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Volunteer travel good and bad practice

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Learning Service: The Essential Guide to Volunteering Abroad – Red Press. Schools & Universities — ReThink Orphanages. Navigating the complexities of overseas student service and community engagement can be difficult for educators.

Schools & Universities — ReThink Orphanages

ReThink Orphanages members Save the Children Australia, World Challenge and ALTO have developed the following resources for schools and universities engaging in overseas student travel. The resources include the following (Scroll down below to access): Curriculum ResourcesSelf Assessment Tool Curriculum resources. Orphanages in Cambodia Are Not Tourist Attractions. Discover Family Based Care - Children in Families. Research shows that voluntourism to orphanages is harmful to children growing up in those institutions.

Discover Family Based Care - Children in Families

Voluntourism refers to when people combine tourism with the desire to make a difference. They want to serve the people they have been visiting, often by volunteering at an orphanage. Despite their good intentions, this practice increases child protection and attachment-disorder risks for the children they want to care for. At the moment, this conversation is being particularly highlighted in Australia, thanks to the Rethink Orphanages Campaign and the recent parliamentary inquiry into whether Australia needs a Modern Slavery Act and its connection to orphanages.

Yet, studies last year showed that between 4 and 15% of Australian schools and 52% of Australian churchgoers financially support or visit orphanages in developing countries. Rok Kern: Discover an alternative Over the last six months, our advocacy team has been creating that alternative. Jono, our advocacy intern explains: Ethical Volunteering. Volunteering with children holidays. Travel like a local. Volunteering directly with vulnerable children The background - issues with orphanage volunteering We now have comprehensive guidelines in place for the promotion of volunteering trips that involve any interaction with vulnerable children.

Volunteering with children holidays. Travel like a local

Embassy of the United States Kathmandu, Nepal. Some visitors to Nepal volunteer at orphanages or other organizations in an effort to help disadvantaged persons – especially children.

Embassy of the United States Kathmandu, Nepal

Others try to help by donating cash or goods. The Embassy has received reports that many – if not most – such opportunities, especially those involving volunteering at orphanages or “children’s homes,” are not charities. Is voluntourism really that useful? During my time abroad, I spent a number of months volunteering.

Is voluntourism really that useful?

I won’t be talking specifics here or naming certain Non-profits, but my experiences in these different places has led me to ask the question “how useful really, is voluntourism?” When I set off to another continent on my own at the beginning of 2014, I had a packed itinerary of volunteering opportunities. These would lead me to 4 different countries over the space of 8 months where I would live within a community and work for a non-profit to push forward and achieve great things for said community. Now this wasn’t a missionary trip, nor a “gap year” tragedy as I ‘struggled to find myself in the world’, but a genuine follow up trip to one I took at the end of 2013 which gave me lasting friendships, laughs, and memories, and what I felt was a second place to call home somewhere else in the world. Now many people question voluntourism. Like this: The Rights and Wrongs of Voluntourism.

Volunteer tourism, or “voluntourism,” is the practice in which tourists incorporate charity work into their travels abroad.

The Rights and Wrongs of Voluntourism

Over the past few years, this travel industry trend has become a recurrent source of controversy and has left many wondering whether it is possible to ethically volunteer abroad at all. Despite the recent deluge of headlines on the topic of voluntourism, however, the concept of combining voluntary service with travel is not new, and has not always been so contentious. Founded in the 1950s, International Voluntary Services (IVS) was one of the first non-profit organizations to send American volunteers into developing countries in order to provide aid. IVS and the United States Peace Corps, which was founded a short time later in 1961 by President Kennedy, are often cited as the start of voluntourism as we know it today.

Unfortunately, the growth of this industry has not always had a positive outcome. Understand the context. 8 Factors to Find the Right Match When Volunteering Overseas — MovingWorlds Blog: Volunteer Your Skills Around the World. Voluntourism: Questions raised about benefits of burgeoning volunteer tourism sector. Posted Volunteer tourism, or "voluntourism", has become increasingly popular among travellers of all ages looking for a more meaningful and authentic experience abroad.

Voluntourism: Questions raised about benefits of burgeoning volunteer tourism sector

And business is booming. According to a major study of the voluntourism market, the industry worth up to $2.6 billion worldwide. A 2008 study by Tourism Research and Marketing, an independent British consultancy, found that an estimated 1.6 million people volunteered overseas each year. But while voluntourism has created a massive global industry, it has also sparked debate on whether so-called voluntourists could be doing more harm than good to the local communities they are hoping to support. "There is a real danger of voluntourists crowding out local workers, especially when people are prepared to pay for the privilege to volunteer," the Human Sciences Research Council said in a recent report on voluntourism in African orphanages.

Sponsor A Wealthy Child. When Using Humor For A Cause, Be Careful What You're Joking About. A new video produced by the Norwegian Students and Academics’ International Assistance Fund (SAIH), went viral last week with its cheeky parody on Western misperceptions of Africa, "voluntourism" and international development.

