volun tourism is a multi-billion dollar industry it sells wealthier people access to impoverished and struggling communities in exchange for a life affirming experience kids would see Vans of volunteers pulling towards them and they'd quickly rub dirt on their faces so that they they'd be more appealing ironically uh to the volunteers and look like they needed more help each of us paid thousands of dollars to go on this trip of that trip fee almost none of it went to the orphanage the primary goal we were told was to build a library our work was so bad
that the uh local Builders who were working alongside us would come back while we were sleeping and undo our work and redo it they abused children in or ages while under the guise of being a volunteer what you're being sold is the idea that you'll help a community what you're really buying is an opportunity to help yourself I've been involved in voluntourism for over a decade the language used by voluntourism tends to be along the lines of you can change the world and find yourself all at the same time I wanted to physically go out
to be that change make a difference be a global citizen I definitely was thinking about how it would look when I applied to college and how it would look on my resume I convinced my parents to pay a couple thousand for me to be able to go on this trip to Tanzania it was about 3 weeks long for $3,000 we would get to volunteer at an orphanage teach some English lessons play with some kids go on a safari I was entirely unqualified and unprepared and should not have been allowed to do this you were going
to be working with uh young children who are extremely vulnerable I came from an all girls school where I had a walking closet and I was pulling up to this all girls orphanage where they shared bunk rooms without running water the primary goal of our time at the orphanage was to build a library we believed that we'd be able to build the whole thing while we were there until you realized that none of us had ever done any construction work there was a general feeling that the local workmen were lazy at times because they were
showing up late one morning I woke up and decided to go outside I started walking up where we were building the library and I saw that there were men working at the construction site I realized that they were taking apart what we' done and redoing it and then they'd let it set and by the time that we would show up to work in a few more hours we'd be none the wiser I told one of the chapon uh from my school on the trip about what I'd seen and was advised to keep it to myself
you have stories of people donating bags full of toys that the orphanage director then goes and and gives to his own kids or cells or locks in a closet so that the next group of volunteers will donate bags of toys because if they see kids playing with tons of toys they won't bring toys if they see kids sleeping on a good bed with a good mattress they won't donate money for better beds and better mattresses we did not eat our meals with the children in the orphanage uh we ate separately uh which was a rule
at that orphanage it was so we wouldn't know what they were eating my typical breakfast at the orphanage uh would include fresh fruit juice hardboiled eggs toast jams butter the children were most often having beans and rice that they cooked themselves we also would help them sort the Pebbles out of the beans a number of times the girls were expected to sing for us the exchange for them having a really good meal was to sing and dance we were a predominantly white group when I was in Tanzania uh young woman was questioning her sexuality and
was being encouraged by this volunteer to live openly the reality of this young woman's life was that she lived in a community where doing so would put her at very great physical danger and so this volunteer was so focused on her own moral compass and moral values that she couldn't quite see how the advice she was giv this young woman could potentially kill her the directors of the orphanage did not see the Children's Health as a priority we were advised by other long-term volunteers at the orphanage that when residents did get malaria despite there being
money to pay for them to get medical care they were not provided with Medical Care the leadership of the orphanage were unwilling to spend the money 80% of children who live at orphanages have not lost one or both parents they are not orphans they don't have birth certificates they don't have IDs no one knows who they are or where they are these children are Anonymous the thing that really haunts me is the connection between orphanages and child sex trafficking there there are Brits there are Americans there are Australians who've been arrested and that's just the
tip of the iceberg for exploiting children and abusing them sexually and physically while making money from people like me who wanted to do good they abused children in orphanages while under the guise of being a volunteer voluntourism is continuing to grow as an industry during during the pandemic the trip providers who are the most successful were actively marketing trips to Tanzania as an opportunity to escape covid and pretend like it didn't exist you can say that you are giving 100% of fees back to a community without doing that you can say those things because no
one's checking up on you no one's verifying that this is happening the reason why it continues to increase is that many of the experiences that are similar to what I had as a volunteer of having children running towards me and wanting to sit on my lap and wanting me to carry them are still so emotionally compelling they're still so alluring it feels so good that it's really easy for someone to apply exceptionalism
