This article describes growing skepticism around the value of "voluntourists" for local communities around the work, and many NGOs are questioning the unregulated industry that brings many young, unqualified westerners to developing countries. Often, volunteers are ineffective in providing help to communities, and sometimes can even pose danger to the community members or themselves.
The article also discusses the Better Volunteering, Better Care report, an international study on the impacts of voluntourism on children’s care that was produced jointly by BCN, UNICEF, Save the Children, and Friends International, and focused on Ghana, Cambodia, Nepal and Guatemala. The Better Volunteering, Better Care report concluded that all short-term and orphanage volunteering should be eliminated.