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Voluntourism: Who are the Real Beneficiaries? - Coggle Diagram
Voluntourism: Who are the Real Beneficiaries?
Point 1
The voluntourism is not helping the poor children.
Parents are misled into sending their children to live at orphanages, thinking that their children will have better education opportunities and have a brighter future there
Scams
But, children had falsifies documents to certify their orphan status and they are typically used to evoke compassion and earn donations form the unsuspecting voluntourists.
Conclusion:
The real beneficiaries are the people that own the orphanages as the voluntourists donate their money but the money does not go to the "poor" children, therefore the people that own the orphanages gets all the money.
Tour Operations
Tour operators who offer volunteer trip packages naturally want to prioritise their customers' needs, rather than the needs of those their customers are meant to help.
Point 2
Child beneficiaries get emotional damage by separations and anxiety.
Short-term voluntourism projects lasting for days and weeks can be emotionally devastating for children as they had already grown attached to the voluntourists and is used to them being around accompanying them. Therefore, when voluntourists left them, they will feel insecure and less trusting in adults.
Point 3
Volunteers does not have appropriate skills
Unskilled volunteers does not really improved the quality of life for the local communities as they just wanted to help but they do not have the skills to make it better.
Some of the buildings built or constructed by the voluntourists are unsafe and poorly built.
This results in the local communities having to spend time, energy and resources to repair or rebuild the buildings and structures. Therefore, instead of helping, the voluntourists end up creating more and more troubles for the intended beneficiaries.
Point 4
Over- reliance of the local communities on foreigners to solve their problems.
This is mainly because the local communities do not have the necessary resources of skills to maintain the water points. In order to truly improve the local communities' quality of life, voluntourists need to teach the people how to fish, instead of giving them fish. Therefore, it is because the local communities believe that they are incapable of helping themselves so they rely on the voluntourists to help them.