There’s something that has risen to popularity within our culture in the United States. People dangerously go to other countries, build cities, engage with orphans, teach, and do other such projects that seem harmless and kind on the surface. But is it causing more harm than good?
Recently, I ran into an old friend that I’ve known since elementary school. She is a bright, intelligent, and politically and socially active woman who has challenged my view and standpoint on a couple of things in the short time we had spent together at the end of the year. I always love conversations like that, if you can ask hard hitting questions, make me think, and make me want to continue my knowledge on a subject and learn more, you’ll keep me coming back for more. My friend, upon hearing me discuss my plans for the World Race, told me she had been meaning to ask me about what I was doing. This is when my friend introduced me to the concept and dangers of voluntourism.
Voluntourism is volunteer tourism, it’s the idea that instead of spending your vacation time sitting on the beach sipping pina coladas or going to Disney World (don’t get me wrong, nothing is wrong with DW, I LOVE DW) you go to another country and engage in some type of service project. You spend your time volunteering by going to orphanages, building buildings, working in hospitals, building wells, teaching in schools, and other such projects. This practice has become increasingly more controversial and I will explain why.
One of the most brought up topics in the articles I have read is photography. To put it bluntly and simply my friend basically said, “Americans buy or take their expensive cameras, that cost $600, to these countries where they could feed the whole village with the cost of that one camera”. That statement stabbed me in the heart, I had been asking my parents for a nice camera to document my time on the race and to post on this blog. I know racers who are buying GoPros just to capture the full experience on the race. I know her statement sounded harsh but in all seriousness, she cares, and I’m glad she said that. It was convicting, it’s what I needed to hear. The idea behind some of these photos, so the articles I’ve read believe, is that it is less about doing actual work and more about appearing to have some type of positive impact overseas. And displaying that the countries you are in, have somehow failed the people in it and it’s “our” job to fix it. One article, that I will cite at the end, states “in directing, capturing, and performing in photos such as these, voluntourists prevent themselves from actually engaging with the others in the photo”(Kascak). The photo she is critiquing is her own. She went to Africa on a medical voluntourist trip and she didn’t even know the kids names in these photos nor did they know hers. She later states that she realized her only goal was to make herself the hero in the story of “struggling Africa”.
Another critical point made against voluntourism is building projects. The idea behind this point is that by going to these villages or countries where you engage in these construction projects is taking away the financial benefit it could be providing to the community. In the article I read, it touched on that the work she was doing wasn’t bad but her being there was because she was so ill-equipped to handle certain projects. She had no knowledge of construction, teaching, doctoring, or engineering skills that were needed to do such projects. She looked good on paper, all of her experience and prior things she had done, to accomplish international aid and was told that as long as she had an open mind and a good heart she would impact one child. But then she goes into the important part. She states that…
“I don’t want a little girl in Ghana, or Sri Lanka, or Indonesia to think of me when she wakes up each morning. I don’t want her to thank me for her education or medical care or new clothes. Even if I am providing the funds to get the ball rolling, I want her to think about her teacher, community leader, or mother. I want her to have a hero who she can relate to – who looks like her, is part of her culture, speaks her language, and who she might bump into on the way to school one morning” (Biddle).
Her point was that not being well equipped might be detrimental to the area. That we should truly evaluate our skills and best serve the community in the ways that we know how to.
Another controversial point of view, that has been brought to peoples attention is within companies. It is the idea that volunteers are fueling the demand for orphans. Crazy, right? But there might be some truth to it. The problem is the boom in popularity has caused big companies to latch onto the financial benefits of voluntourism. One article comments that companies providing a smiling child to voluntourists is becoming more of a priority than helping children in those orphanages get adopted or help get them out of the system (Stupart). Another article talks about the rise in orphanages in Cambodia, a country that my team and I will be visiting…
“Did you know that since 2005, Cambodia has seen a 75 percent increase in its number of orphanages? According to a report by Forbes, orphanage tourism has helped catapult the growth of tourism in Cambodia, with foreign arrivals skyrocketing to 250 percent in the same period. The moneymaker? Orphanages funded by foreign volunteers and their money” (Alcantara).
More orphanages, building them and such, can be a good thing. Because we would rather have them sleeping in a nice facility rather than on the street where they can hopefully get proper care. But the issue is according to this article, 71% of the orphans have living parents. The parents send them to the orphanages with promise of better education. A UK base advocacy group is trying to fight the idea of tourists volunteering in orphanages. If you are interested in more on this specific area, the articles I have mentioned are at the bottom of this post.
These claims and others are staggering. The idea that you go into these countries with such pure intentions but come out with unintentional mistakes and hurt to the communities you want to help makes your heart sink. At least, it did for me.
