Poverty is Not a Tourist Attraction

i want to change the world

i want to help people less fortunate

than i am

i want to make a difference in their

lives

those are my thoughts growing up

watching charity ads on tv

sending celebrities abroad to save

people in poverty

and being exposed to the glamour of

charity work

before i started my degree i was lucky

enough to travel the world

meet people like myself who wanted to

make the world a better place if you

wanted to end world hunger make poverty

history fight for equality and justice

you had the same passion but i wasn’t

sure how to put my passion into action

it turned out to be pretty simple i

googled it i googled how to help poor

people

and suddenly all these organizations

popped up on my screen selling me a once

in a lifetime experience a cultural

experience an experience that will make

a difference

it was an industry conveniently

combining volunteering and tourism

an industry that told me that people in

low-income countries

needed me if only a thousand pounds a

week

i could go off change their lives

relieve their suffering

add some skills to my resume but the

best part was

relevant skills or experience were not

required

and that was it i found it the way to

change the world

it’s simple isn’t it

let me introduce you to voluntourism

where i was sold

that once in a lifetime trip to travel

and contribute a few weeks of giving

back

to the communities i visited my first

trip was in india when i was 18 years

old

i participated in a teaching project

working alongside a qualified indian

teacher

the organization i was with never gave

me a set curriculum to follow so i made

up the lessons as i went along

i got back to london a few weeks later

feeling that it made a difference

i did good and i felt good it was only

until later when i started to question

my intentions and

why i was there if there was already a

qualified indian teacher on this project

why was i there

the teacher was a lot more skilled in

experience than i was at 18 years old

fresh from my a levels which i barely

did well in and now i was given a

responsibility to deliver

quality education i realised teaching

was probably not the best way to make a

difference

but surely the world needed healthcare

volunteers so i gave it another go at

changing the world and went to ghana

on a medical experience project i was

traveling around rival ghana with

volunteers some were qualified medics

and others were not

despite the skill mix we went around

villages to set up mini clinics dress

wounds donate some medical supplies

after only a few days though i decided

to leave

what i saw and experienced truly

disturbed me

the organization i was with orchestrated

parades and celebrations

whenever we arrived in a village we have

children running up to us singing songs

and pranks dancing in crowds

whilst the organization filmed this

whole entire moment

this whole spectacle was dehumanizing

and undignified

in these promo videos we were painted as

the heroes

were we really the heroes were we really

making a difference

one day i brought a child into a clinic

with suspected malaria

i remember the nurse’s reaction to me

she rolled her eyes

and said another one of you lot brought

the same girl in here yesterday

why come here when we are already here

she made a point that phrase still

resonates with me

why come here when we are already here

so why was i there i was there because i

was told i was needed

from a young age the only images of

low-income countries i had were of

children unkempt communities deprived

followed by people from higher income

countries appearing to save them from

their misery

and put a smile on their face these

images are still prevalent today

in marketing international volunteer

projects

some of these projects cost up to a

thousand pounds a week so volunteers

with good intentions would invest their

time

and their money into projects such as

teaching construction

conservation child care whilst most of

the time these organizations do not

require relevant skills or experience

and at worst they fail to run thorough

background checks

from my experience these projects are

designed for us

and not the host community and that’s a

problem

we’re paying for an experience that only

benefits us and fulfills our altruistic

desires

with limiting long-term benefits for

them

so is voluntourism doing more harm than

good

i think so here’s the elephant in the

room

we are making poverty a tourist

attraction

one way we have done this is through the

business of orphanages

orphanages are a top destination for

voluntourists where they can go and play

with kids donate some nice things

show some general love care and

affection to a vulnerable group of

children

keep in mind what i said earlier some

organizations fail to run thermal

background checks on these volunteers

orphanages are seen as business ventures

they purposely have unlivable conditions

with inadequate resources to care for

children

yet these same orphanages have a

constant stream of volunteers

donating and paying to be there research

continues

to tell us that institutionalizing

children is harmful to a child’s

development

when you think about a child running up

to you seeking affection

may be on the surface as a sweet gesture

but in reality it’s a sign of an

attachment disorder

resulting from a revolving door of

short-term volunteers

offering love leaving and never

returning

there are eight million of these

children living in orphanages

yet eighty percent of them are not real

orphans they have at least one living

parent

not only are children placed in

orphanages due to socioeconomic factors

but

children are continuing to be separated

from their families

and trafficked as income generators for

the volunteer tourism industry

this is an abuse on the rights of the

child and children have now become

commodities

in some ways we are also susceptible to

these exploitative strategies

whilst on these projects eyewitness

groups of volunteers hand out donations

to the locals with good intentions of

course

after speaking of some locals i

discovered that on a weekly basis

volunteers would come and donate books

toiletries clothes

to the point they received so many they

started to sell them

i respected their hustle and initiative

to make a business from the volunteers

charity

but what i don’t respect are these

organizations false representation of

how helpless these people are

as if they have nothing another story i

heard goes like this

volunteers fund raise thousands of

pounds to go and build a school which is

all well and good but none of them had

any construction experience

so they attempted to build this school

little do they know every evening the

local laborers would knock down their

work and rebuild it themselves overnight

once complete the volunteers took their

selfie made it to the school newsletter

and got all the credit for building this

school

that money they fundraised could have

been used a lot better

instead of paying for their flight

ticket perhaps that money could have

been given to the local labourers to

work and build a school for their

community

see by having these volunteers work for

free this puts skilled individuals out

of work

jeopardizing that community’s chance for

real growth

can you imagine what this must do to an

economy are we also culprits and keeping

the poor poor

this is what needs to change i’ve grown

tired of seeing the same poverty pawn in

the media

painting low-income countries as totally

incapable and in need of services from

volunteers who are not skilled or

experienced

this type of content is what creates

harmful stereotypes of the world’s

poorest

they deserve to be treated with dignity

and respect but we’ve exploited them

as props for the volunteer tourism

industry

these people are skilled workers they’re

activists and they deserve a platform to

celebrate the work they’re doing in

fighting for change

but it’s not too late to make a

difference

we need to take sustainability seriously

we have funded too many people to go on

their trips to offer a band-aid and we

should be focused on long-term solutions

we have 17 sustainable development goals

from the united nations to achieve by

2030

i’m concerned that volunteer tourism is

disrupting us from doing that

for example goal number three for good

health and well-being we need to stop

allowing untrained volunteers to treat

sick people

goal number four for quality education

we need to stop sending volunteers with

no experience with children to teach

goal number eight for decent work in

economic growth we need to invest in

local communities

and not replace skilled workers with

free and inefficient labour

i have a question to leave you with what

does global citizenship

mean to you for me it’s understanding

the world and my place in it it’s taking

an active role in my community for a

fair and sustainable society

i want to be a better global citizen i

want to see less corruption and

exploitation for the world’s poorest

and here’s where we can begin by

stopping poverty becoming a tourist

attraction