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Advocates best practice volunteer travel

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GASP Working Group – The Working Group on Global Activities by Students at Pre-Health Levels. Responsible-volunteering.com. Be a ChildSafe volunteer. When embarking on a volunteering mission, the best interest of local communities should be at the heart of your actions.

Be a ChildSafe volunteer

They should benefit directly or indirectly from your work and there should be no negative interference or consequences for them. For a number of reasons ChildSafe does not support volunteering to work directly with children in another country, for example in orphanages, children’s homes or schools. Why ? Let’s think about it: most volunteers don’t know the local language and cannot communicate effectively with the children they are working with. Short-term international volunteers often have no previous experience of teaching and so lack the skills to teach English as a foreign language.

Home – Empowerment for Whom? The white saviour industrial complex and reinforcement of the ‘other’ are evident in popular media outlets’ primary discourse regarding voluntourism.

Home – Empowerment for Whom?

The white saviour industrial complex, as elaborated by Teju Cole, is when white people validate their own privilege by ‘helping’ people of colour in developing countries, feeling as if they are ‘saving’ a marginalized peoples whether by... Read More. Start - students-organise-protections Webseite! Why Do Short Term Volunteers Need Debriefing? Can we mend, not end, voluntourism? Discussion on Outbounding.org. The first one, about the big debate happening online and via social media is one I have found myself embroiled in increasingly because it's more newsworthy to attack the industry, to point out those negatives.

Can we mend, not end, voluntourism? Discussion on Outbounding.org

But international volunteering is not going to end. This is not a debate anyone will when in the near future, and so I love that we have this opportunity to talk about how we can shift the conversation and start making newsworthy the organizations and attitudes toward volunteering that are building toward a stronger, positive relationship between all the parties involved: the volunteers, host communities, organizations, middle men, etc. Coalition of Universities to Deepen Understanding of International Service, Global Learning, Community Partnership on globalsl.org.

At globalsl.org, a coalition of universities is leading efforts to ensure the development of rigorous research and evidence-based methods at the nexus of global learning, community-university partnership, and community-driven development.

Coalition of Universities to Deepen Understanding of International Service, Global Learning, Community Partnership on globalsl.org

The initiative gathers open-access, peer-reviewed journal articles, practitioner tools, and challenging blog posts at globalsl.org. Together, these resources are intended to improve community and student outcomes in global service-learning, international education, and civic engagement programming, domestically and abroad. The website currently organizes more than 300 different resources that relate to community-engaged, cross-cultural education processes. The collection of these resources in one location brings together the insights of several discrete fields, particularly international education and service-learning. Child protection in tourism: Welcome to Tourism Protect. Globalsl.org A research-based resource for ethical learning, partnership, and sustainable community development around the world.

Volunteering with children: A game of double standards? Re-blogged from KickStart Ghana’s website.

Volunteering with children: A game of double standards?

Written by their 2014 Volunteer Coordinator, Ruth Taylor. Let me ask you. How many times have you logged onto Facebook and been greeted with a newly-updated profile picture of one of your friends, volunteer-smile intact, affectionately cuddling a small, rather grubby-looking child, from an unknown African nation? Aware Volunteer. Www.bettercarenetwork.nl/content/17382/download/clnt/51944_Guidelines_volunteering_with_children_abroad_BCNN.pdf. The 53rd Week. Our Mission The 53rd Week is a non-profit organization that aims to maximize the benefits derived from short-term volunteer initiatives using innovation, education, and research.

The 53rd Week

To improve the benefits to the target communities, The 53rd Week’s multifaceted approach targets community-oriented, locally-directed, collaborative projects and volunteer awareness. While ensuring a positive and educational experience for participants in such experiences, our aim is to reduce the harms and improve the benefits to the communities that receive these efforts. Core Values. UK charity fighting child trafficking and modern day slavery in Nepal. Guide to Volunteering. Backpackers are traditionally seen as the bottom-feeders of the travel market.

Guide to Volunteering

The government of Botswana actually went so far as to declare us “of little net benefit” to the country, but that’s Botswana's loss because, as the Australian Tourism Commission points out, we backpackers “stay longer, travel further, and spend more than any other type of tourist”. This has not gone un-noticed by some sections of the travel industry which have realised that backpackers have money, and we're ready to spend it. The money we spend has an impact on the places we visit, but the problems which arise from our ever-growing numbers apply more perhaps to volunteering than to any other area of tourism. The Education Abroad Faculty Toolkit. 1.

