This podcast episode by Tiny Spark explores how the surge in orphanage volunteers may lead to child trafficking and asks who is benefitting from these experiences: vulnerable children or foreign volunteers? The episode also seeks to discover better alternatives for those who want to do good in the world through short-term volunteer opportunities. The podcast features interviews with Weh Yeoh (CEO & Co-Founder of Umbo and Founder, OIC Cambodia) a former orphanage volunteer from Australia, anti-trafficking advocate Sophie Otiende of Kenya, and Matthew Maury, CEO of TEAR Australia.
“I really had no place being there,” Yeoh says. “I hadn’t had a child protection check, didn’t have a social work degree. I wasn’t introduced and vetted. And I was a mid-20’s male, left alone with vulnerable children all the time,” he recalls. “And what I realized was that as good as my intentions were, I wasn’t actually able to affect these people’s lives all that well.”
“These children are being sent to institutions where they’re effectively being used to generate profits from the tourists who are looking to have an experience and are looking to, at the end of the day, feel good about how they’ve used their holiday and feel good about themselves and feel like they’ve contributed to a better world," says Maury.