Voluntourism

I am this meme. This meme is me.

You know that one friend who went on a trip to Nambia (or Haiti, or Ghana, or any third-world locale with an exotic-sounding name) once, and that experience was "life-changing", "earth-shattering", and "humbling". Pictures are then pulled out-- this one friend sitting in between two dark-skinned kids, bandana-ed head, slight sunburn, sunglasses. 

Sigh. 

What is wrong with this picture?

Sometimes it's more than two

Voluntourism is a portmanteau of the terms "volunteering" and "tourism", and it's loosely described as "a popular form of international travel that allows you to contribute to sustainable development while exploring a new country and culture". Breaking it down, it doesn't sound that bad: nice, plump keywords ("sustainable development", "exploring") pad the definition to make it more palatable than it actually is. 

This isn't my friend Jessica, but it could as well be

First of all, who is this benefiting? The local community? How? The introduction of usually-untrained volunteers into small communities displaces the jobs of local workers who could be doing these jobs... And getting paid for it. A house is a house, after all, and the only people benefiting from the money that the volunteers pay for the trip goes towards the travel agency.

And of course, the travel agencies. New travel agencies have popped up everywhere, which aim to get a profit from exploiting the good (if naive) intentions of American college kids. Because of course, no one who does volunteerism goes with the mindset of "oh, let me just ruin someone else's chance at a decent job", or "let me do more bad than good in this community": most volunteers truly believe they are the ideal candidate to help these poor, sub-developed people.

Is it a contest? Do you win the little boy too?

A darker side of voluntourism is, of course, direct damage done to the community. Some travel agencies might deliberately lengthen or slow down a particular project to draw it out longer (and thus entice more volunteers with less resources on their part), or even sabotage the development and growth of the community in order to attract more volunteers to the area.

Furthermore, the most important reason to not do voluntourism (especially with children) is based on the psychological theories by Doctor John Bowlby. He explored the role that attachment has in infants and children, and found out that the amount and types of attachment that are formed during early childhood determine most of the socialization patterns and habits of these children as adults. Hence, if there is a lack of attachment (in this case brought about by different volunteers coming and going throughout their childhood), these children might grow up to emulate this absent pattern of socialization, which would do infinitely more harm than good. 

With all of this being said, I do agree that spending time getting to know a completely different culture is worthwhile; especially in a culture as materialistic as the United States'. However, please call it for what it is: a vacation in an exotic country, in which you might have a deep cultural immersion... But will not help anyone. Because, after all, it isn't your role. The orphans are not asking for help. They need resources and care beyond what you or I, as simple individuals, might be able to provide.

So next time that a service organization organizes (ha) a trip to Honduras, or Haiti or El Salvador... Think twice about what is really being implied.