Voluntourism

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StroppyChops
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Re: Voluntourism

Post by StroppyChops »

rick_o'shea wrote:I don't think voluntourism means what you say it does. Volunteering with a bit of tourism thrown in, is more accurate I think. It's not like people are going to volunteer and not see the sights. If they purely wanted to volunteer without the tourism, they'd do that at home. And many do. It's not all gap year students taking selfies for Facebook. Many older, skilled volunteers are more than happy to donate, raise funds, and come back again and again.

Nobody pays a random local to paint a fence. People donate/pay to NGOs, some registered locally, some registered as international NGOs. Many are no good, and volunteers should do their homework before committing. Local orphanages, western run day centers, intermediaries for volunteer placements etc etc can ALL register as NGOs. That's why I brought up NGOs. Volunteers volunteer at NGOs in Siem reap don't they?
Your experience may differ but I think today's voluntourism (as opposed to 5 years ago) seems to be all about tourism with a touch of volunteering thrown in, so certain people with large egos can take selfies with brown-eyed pseudo-orphans to justify their holiday spend to their friends and family on Facebook and demonstrate their mines-bigger-than-yours Humanitarianism. I have met many exceptions to this, there are many well-meaning but misguided and scammed individuals looking to make a difference, and yet more eyes-open individuals actually making a positive difference with their holiday/intern time.

Edit: Sesame Street is bought to you today by the hyphen, apparently.
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hanno
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Re: Voluntourism

Post by hanno »

StroppyChops wrote:
rick_o'shea wrote:I don't think voluntourism means what you say it does. Volunteering with a bit of tourism thrown in, is more accurate I think. It's not like people are going to volunteer and not see the sights. If they purely wanted to volunteer without the tourism, they'd do that at home. And many do. It's not all gap year students taking selfies for Facebook. Many older, skilled volunteers are more than happy to donate, raise funds, and come back again and again.

Nobody pays a random local to paint a fence. People donate/pay to NGOs, some registered locally, some registered as international NGOs. Many are no good, and volunteers should do their homework before committing. Local orphanages, western run day centers, intermediaries for volunteer placements etc etc can ALL register as NGOs. That's why I brought up NGOs. Volunteers volunteer at NGOs in Siem reap don't they?
Your experience may differ but I think today's voluntourism (as opposed to 5 years ago) seems to be all about tourism with a touch of volunteering thrown in, so certain people with large egos can take selfies with brown-eyed pseudo-orphans to justify their holiday spend to their friends and family on Facebook and demonstrate their mines-bigger-than-yours Humanitarianism. I have met many exceptions to this, there are many well-meaning but misguided and scammed individuals looking to make a difference, and yet more eyes-open individuals actually making a positive difference with their holiday/intern time.

Edit: Sesame Street is bought to you today by the hyphen, apparently.
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rick_o'shea
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Re: Voluntourism

Post by rick_o'shea »

Perhaps I'm more out of the loop than I thought, stroppy. Can you give me some names of companies operating in Siem reap who are heavy on the tourism and light on the volunteering ?
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StroppyChops
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Re: Voluntourism

Post by StroppyChops »

rick_o'shea wrote:Perhaps I'm more out of the loop than I thought, stroppy. Can you give me some names of companies operating in Siem reap who are heavy on the tourism and light on the volunteering ?
No - I'm in PP. As stated, your experience may vary.
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hanno
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Re: Voluntourism

Post by hanno »

rick_o'shea wrote:Perhaps I'm more out of the loop than I thought, stroppy. Can you give me some names of companies operating in Siem reap who are heavy on the tourism and light on the volunteering ?
I am in SR and I know of a few. As I want to live here a bit longer I will certainly not spout their names in public.....
rick_o'shea
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Voluntourism

Post by rick_o'shea »

Ah, crossed wires. I'm in pp also but thought we were discussing the voluntourism honey pot of sr. I used to live amongst it. I don't have anything to do with volunteers down here in the capital.

For clarity: Posted in response to stroppy but hanno replied first.
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StroppyChops
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Re: Voluntourism

Post by StroppyChops »

rick_o'shea wrote:Ah, crossed wires. I'm in pp also but thought we were discussing the voluntourism honey pot of sr. I used to live amongst it. I don't have anything to do with volunteers down here in the capital.
Like hanno I'm not going to name names as I run a social enterprise (i.e. the natural prey of larger child-sponsorship NGOs) here and want to be able to continue doing so without making it any harder than it already is - but I can mention one recent instance of a bright and shiny lass arriving on a 'paid (by her) internship' only to discover there was absolutely no project for her, once she'd paid a ridiculous amount the company then wanted her to sit quietly in the office for six months. In fact, the company preferred that she never actually showed up at the office on a day-to-day basis, and she often found herself sitting in an empty office. This is just one of many examples - but I'm sure I'm not telling you anything new.
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rick_o'shea
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Re: Voluntourism

Post by rick_o'shea »

So she did no background research. Classic. Internships are not voluntourism are they?

You could always use the PM function...
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StroppyChops
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Re: Voluntourism

Post by StroppyChops »

rick_o'shea wrote:Internships are not voluntourism are they?
How would you draw the line with self-funded internships?
Bodge: This ain't Kansas, and the neighbours ate Toto!
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vladimir
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Re: Voluntourism

Post by vladimir »

I really don't understand the resistance to admitting that many of these positions are nothing more than scams, even to the extent of resorting semantics to cloud the issue.

If it looks like a scam, smells like a scam and walks like a scam...
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