When Using Humor For A Cause, Be Careful What You're Joking About

The video, made with funding from The Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation is humorous and intentionally provocative, which is undoubtedly the reason it’s being shared. The video takes the form of reality TV, a hybrid of Survivor and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? With a stereotypical Western blonde girl competing for the chance to "Save Africa. " Her challenge to feed, educate, and promote Africa involves slinging food at unsuspecting citizens while running through the streets of a village and taking selfies with small African children.

The final scene takes on a Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? We get it. The problem with this campaign is that while the intention is good, the message and approach feels overly simplistic. Key Take Away. Next Generation Nepal - Ethical Volunteering. © Erik B.

Next Generation Nepal - Ethical Volunteering

Wilson/Next Generation Nepal At NGN we applaud everyone who wishes to donate their time and skills to help others less fortunate than themselves. However, choosing an “ethical volunteering” placement in a developing country is something that takes careful consideration. “Ethical volunteering” means two things: 1) volunteering with the right mindset; and, 2) taking the time and care to choose a placement that does not cause harm to others. To help you do this, here are NGN's seven tips for ethical volunteering: Student Brilliantly Tweets Essay on Voluntourism and Privilege. A student, posed with the essay prompt “find an issue concerning identity, writing, and rhetoric in ways that warrant further research,” chose to tweet her assignment in a live stream-style format.

Student Brilliantly Tweets Essay on Voluntourism and Privilege

Her piece starts on the topic of privilege. It quickly evolves to focus in on the relationship between privilege, social media, voluntourism, and the portrayal of the developing world by those not from it, specifically voluntourists. Her project has received minimal attention despite it’s brilliant use of today’s most prolific publishing format, Twitter. The reflexive use of a publishing medium, to criticize that medium itself, is not new. However, it has rarely been done which such fluidity and thoughtfulness. Meant to be read from the bottom up, the essay itself is not more than a few hundred characters.

Like this: Hippos and Helplines: Unintended consequences and diminishing returns. “The more you provide services for things that people can do for themselves, the more you diminish social capital.” We have always been taught that helping is always a good thing. But sometimes helping hurts; it can be harmful, not just to individuals, but, to entire communities. Recently a colleague of mine who works with a number of projects that Nurture Development is involved with in East Africa gave me this example: A fishing village, on completion of an economic and environmental gap analysis conducted by a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), were alerted to the fact that they were almost exclusively dependent on fish as a staple diet and as a source of income.

The NGO ran a number of capacity building sessions to help the villagers unpack the inherent dangers of this situation in the long-term, and to make the case for the introduction of more diverse revenue streams, not to mention more diverse sources of food. Sold on the idea, the villagers asked the NGO what they should do. Is voluntourism really that useful? Trending Volunteering Articles as voted on Outbounding.org. Welcome to Outbounding.org The homepage for excellent travel content Register or Sign In Why We Created Outbounding.org Hide Intro What is Inbound.org?

+ Add. Yoga is Not Going to Cure Malaria: The Musical. The Problem With a Short-Term Presence. Examples of misguided volunteering efforts abound, especially when people want to help AIDS orphans in southern and eastern Africa. Examples of misguided volunteering efforts abound, especially when people want to help AIDS orphans in southern and eastern Africa.

Orphans, in the context of H.I.V. and AIDS, is an epidemiological or demographic term to denote children who have lost one or both parents to AIDS. It does not have the meaning commonly understood in the West of a child who is completely alone in the world. About 86 percent have a surviving parent, usually their mother. Of the remaining children, almost all live within their extended families, cared for by grandparents, aunts, older siblings and others. The majority of children in orphanages are there because of poverty rather than because their parents have died.

Articles good and bad practice 2

Head, Heart and Hand Holidays - Package and Price. Cambodia. Package # 1 Cambodia. "Giving and Receiving" September 2014 7 nights accommodation at a boutique style retreatAirport transfers - (airport to retreat/ retreat to airport)*All meals (vegetarian cuisine. Including freshly squeezed juices and Herbal tea) Daily yoga (or stretch class) and meditation1/2 Day Angkor Watt Tour1/2 Day Mystery TourSunset Mountain TourMassage by Seeing Hands Blind MassageKantha Bopha Hospital Concert**Cambodia Development Organization (CDO Orphanage) voluntary workChildren of CDO thank you Farewell dance performance $1895 per person *Sept 2014 price Package # 2 Cambodia. "Discovering Life's Purpose" CDO- Non-Governmental Organisation, VOLUNTEER PROJECT. If you are interested in volunteering at CDO, the first step is to contact us and we will ask you to complete a simple application form to give us your basic details and the dates you are available.

There is a minimum age limit of 18 unless accompanied by a parent and we welcome any volunteering family to our orphanage. If you have kindness you can make some donations to support the orphanage and bulding projects. Your donations are very important for running cost of our orphanage. This will cover the cost of your mid-day meal and the petrol needed to run the orphanage Tuk-Tuk which will collect you and take you home again. The Cambodian Development Organization (CDO) was founded in 2006 by Mr. Local Cambodian, who recognized the urgent need to help the many destitute and orphaned children living in his country. World Responsible Tourism Awards for TUI Nederland's child sex work. In the pretty coastal towns of Tibau do Sul, Pipa and the city of Natal in northeastern Brazil, where surfers and tourists sunbathe among scattered palm trees, 80 high-school students are busy working as ‘agents of change’.

