This post is part of the Better Volunteering Better Care Initiative’s month-long spread of articles aimed at raising awareness around the issues of orphanage volunteering, under the hashtag #StopOrphanTrips. The campaign ends on June 1st, International Children’s Day, with a call to volunteer travel organisations to remove orphanage trips from their product offerings. Authors of these blog posts and articles urge people to sign the petition to put an end to orphanage volunteering. You can sign the petition here.
In this post Brianne Miers questions her decision to volunteer with children in Nepal. She interviews Caroline Scheffer, former Country Director of the The Umbrella Foundation which works to alleviate the impact of trafficking, poverty and war on children and their families in Nepal. Scheffer shares her thoughts on volunteer and orphanage tourism, and her recommendations for helping ensure the safety and well-being of vulnerable children in developing countries.