Volun-touring is on the rise these days, particularly in Southeast Asia. In Thailand, (abused) elephants are not the only ones providing entertainment, orphaned children seem to be doing that too.
It is easy to get a tourist’s heart to melt at the sight of seemingly abandoned children who look like they are in dire need of volunteer help and charity donation. If you are one of these volun-tours who plan to spend some time with “orphaned” kids, you may want to re-think your itinerary.
Thailand Orphanage (Photo by Frontierofficial)
Volunteering is generally looked at favorably, especially if done on the grassroots level where help is really needed. But there are certain arguments that even childcare institutions espouse against volun-touring in orphanages that seem to sprout like mushrooms these days.
- First, orphanages are not the best place to put children in. Wherever possible, they are placed in continuum care environment where they can go back to their families if the families can already afford to support them. For true orphans, they are placed in appropriate homes or child care institutions where the traditional notion of orphanage does not apply.
- If orphanages do need to be set up, they should be run by professionally trained child caregiver or social worker. Orphanages often claim to even have non-government organization status so as to appear as legitimate child care institutions.
- Next, only trained professionals should directly interact with the kids. This is because they are the ones professionally equipped to handle trauma that the children may be going through, and they are the ones regularly onsite. Any “orphanage” that allows anybody to just come in and interact with the children is suspect.
- Travelers who volunteer in orphanages may form bonds that need to be broken when their stay ends. The end result is often more trauma to the recipient of short-term affection. This is the hardest part of a volun-tourist’s stay in an orphanage, especially on the part of the children.
- Volun-touring in orphanages only encourages the perpetuation of the condition of the children, regardless of how exorbitant the placement fees were. Reports state that often, only a trickle of charity dollars go to the actual beneficiary.
- Orphanages for tourism may open doors for child trafficking and abuse.
- Volun-touring in orphanages creates a new industry called “orphanage tourism.” Children who may not altogether be orphans are sometimes rounded up and placed in these “orphanages” to secure funds from charitable travelers willing to part ways with their precious dollars.
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Article by Chris
Chris had a passion to contribute to society especially to fellow travelers like himself. He also had a passion for Southeast Asia and frequently visited. While brainstorming ideas, he decided that a travel blog dedicated to his favorite countries, Thailand and Singapore, could be more beneficial than any guidebook. Only one year later did the blog’s success bring in more writers, more countries, and more readers.
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