I’ve been battling the harmful international volunteering industry for over a decade, but it continues to thrive. The allure of volunteering overseas is powerful: it combines the excitement of travel with opportunities for career and personal development, wrapped up in the warm buzz of “making the world a better place.”
The rise of social media and travel influencers has boosted the visibility, accessibility and appeal of voluntourism. Organisations operating in poorer countries use polished marketing campaigns to target schools, businesses and well-meaning individuals in Australia. Their website will rarely mention if they’re not locally-run, or if their model prioritises profitability over long-term solutions to poverty.
When I ran educational workshops about voluntourism last year, I asked the university student participants if they had ever — or hoped to one day — volunteer internationally. The answer was a resounding yes: 20 per cent had; 65 per cent wanted to.
I can relate to that. When I travelled to Cambodia at 23 and encountered high rates of poverty and crime, and a low rate of participation in tertiary education, I felt compelled to help. I volunteered for a month at an orphanage in Siem Reap before I took an ongoing role as a volunteer coordinator at a school for former street children.
But I soon discovered that I was part of the problem, not the solution. In my role, I facilitated short-term volunteer placements for people from wealthier countries. I witnessed local staff become complacent and disempowered after having foreign volunteers, mostly with no relevant experience, take over their jobs. I sat by as children developed attachment issues due to the revolving door of volunteers.
The short-term voluntourism industry doesn’t offer effective or sustainable solutions to long-term problems. An unskilled 16-year-old might build a house, but who will maintain it? A corporate group can do a tree-planting session, but who will ensure the trees are nurtured to maturity? In my experience, even when volunteers bring skills — such as trained social workers — their Western-style solutions are ineffective when not coupled with a deep familiarity with the cultural context.
Orphanages are particularly fraught, and the practice of voluntourism has turned them into lucrative businesses. To meet demands, children are exploited and taken from their families. Research from Columbia University in 2016 found that just one in five children living in Cambodian orphanages was actually parentless. Many organisations lack or ensure compliance with child protection policies. Encouraging young children in countries with high rates of child trafficking to engage with a constantly-changing cohort of foreigners — who may or may not have had background checks — is never good practice. Research has shown that children in orphanages are at higher risk of exploitation, abuse, attachment disorders and developmental delays.
The impact of voluntourism is not merely neutral, it’s negative — it can perpetuate communities’ dependence on foreign aid and reduce job opportunities for locals. International volunteering often relies on, and perpetuates, white saviourism and racist stereotypes that local communities are incapable of finding their own solutions. That’s simply not true: people from lower incomes are innovative, resourceful, and resilient and can achieve a lot with limited resources. When change comes from within the local community, it instils a sense of pride and ownership.
It’s time we decolonise voluntourism for good. Local communities must be invested in the process of development in order for programs to succeed. Local solutions to local issues alleviate poverty.
Many of us in wealthier countries feel a strong desire to share in our good fortune, but there are much more effective ways to help people overseas than volunteering. You can start by being an ethical traveller: shopping, dining and staying at ethical businesses that train community members to help them gain stable employment. While you’re there, you can donate money or goods to reputable non-governmental organisations. From Australia, you can fundraise for charities that support overseas organisations.
I’ve been talking about the harms of voluntourism for 12 years, and sometimes it feels like an upwards battle, competing with a $2 billion global industry rife with unscrupulous operators. Schools and companies can be reluctant to grapple with the uncomfortable truths about voluntourism, especially when their students or employees have directly benefited from participating. While criticisms of voluntourism are growing louder, the industry itself continues to expand. Many days, I feel completely disheartened about the state of the industry.
But I find hope in seeing the transformative impact of awareness. After I finished delivering my workshops to university students, 90 per cent said their perspective had shifted on international volunteering.
Conversations can be catalysts for critical interrogation and self-reflection — I believe these dialogues can lead us to a more dignified and sustainable model of international development.
Feature image of Sally Hetherington. Credit: Erin Black.