The first mission trip I went on was to San Pedro Sula, Honduras. What we did there was in the mornings we spent our time at an orphanage, tending to children, playing, feeding babies, and whatever else was asked of us. I spent my time in the nursery and, if you’ve been my friend since then or before then you know who I’m about to talk about. I met the most wonderful, beautiful, loving little boy who I became attached to almost immediately. His name was Wilmer, he was 2 years old at the time, and a picture of me with him is still the background on my phone a year and a half later. He would start crying if I put him down or if anyone else tried to hold him. Anyone who was on that trip knew I loved that little boy more than anything else in the entire world. I always tell people if I won the lottery I would adopt him and I’m still 100% serious on that. The other half of our day was spent at the Buckner center, the company my church teamed up with to do our mission trip. There we lead and held Vacation Bible School. We played, danced, sang Spanish songs about Jesus, did crafts, and then taught a bible story. It was so much fun and I even helped a young girl, who had grown increasingly fond of me, accept Christ, her name was Escarlette. I loved her so much as well, I never wanted to leave. But, I had to. We were only there for a week. Leaving those kids was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. Especially Wilmer. He balled his eyes out when I left, he was barely speaking Spanish at the time. Watching him watch me walk away is something I never want to experience again. It broke my heart more than anything to see him screaming and crying for me when we left. One of our translators sat next to me in the van and when she got in she said “What did you do to Wilmer?”, I responded, “What do you mean?”, and she proceeded to tell me how badly he was still crying and upset. I cried on the drive to lunch. And then I had to say goodbye to Escarlette. All she wanted to do was keep in touch and I couldn’t even give her my email for safety reasons. I wanted to keep up and find out how this girls walk with Christ was going and I couldn’t even attempt at being that constant mentor for her.
As I left Honduras, I couldn’t help but think “How is this helping?”, “How can I feel good about this?”. Short term missions broke my heart and the heart of the kids we had to leave behind.
My search for more started and ended with the World Race. Some of the things that were questioned by articles will be done by my team and I on the World Race. My parents are still thinking of getting me an expensive camera for the trip, I’m very convicted of this. But one thing I know is that my pictures will be used for documentation and so will my teammates. We will be showcasing and sharing the stories of those we encounter. We aren’t taking these pictures to show you all the good that WE are doing but the good that God is doing. Our pictures won’t be to show off our good deeds but to show YOU and everyone who follows my teammates blogs the beautiful and colorful people around the world that you might not get to meet otherwise and tell their stories for them.
We will also be doing service projects but the difference with the World Race organization is that they ask us what our strong suits are. They search our skills and our spiritual gifts and put us where we can be most effective. We wont be placed into a construction setting unless they are confident in our abilities to work there. Same with in a teaching setting. Those who have past experience with certain things will most likely be placed in those projects. Even if we aren’t extremely well equipped we are all fast learners and equipped with God’s grace, knowledge, and courage to work where we are needed. God uses us where we are to take us where we need to be. Moses had a speaking problem and God called him to speak on behalf of the Jews in Israel and was successful because God spoke through him and gave him the abilities through His Spirit. The World Race takes into consideration our skills and experiences, but ultimately, we will be placed, and have confidence in, where we are asked to be.
Lastly was the issue of orphanages. That is another thing that our team will possibly be doing, visiting orphanages. And you might think that us being there for a month might be even more detrimental to these kids and relationships than that one week in Honduras. But by having an entire month to effect someone, we can, like the article from Biddle, encourage them to have role models in their community and equip those role models with leading their children and kids that they see on a day to day basis. While also making sure they have consistent, Christ like role models to help mentor and encourage them on their walk. We will have more time to set up a more permanent solution and program than if we were to be there for only a week.
We are there to be temporary people and helpers, nothing permanent. Maybe some of us will go back or become employees or long term missionaries within the World Race. But something that I tried to reiterate to my Leadership Studies class this past semester, in reference to our service project within a neighboring town, is that we aren’t going to be long term role models for these kids, they might even have an idea of that. Growing up, when you went to camp and your counselor, or another leader, was exactly who you wanted to be when you grew up or was someone you held in very high regards, it never effected you long term when you said goodbye after that time at camp. Some of us, like myself, have never spoken to my counselors since that exchange that one summer. And I’ve never been effective by that longterm. What it did do was give me a heart and admiration for those who dedicate their time to kids. It pushed me to become a counselor myself, work with kids, volunteer, and is what eventually lead me to do mission trips.
Although, there is compelling evidence for the negative effects of voluntourism there are longterm benefits, far longer than anything we can imagine, by teaching people about salvation and the love of Jesus Christ. You can’t put criticism on the effect of eternal salvation. We should keep in mind our intentions when participating in short term missions and volunteering while on vacation. This post is not meant to shame anyone but to bring light that we, as followers of Christ, have to consider all sides of what we are doing. I am so thankful that my friend brought this to my attention because I want to make clear that what my team and I are doing will change lives for the better. Yes, we will also have our lives changed and we will also be effected but not in the ways that the articles mentioned criticized. When doing something this large and making this big of a life choice, you have to educate yourself on every side of the subject. I know a couple of my teammates have already been faced with adversity and negative opinions about what we are doing. I hope this article can shed some light on those skeptical opinions. I am thankful for friends who bring to light challenging issues and controversial topics in a respectful manner. I only hope that I have been able to do the same thing for you in this article.
The most important thing to remember is, we aren’t tourists. We are diving into these cultures and cities head first to learn more about them and understand them. We are getting to know these people, their stories, and their hearts on a one-on-one, in depth basis. We will be living in their communities and doing life with them, learning how to best serve their needs and mend their hearts.
Please keep comments positive and if you have any questions please feel free to email me at [email protected] 🙂
Articles for Reference
Alcantara: http://www.eturbonews.com/39220/orphanage-voluntourism-responsible-tourism-gone-wrong
Biddle: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/pippa-biddle/little-white-girls-voluntourism_b_4834574.html
Kascak:http://www.psmag.com/business-economics/instagrammingafrica-narcissism-global-voluntourism-83838
Stupart: http://travel.cnn.com/explorations/life/richard-stupart-voluntourism-does-more-harm-good-260269/
