“Voluntourism”: a business model that ruins the nature of volunteer work
By Cherie Chan
Samantha is from an affluent family in Hong Kong. At the age of 24, she has already travelled to more than 20 countries around the 5 continents. However, there is this one and only trip that gave her the most unforgettable experience.
In 2012, Samantha participated in a volunteer vacation with a group of other international students. It took place in Cluj-Napoca, a small city in Romania. It was a three-week volunteer trip, during which she had to work in a community center that facilitates educational activities for children from impoverished families. Although her bachelor degree is in Economics and Business Study and she had never had any teaching experience, she took up the responsibility of giving English class to these children who could not speak a word of English.
Samantha’s trip can be referred to as ‘voluntourism’ – a combination of voluntary service with traditional elements of travel and tourism. It is sometimes called volunteer travel or volunteer vacations. In recent years, ‘voluntourism’ has gained a rising popularity for gap-year students, retirees and travellers who look for authentic travel experiences. Although there is no official data indicating the increasing number of ‘voluntourists’, David Clemmons, an expert studying the phenomenon for more than 10 years and the founder of VolunTourism.org, estimated that the number of ‘voluntourists’ could easily reach 25 to 30 million by the end of this decade.
Destinations of volunteer vacations include the less developed Southeast Asian countries such as Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia, as well as African countries such as Ghana, Uganda and Kenya. South American and Eastern European countries are also popular destinations.
Most travellers arrange their volunteer vacation through international ‘voluntouristsm’ agencies. They pay a certain amount to have their whole trip designed, including the routes, accommodation and the NGOs they are going to volunteer at. Some others directly contact local charities and NGOs upon their arrival.
“Voluntourism” as an exotic, authentic experience
Samantha decided to go on a volunteer vacation because of two reasons: she wanted an alternative vacation in which she could get a unique experience that tourists could not get in traditional tours. Secondly, feeling lucky and blessed to be born in a well-off family, she was driven by the responsibility to contribute to the society and to help people in need.
Samantha is not the only one fascinated by this idea of humanitarian travel experiences. This enthusiasm of changing the world through volunteering in vacation gives rise to ‘voluntourism’ and creates new business opportunities for the tourism industry. Many new international agencies that specialize in ‘voluntourism’ were established to cater to this rising demand. They do not only play the role of traditional travel agencies in arranging flights, accommodation and itineraries for travellers, but offer personalized travel experience, by incorporating volunteer experience in the travel plan. Tourists can choose the duration they want to volunteer ranging from one week to more than 6 months. There are different kinds of travel packages travellers can choose from, such as a family volunteering in which you to “share an unforgettable, magical, life-changing experience with your entire family”; or honeymoon volunteering as “a better way to start your married life together by sharing a fulfilling, enriching voluntourism experience with your loved one”; you can even “enhance your corporate image and reputation” by encouraging your employees to participate in corporate volunteering, etc.
Changing nature of volunteering work
The business model of ‘voluntourism’ turns traditional volunteering into a profit-making business. David Clemmons suggests in his blog that ‘voluntourism’ is the product of an increasingly interdependent world. In his opinions, ‘voluntourism’ must be developed because both travel and service are important components of humanity, and the blending of the two creates a valuable opportunity. He points out that ‘voluntourism’ is an attempt to bridge the divide between cultures, between for-profit and non-profit and between wealth-gaps, which can be potentially beneficial to both the ‘voluntourists’ and the people they serve.
It corresponds to the experience of ex-voluntourists, such as Samantha.
Samantha said it was a life-changing experience for her and it inspired her to develop new perceptions about the world. She remembers every bit of the philosophical conversations she had with other volunteers she worked with, and how they shared each other’s travel experience, interests and cultures. She showed pictures of her journey in the neighbouring countries, as well as the innocent little faces of the children in the center. She could even count in Romanian, and said she learnt it from the children she spent time with. It was a great way to explore the world.
And how about the help that she was supposed to give out? “Three weeks are way too short to pick up a language. We did not have enough time to get to know each of the children, but I was overwhelmed by the poor living conditions they had there.” Samantha said. There was no evaluation in the end of the volunteer work, and she never knew whether her effort was really helping the children there.
‘Voluntourism’ has changed the nature of volunteering work. It is packaged as a product that is marketed to attract and cater to the demand of various customers. The purpose of a ‘voluntourism’ trip is to fulfill the expectation of the buyer – the ‘voluntourists’, rather than the people they serve. As a result, resources are put into satisfying the ‘voluntourists’ to make sure the industry will be sustained, and to make sure that they will keep paying for it.
Plentiful testimonies from ex-voluntourists have criticized the selfish motivation of ‘voluntourists’ lying underneath the “good intentions” to help the world. In addition to serving as a means to provide a life-changing experience and to broaden one’s horizons, a volunteer vacation also bolsters the value of ones’ CVs. It is also an easy way to alleviate traveller’s guilt derived from enjoying a luxurious vacation.
These reasons, of course, cannot be generalized to all the ‘voluntourists.’ But considering volunteer work is supposed to aid the ones in need, it is important to put their needs in first priority, which ‘voluntourism’ fails to achieve.
More harm than good
‘Voluntourism’ projects vary widely in scope, ranging from teaching, child-care, animal protection, community development, construction work to environmental conservation. Volunteers can participate in the projects regardless of their level of skills and experience. Volunteers like Samantha who has no previous experience in teaching or child education can take up every day duty in organizing classes and designing learning activities for children who don’t even speak the same language as her.
