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.
This blog post by Vicky Smith serves as a follow up to her research on “responsible” tourism companies. “The research showed, over time, that international volunteer tourism organisations may be prepared to learn from feedback,” writes Smith, “and that analysis and communication of these issues may influence market improvement, especially when highlighted in the press.”