04/02/2012 - Child welfare workers are tackling a debate in international development caused by the mixing of the volunteer sector and tourism industry in response to an "orphan crisis."
The lines between the tourism industry and voluntary sector have become blurred, leaving child welfare and protection workers to navigate the two according to the best interests of the child.
With international travel increasingly accessible to both younger generations and global citizenship likewise on the rise, “voluntourism” has become a popular way of spending vacation time.
Very few people participating in volunteer tours begin their trip with malice in their hearts or an intention to exploit vulnerable youngsters. Rather, they are looking for a way to give back to communities or, perhaps, gain new experiences outside their comfort zones.
So, how could such admirable goals go awry?
In 2010, Linda Richter of the Human Sciences Research Council in South Africa and Amy Norman of the University of London explored this question in an article published in the journal, Vulnerable Children and Youth Studies.
Entitled, "AIDS Orphan Tourism: A Threat to Young Children in Residential Care," the article states that the perception of an “AIDS orphan crisis” in combination with voluntourism has “fostered a potentially high-risk situation for already vulnerable young children in the region.”
“Short-term attachments formed between children in group residential care and volunteers may worsen known impacts of institutional care,” the authors say.
Welfare specialists have generally regarded institutional care as a method of last resort for caring for orphaned children. According to the United Nations (UN) endorsed Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children, countries should pursue a strategy of deinstitutionalization in favour of conditions more conducive to a child’s full development, such as individualized and small-group or family-based care.
But, in Cambodia, the number of orphanages has increased dramatically, while the number of orphans has actually declined, says the UK-based Telegraph. In the past five years alone, says the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) the number of Cambodian orphanages grew from 153 to 269, only 21 of which are state-run.
It is cheaper to care for children in a family unit than in an institution. But, three-in-four of the 12,000 children living in institutions have one parent still living, the Telegraph reported yesterday. While abandonment, abuse and illness render some of these children truly without viable parental care, most of these children are sent to orphanages because impoverished parents believe they will have a better life.
“Some fear that the orphanage boom is a product of Cambodia’s increasing tourism trade and the influx of tourist dollars that comes with it,” says the Telegraph.
Where voluntourism is concerned, the emphasis is placed on the volunteers’ emotional experience—making their trip “life-changing”—instead of making sure that the voluntary work contributes to development.
Cases of orphanages keeping children in squalor to attract volunteers, urging volunteers to contribute financially and even paying parents to give up their children have been observed by nongovernmental groups.
Such actions clearly violate the Alternative Guidelines’ belief that children are to be treated with dignity and protected from “all forms of exploitation, whether on the part of care providers, peers or third parties, in whatever care setting they may find themselves.”
So, does all this mean that people with a genuine interest in helping those in need and making a difference in their world should look only to their own communities, lest they risk exploiting children abroad?
Well, Richter and Norman suggest that potential voluntourists can better help out vulnerable children by being “properly informed about children's development and attachments to others, as well of the vulnerabilities and rights of young children, especially those outside of family care.”
Another expert suggests that voluntourists avoid working directly with the beneficiaries, helping train local staff instead. Of course, longer-term, meaningful engagements with communities are encouraged.
As per the Convention on the Rights of the Child, applicable in all countries save the USA and Somalia, all decision with regard to children must be made in the best interests of the child—one of the key guiding principles of the Convention.
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