Without any professional guidelines and assessment of the volunteer work, it is questionable whether overseas volunteers’ efforts are effective in creating any impact for the community they serve. In fact, various research shows that ‘voluntourists’ bring more harm than good to the receiving community. The rapid growth of the ‘orphanage business’ in Cambodia demonstrates how ‘voluntourism’ is part of the problem but not the solution: it exacerbates the plight children have to face when growing up and it actually hinders child protection development instead of facilitating it.
Failure of the model: Orphanage business in Cambodia
By the end of 2011, the number of orphanages in Cambodia has increased by 75 percent in five years according to a report published by The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). The same report also shows that over 70 percent of them have at least one living parent, which means they are not real orphans. But due to poverty and poor living conditions, lots of parents in Cambodia place their children in orphanages hoping that their children can grow up in a better environment and be provided with education.
Since child-care and education is one of the most popular programs in volunteer vacations, ill-intentioned orphanage owners thus take advantage of the vulnerability of poverty-stricken families, by paying them money for giving children away. As a result, a scene of ‘poor children living in the orphanage’ is created for voluntourists to volunteer at. This practice is referred to as ‘orphanage business.’
Numerous organizations and research have already pointed out that parental care is the best option for children, while institutional care should be the last resort. According to an academic study published in the journal Vulnerable Children and Youth Studies, the replacement of parental care by institutions imposes psychological damage on child development and later their personal behavior. It points out that separation or a disruption of an attached relationship experienced in early childhood can negatively influence a child’s self-esteem, as well as emotional and social behavior. These emotional, social and behavioral problems persist in the course of growing up.
The orphanage business is thus problematic because it drives unnecessary separation of children from their families. Worse still, volunteers often have a wrong perception that by making intimate connections with the vulnerable children they have made a positive contribution to relieve the situation, even if they only stay for short periods. The truth is that the children left behind actually have to experience abandonment again shortly after establishing a close relationship, which causes detrimental effects for their emotional and social development. They are often observed to suffer from ‘disorganized attachments’, which are characterized by having an excessive need for attention.
Besides short-term volunteering, tourists’ visits to orphanages are equally devastating for child development. It is common that in Cambodia, children on the streets approach tourists and ask them to visit their orphanages. A visit generally includes a short performance by the children and in return, tourists would be requested to give donations to aid operations of the orphanages. The phenomenon of tourists’ visits turns orphans into a tourist spot, where they are sympathized by their wealthy visitors. Visiting and photographing children and families in these situations are actually reinforcing their feelings of inequality and detachment from the society. Moreover, in order to raise more donations, orphanage owners may purposefully maintain poor living conditions for the children to evoke compassion of visitors.
Awareness of the problem by international community
International organizations that advocate children’s rights including UNICEF, Friends International and Safe the Children have condemned the impairment ‘voluntourism’ and ‘ophanage business’ have brought to child development. Friends International has launched a campaign with its arm, ChildSafe, to call for a termination of orphanage business in Cambodia. It explains how the ‘orphanage business’ in Cambodia infringes children’s right to privacy. It also explicates how poorly regulated orphanages violate children protection policies. A similar campaign – Orphanages not the solution – was also launched to provide information for tourists to make responsible decisions about whether to support orphanages. These campaigns recommend alternative approach for supporting children empowerment, which includes making donations to community-based projects that support families and enable children to live at home.
The ‘orphanage business’, which was bred by the rise of ‘voluntourism’, has enhanced the commodification of orphans. Children become an economic valence and a profit-making tool. While there are international bodies studying the adverse impact the ‘orphanage business’ has caused, there is still no law enforcement to regulate its practice, not to mention the harms that other forms of ‘voluntourism’ have created.
While the ‘orphanage business’ is just one example of poorly managed ‘voluntourism’ that arouses more public attention, other forms of ‘voluntourism’ which also constitute negative impacts to the local community should also be addressed: unemployment in the local community since volunteers take up their job opportunities; fundraising for illegitimate NGOs which violate animal rights, etc.
Traditional volunteer work should NOT be replaced by “voluntourism”
It is no doubt unreasonable to put the blame on good-intentioned ‘voluntourists’ for the negative impacts created. Their sympathy and efforts are just manipulated by the ‘bad actors’ in the system. But if the system of ‘voluntourism’ only benefits a group of greedy businessmen, why don’t we go back to traditional volunteer work instead of the diving for an unnecessary combination of volunteer and travel experience?
Pour un Sourire d’Enfant (PSE) is a French NGO that provides education programmes and vocational training to impoverished children in Cambodia. According to the Ghisiane Dufour, the psychologist specialist who is responsible for recruiting volunteers for the organization, there is a worrying trend that inexperienced volunteers are making efforts which are actually not helpful to the local community. Therefore PSE adopts very straight criteria when selecting volunteers. Applicants have to go to several rounds of tests, interviews and obtain training from various workshops before actually volunteering in the country. Foreign volunteers also work in pairs with local staff to ensure effective communication between volunteers and the children.
Unlike “voluntourism”, traditional volunteer work demands more professional skills and experience from volunteers, which prevents a waste of resources for unqualified and non-committed volunteers to prove their ‘good-hearts.’ It is important to note that volunteer experience is not a commodity, and the impoverished people are not some tourist attraction to use for generating income. As already emphasized by experts and long-established international NGOs, if good intentioned travellers want to help, the best way to help the poor community is to donate, so resources can be channeled in the most effective way.