Through classroom presentations and interaction with their families and neighbours, they spread the message that being raped and forced into prostitution is not acceptable. World Travel Market event Progress and failures of voluntourism. "You can work with organizations that support children, but those organizations must be doing everything they possibly can to keep those children in their communities and with their families," said Sallie Grayson, program director of People and Places, commenting after winning an award at World Travel Market (WTM) 2013.

People & places: responsible & ethical volunteering, tourism and travel. The Ethics of International Development: A Video on Voluntourism. Life Change from AboutMyGeneration. Volunteering overseas or a ‘grown up gap year’ may sound like a terrific adventure but, inevitably, there are pitfalls to watch out for. As the trend of combining a holiday of a lifetime with ‘making a difference’ has risen, so have the number of complaints from travellers who have been thoroughly disappointed by the experience. Tales abound of gappers arriving at their destinations to find that they do not have the necessary skills to be of any real help on local projects. Many travellers pay large sums of money for the pleasure of volunteering and are disillusioned to discover that very little, if any, of this is actually paid into the project on which they are working.

27_dervla_king.pdf. Responsible volunteering abroad with Gambia Experiece. “I was really delighted when I heard that The Gambia Experience were teaming up with the award-winning. How to (And Not to) Volunteer Short-Term. Volunteer Tourism - needs to go viral, not parasitic - Ethical Traveller. Come and meet people and places-responsible volunteering,our partners and volunteers. How Crowdfunding Can Change Voluntourism. Orphanage volunteering holidays removed from responsibletravel.com. We at responsibletravel.com have been finding the issue of orphanage volunteering around the world of increasing concern. More than footprints? - More than footprints? - Home.

Volunteer mentors for young people – ex-offenders, ex-gang members and those at risk of criminal activity need practical employability focused support. WTM 2012 - Responsible Volunteering. World Travel Market. Volunteer travel - more constructive criticism needed. "above & beyond" - volunteer Michael celebrates his 50th year in style! Volunteer travel abroad in comfort. Children's Rights and Business Principles. Dannie Grufferty - The “Gap Year” most of the time is…. a little bit racist.

Grown Up Gappers! - Travel Articles - Savista Over 50's Magazine - July 2013. Wealth Through Tourism - ASSET. Gambia: Asset, Paradise FM Launch Radio Talk Show Programme. Cambodia orphanage project - Help underprivileged children with Frontier. Www.caring4orphans.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/A-Frank-Analysis-of-THE-CHILD-CATCHERS.pdf. ” Volunteers can and do have a positive impact on the communities they serve.” The Ethical Volunteer. MailChimp - email marketing made easy. When fundraising harms dignity. More_than_footprints_-_chapter_four_-_give_a_man_a_fish.pdf. Make a Difference Now. New volunteer programme in Saint Lucia.

Five more mistakes in development volunteering (part two) "above & beyond" - volunteer Michael celebrates his 50th year in style! Hope Floats }} LTO Cambodia: Children as tourist attractions. The ego within the NGO voluntourism in India. Guest Post: 7 Reasons Why Volunteering Makes You Cool. Volunteer in The Gambia. Sandele Eco-Retreat: A Spirited Bubble of Sustainability — SusDane. People-and-places-summer-Newsletter-2013. People-and-places-summer-Newsletter-2013. People-and-places-summer-Newsletter-2013. 50 Things I Learned Volunteering Abroad. Projects Abroad – NOT OK! « Make It Right! About the bloggers. “I’ve never seen another volunteer organisation that takes so much care” A volunteer's top tips - 'Finding your feet in the Gambia' Volunteer teachers needed in Nepal. "above & beyond" - volunteer Michael celebrates his 50th year in style! Meet the people and places team - want volunteer advice talk to any of us.

Volunteers appreciate professional placement service. Don't you just love FaceBook - this... - Responsible volunteering - people and places. Anna Pollock who started Concious travel... - Responsible volunteering - people and places. A volunteer's top tips - 'Finding your feet in the Gambia' How to Have the Best Possible Global Health Volunteer Trip. The definition of time in Africa. Five things we don’t do (part 3: the final installment, but not the final word) : Palms Australia Overseas Volunteering. Volunteer organisation people and places is a social enterprise. Oking up a storm in The Gambia. Volunteering in The Gambia with people and places. Giving Back? Short-Term International Volunteer Programs in Health. Common Mistakes Made Before, During and After Volunteering. People and Places' Programs.

International Voluntourism Guidelines: What Are They and How to Use Them. Volunteer mistakes. Farewell Marnie – go well. Volunteer in The Gambia. Volunteering in The Gambia with people and places. Kate%20The%20Code%20e-learning%20certificate. Volunteer organisation people and places joins The Code. How to (And Not to) Volunteer Short-Term. Vision. Attention all PhD / Masters Thesis Voluntourism Researchers!

Pandp on good and bad practice volunteer travel