wanted to make sure that their donation made it to the people in need. While well intentioned, stop and dropping creates a lot of problems that the stop and droppers themselves may never realize because they’re not in the area long enough to see the impact of…
Disaster Tourism and Haiti
This is an edited and updated repost of a June 2009 post.
As director of D-TRAC I was often asked to orient heads of aid organizations and donors on the tsunami recovery efforts. As part of this there was usually a request to visit temporary camps and villages to see things in person. I was always torn as to the right thing to do. Was it more important for that person to see the situation on the ground, or was it more important for people who have just lost their homes and loved ones to be able to…
Advice for volunteers in Haiti
All of the aid workers I know are advising people not to go to Haiti, I have written on the topic myself. However the reality is that people want to personally help despite all the arguments laid out against it. Therefore, I’m opening this blog to aid workers to provide advice to potential volunteers so that if they choose to help their assistance does the greatest good. I will update this post whenever new advice is received.
How to evaluate volunteer opportunities in Haiti
There are now a proliferation of organizations seeking volunteers to help with the Haiti rebuilding efforts. Information on 14 of these organizations can be found here. After being contacted by two people wanting to know if these projects were credible, I’ve taken some time to review the entire list. I found that at least half of the programs are professionally questionable. Many of the projects are not in the best interest of the aid recipient but instead are designed to bring money into the organization. Potential volunteers should always scrutinize any position before volunteering.
Working with…
Don't Go To Haiti
Unless you are an experienced aid worker and have a position with an experienced aid organization, PLEASE don’t go to Haiti.
I understand your motivation, you want to help in anyway that you can. But how much help can you actually give compared to the added burden of another body to feed and care for. After the tsunami I heard a lot about people wanting to go over and pick up rubble, tend children, drive trucks, or do whatever needs to be done. But there are thousands of local people there that can do that exact…
Good Intentions’ Year End Roundup
I started this blog in April of 2009, having just returned from four years in the thick of the Southeast Asia Tsunami recovery efforts. My hope was to help donors better understand aid – a cause I am very passionate about – as well as to be a part of the larger aid world. This blog has given me far more than I’d anticipated. I want to thank everyone for their support, interest, viewpoints, and honest debate, and I look forward to more in the year ahead.
Inspired by Build it Kenny: Most read posts of 2009 –…
Interesting articles and blogs – Nov. 1 – 7
A round up of interesting news articles and blog posts from the past week.
Hug-an-orphan vacations
The growing popularity of short-term international volunteering (voluntourism) has led to the disturbing trend of hug-an-orphan vacations. While visiting a foreign country people take time to volunteer at an orphanage or else are persuaded to visit orphanages while on vacation. Volunteers and donors alike should immediately question the motivations and professionalism of any orphanage that allows or promotes this.
Orphanages may purposefully maintain substandard conditions to attract foreign donors
Orphanages can bring in a lot of foreign donations, and the best way to keep those donations rolling in is to keep the children at a substandard level so that any…
Donating shoes and other aid fads
Just like everything else, aid goes through fads. One of the current fads is donating shoes to people in developing countries. Everywhere I look there’s a shoe program. Bins for donated shoes are placed just inside the door of shoe stores, there’s a phone commercial featuring a shoe company that gives away a pair of shoes for every pair they sell (I’d be interested to know if they donate their own product or if they purchase shoes locally to donate, it makes a difference), and just this week someone taped plastic bags onto all the the porches in my neighborhood…
Great resources for aid agencies and governing boards
Whether you are you in senior management of an aid agency or invited to sit on a nonprofit board, the following are some great resources to help you ensure that your charity is following good practices.
Principles & Practices developed by the Colorado Association of Nonprofits are user friendly guidelines cover topics such as governance, financial management, transparency and accountability, and evaluations. The guidelines are sound and very easy to read and understand.
Related articles and posts
Interesting news articles or blog postings from the previous week.
Guideline #3 for Volunteering Overseas
Examine your motivations
The debate over voluntourism seems to be coalescing around one point – motivation matters. Before volunteering it’s important to have an honest conversation with yourself and examine your motivations and whether putting yourself in the lives of aid recipients is the best way to meet your needs.
If your goal is to help people, start by helping people in your own home town
As a Peace Corps recruiter I often told recruits that you won’t save the world because the world doesn’t want to be saved.…
Guideline #1 for Volunteering Overseas
Guideline # 1 – Good volunteer projects require a significant commitment of time
While most development workers can tell stories of volunteers or volunteer projects that did more harm than good, most of us also got our start through volunteering or an internship. I personally was a Peace Corps Volunteer. With the debate raging over poverty tourism, disaster tourism and voluntourism (see links at end of post), I thought it might be a good time to develop guidelines for useful and appropriate overseas volunteer work.
Because there are many factors to consider in evaluating a volunteer project, this will be…