The Education Abroad Faculty Toolkit

Students should be required to read the transcript of the famous 1968 speech by Illich prior to the group meeting, as follows: a. Illich, I. (1968). To hell with good intentions. Conference on Inter-American Student Projects. How Do We Overcome The Pitfalls Of Voluntourism and Encourage A Responsible Approach? New German volunteering directory starts without orphan projects. This is the English translation of the blog post Freiwilligenarbeit im Waisenhaus: warum wir keine Waisenhaus-Projekte haben, published on wegweiser-freiwilligenarbeit.com, the online portal for flexible and responsible volunteering abroad.

New German volunteering directory starts without orphan projects

People who volunteer abroad with orphans might cause more harm than good. This is why we have chosen not to publish orphanage projects on wegweiser-freiwilligenarbeit.com. Building a Better WorldBuilding a Better World. By Claire Bennett & Daniela Papi As many teachers, study abroad coordinators and volunteer travel facilitators know, the learning experience of traveling abroad starts long before the traveller’s plane departs.

Building a Better WorldBuilding a Better World

In fact, our learning journeys start long before we even consider a trip abroad: we build knowledge and preconceptions about the places we are visit through the media we consume, through the history we were taught (or were not taught!) , the fundraising campaigns we have seen, the marketing material about the trips we have perused, and a great deal of other sources.

Yet, there is still a lot to learn before taking off on an international volunteer, learning, or philanthropic travel trip, and often that learning needs to start with quite a bit of “unlearning”. Building a Better WorldBuilding a Better World. In Child Protection, Easy Solutions Are Rarely Real Solutions. Working in child welfare in developing countries, or any country for that matter, isn't a particularly easy or simple task, in fact it's quite the opposite. Child welfare cases can contain a menagerie of issues including health and hygiene, HIV, domestic violence, child labor, street living and/or working; the list goes on. These issues can be compounded in a country like Cambodia where there is often not the legal or government-lead structures or enforcement mechanisms that exist in countries with strong child protection systems. Often when faced with these highly complex issues, people or practitioners can ironically regress to view situations in simple and stark terms.

The area where I see this most dramatically in Cambodia is the removal of children from their families and placement in orphanages. I commonly see a view of a simple duality of options for vulnerable kids; 1) children remaining on the street or in unhealthy family units, or 2) children living in an orphanage.. Aware Volunteer. The idea of responsible and aware volunteering contines to grow – more and more organizations and media question the real impact on voluntourism. Check out the social media resources related to the movement. Responsible volunteering Facebook This Page exists to promote fair, sustainable and responsible Volunteerism and is run by former volunteers. Please post your experience. The Business Radio Station - Voluntourism. 2013wtm takingresponsibilityforvolunteering vickysmith (1) Honest & fair information about responsible and ethical volunteer travel opportunities. Voluntourism: Are The Extra Hands Helping? by Martin Stevenson.

Impact International / Impact International. The aim of this wiki is to be an open space for students involved with international volunteering projects to find, upload and share useful resources. We are always looking for more resources and would love for you to contribute any of your own or that you've found. You can do this by requesting access above and creating an account (this will take about 30 seconds!) We are so proud to be part of this…. Orphanage volunteering campaign by responsibletravel.com. Www.nuigalway.ie/dern/documents/27_dervla_king.pdf. Caveat Emptor: tourism, orphanages and the road to hell - Harold Goodwin's Blog. Responsibletravel.com has taken the principled position of not offering volunteering trips which feature orphanages until there are industry best practice guidelines and criteria for child-focussed volunteer trips.

The Facebook pages on better volunteering and better child protection have contributed to the campaign to secure change. WTM, orphanages and taking responsibility - Harold Goodwin's Blog. Positive solutions to child welfare. Photo credit: cishore As many countries have shown, no child needs to live in an orphanage on a long-term or permanent basis. Orphanage volunteering holidays removed from responsibletravel.com. The Ethical Volunteer. One week left! Thanks to everyone for all your support throughout the campaign. Gap Years Briefing. The Ethical Volunteer.

Tips and Tricks for learning before helping - Learning Service. Unmissable presentation on Responsible Volunteering from World Travel Market. Unmissable presentation on Responsible Volunteering from World Travel Market This presentation is well worth watching in full as it presents some of the key perspectives and issues about volunteer tourism. “I’ve never seen another volunteer organisation that takes so much care”

Visiting Cambodia And Want To Help? « Make It Right! Caring4Oprhans.com (caring4orphans) Why Ethical Is Simply Better For Customers - Show Them You Care. Dpaabwfttl39p.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Orphanage-Check-List.pdf. Resources for volunteers. Volunteer organisation people and places joins The Code. Www.volunteeringoptions.org/Portals/0/ComhlamhVolunteerCharterWeb.pdf. Vision. Voluntourism 101 - Voluntourism 101 - Volunteer Tourism Effective Practices. Better Volunteering. VolunteerTourismViews. Responsible Volunteering. (1) Facebook.