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#StopOrphanTrips: How will volunteer tourism organisations respond?
This post is part of Better Volunteering Better Care’s month-long spread of articles aimed at raising awareness around the issues of orphanage volunteering. The post serves as a follow up to her research on “responsible” tourism companies.
What Does Responsible International Volunteering Look Like?
This post is part of Better Volunteering Better Care’s month-long spread of articles aimed at raising awareness around the issues of orphanage volunteering. The post explains why orphan-based tourism is damaging and offers some best practices in how to engage responsibly in international volunteering.
Missionary’s conviction highlights need for better volunteer vetting
A U.S. federal court has sentenced a former missionary from Oklahoma to 40 years in prison for sexually abusing children at a Kenyan orphanage. His arrest and conviction—one case among several recent instances of overseas abuse—highlights the need for more vetting procedures in international volunteering, experts say.
Schools should rethink overseas orphanage programs
In this video, Australian politician, Alannah McTiernan, delivers a speech to Parliament discussing the negative impact of Australians volunteering and visiting orphanages in Cambodia. McTiernan notes that across Western Australia, there is an increase in the phenomena of orphanage projects being embraced by schools taking their senior students to volunteer in orphanages in Asia. McTiernan warns of a deep concern that Australians are unwittingly supporting and creating a business model of orphanage tourism.
Parents and Schools Warned about Sham Cambodian Orphanages
Australian politician Lunda Reynolds, a Senator for Western Australia, issued a press release warning parents and schools contemplating helping Cambodian orphanages to proceed with caution to ensure they are not unwittingly taking part in “orphanage tourism." The Senator recently visited Cambodia to look at Australian aid projects.
CNN Should Reexamine Support of Orphanages
As in years past, some recipients of CNN’s 2015 Heroes Awards included “ill-advised but well-meaning” people who have been involved in building and operating orphanages in developing countries. By including those running orphanages among its recipients, CNN is perpetuating the incorrect idea that orphanages are a safe place for children.
Volunteer travel: experts raise concerns over unregulated industry
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.
Cambodia’s orphanage tourism
The article describes the increase in "orphanage tourism" in Cambodia, which has led to many new orphanages being created to serve the country's tourism industry.
Don't fall into Cambodia's orphanage trap, Australians told
Tara Winkler, a former NSW Young Australian of the Year, warns against the dangers of allowing foreign volunteers into orphanages. Ms Winkler says potential abusers are not being vetted among a high volume of visitors to Cambodia's 600 orphanages and children's residential care centres. Around 47,900 children are living in orphanages and residential care centres in Cambodia, despite research showing that the institutions scar their emotional and personal development. Seventy-two per cent of children in Cambodia's orphanages and children's centres have at least one parent.
7 Red Flags When Considering an International Volunteer Program
This article - written by Assistant Professor of Leadership Studies at Kansas State University, editor of globalsl.org and member of the Better Volunteering Better Care Initiative, Eric Hartman - outlines a few major issues that individuals should consider before committing to an international volunteer program.