Does volunteering abroad do 'more harm than good'? There seemed to be a flood of bad news for everyone at Verge on Monday. One article suggested that international students in the States were struggling to study abroad, another said UK students were rethinking gap years thanks to soaring tuition fees, and the blogosphere was abuzz this weekend over a new study that suggests overseas volunteering actually does 'more harm than good'. Well, when it rains, it pours? According to the South Africa-based Human Sciences Research Council, short-term 'voluntourism' trips undertaken by people with excess funds but limited relevant skill sets can actually undermine local workers and, since these are usually short-term placements, they can also create a sense of abandonment for many of the impoverished children who are supposed to be the beneficiaries of the work.
The solution to this problem, however, is NOT to abandon all programs for volunteering abroad. Further reading: How to Find an Ethical Volunteer Organization. Before you pay to volunteer abroad, think of the harm you might do | Ian Birrell | Comment is free | The Observer. By 10pm, the aptly named Bar Street is pulsating with tourists drawn to Siem Reap by the famous Cambodian ruins of Angkor Wat. As hip-hop blares from clubs, children playing traditional instruments are led along by men with placards reading: "Support our orphans.
" The kids offer sweet smiles to the diners and drinkers and anyone making a donation is invited to visit the nearby orphanage, one of several in the city, and perhaps spend time working there. This is the most direct attempt to lure tourists, seducing them with wide eyes and heart-wrenching stories of abandonment. Other orphanages rely on websites filled with pictures of happy children. But behind those smiles can lie untold misery. Look again at those cute children. Once again, clumsy attempts to do good end up harming communities we want to help. Insiders call them guilt trips. The study reveals that short-term volunteer projects can do more harm than good. Many orphanages let tourists work with children. Volunteering abroad or 'voluntourism' - who is it really benefiting?! | Live As If It's The Last. Cambodia's Orphan Business - People & Power.
Between the 1970s and 1990s, Cambodia was ravaged by civil war. Since its return to peace there has been a boom in tourism with over two million visitors every year. Keen to help this war-torn country, increasing numbers of tourists are now also working as volunteers. Most come with the very best of intentions - to work in schools and orphanages, filling a gap left by a lack of development funding. But, inadvertently, well-intentioned volunteers have helped to create a surge in the number of residential care homes as impoverished parents are tempted into giving up their children in response to promises of a Western-style upbringing and education. Despite a period of prosperity in the country, the number of children in orphanages has more than doubled in the past decade, and over 70 per cent of the estimated 10,000 'orphans' have at least one living parent.
The team's journey starts with a visit to The People's Improvement Organisation. Income generators Failed orphanage. Orphanages.No.