newkidontheblock wrote: ↑Wed Jan 23, 2019 5:35 pm

NatashaRussell wrote:I am a final year Geography student from Ulster University in Northern Ireland.

What’s a geography student? Is that some kind of major? What kind of future job requires a geography major?

Geography is the study of places and the relationships between people and their environments.
Geography seeks to understand where things are found, why they are there, and how they develop and change over time.

Crucial education for;
Entrepreneur
Economist
Politician
Military planner
Cartographer
Commercial/residential developer
Commercial/residential surveyor
Environmental consultant
Geographical information systems officer
Planning and development surveyor
Town planner
International aid/development worker
Landscape architect
Logistics and distribution manager
Market researcher
Nature conservation officer
Tourism officer
Transport planner
World traveller

If you understand geography you can look at any place on earth and understand in a minute why every physical and human aspect is exactly where it is.
I feel truly sorry for those people who are out in the big wide world and have no understanding of this particular science.
Clueless.

CEOCambodiaNews wrote: ↑Sun Sep 15, 2019 9:27 pm Cambodia's Orphan Business: The Dark Side of 'Voluntourism'
Tourists volunteering in Cambodian orphanages may be unwittingly fuelling an industry that exploits children for profit.
15 Sep 2019

It is one of the top destinations for young travellers, many of whom sign up with global volunteering companies.
'Voluntourists', however, may be unwittingly fuelling the exploitation of children in poorly regulated orphanages.

In 2012, reporter Juliana Ruhfus travelled to Phnom Penh to investigate. She spoke to children, volunteers and orphanage staff, as well as activists working to stem child abuse in the country. She also went undercover as a volunteer to understand just how little protection children had in a failing orphanage.

Seven years on, Ruhfus reflects on what she discovered there, beginning with why so many children end up in orphanages in the first place.

https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/re ... 00225.html

This Aljazeera story, recently published, is talking about this woman's "reflections" about the investigations she did in 2012.

There has been much change in attitudes since then, and widespread realisation of that the volunteerism/orphanage sector is often pretty rotten.

My question - Does anybody know how much things have actually changed on the ground here in Cambodia?

I note that many churches still make a big deal about sending western school kids to orphanage schools to "love and support" the kids.
How about the sector generally - 'still "thriving" ??

Voluntourism, as for example in Cambodia: But Are You Really, Honestly Helping?
Posted by Asia Media Staff | Sep 27, 2019 |

KATHERINE DOUGLAS WRITES — What is voluntourism? A trip abroad that entails community service work as well as a way to give back to communities around the world. Sounds good, but many people neglect to research the organizations they have decided to help. And this can be a serious problem.

As with any trip, planning is essential. Although Yelp reviews give helpful advice about restaurants or hotels, it is less helpful with tourism. For example, the economy in Cambodia relies heavily on tourism. The country is chockablock with historic masterpieces and rich culture. Unfortunately, when an economy developing as rapidly as Cambodia’s relies too heavily on tourism and volunteers, the locals may suffer.

When I went to Cambodia a few years ago, I did a sizeable amount of research about the group I wanted to volunteer and travel with. I specifically chose to work with an NGO because I knew exactly how my efforts would benefit the community. When the group went to Angor Wat, we were explicitly told not to give the children selling items any money. At first, I was confused, but our leader explained that when the children successfully make money off of tourists, their parents normally take them out of school for more profit.

More: https://asiamedia.lmu.edu/2019/09/27/vo ... y-helping/

Voluntourism: new book explores how volunteer trips harm rather than help
‘Don’t do as we did,’ says Pippa Biddle, who highlights colonial structure of industry where unqualified western tourists pay to volunteer abroad
Mélissa Godin
Thu 10 Jun 2021 07.01 BST

Seven years ago, Pippa Biddle wrote a blog post about volunteering abroad. She recounted her struggles speaking Spanish to children living with HIV in the Dominican Republic and how local people in Tanzania would spend all night redoing the construction work she and her classmates had done poorly.

“Taking part in international aid where you aren’t particularly helpful is not benign,” Biddle wrote. “It’s detrimental.”

The blog post, which had more than 2m hits, resonated with a movement of people who felt similarly uneasy about the growing number of unqualified volunteers in orphanages, schools and hospitals around the world.

Biddle was 21 at the time and knew little about the subject beyond her own experiences. “I thought I invented the term voluntourism,” she says. “I didn’t know it was a term people used.” The response encouraged Biddle to research volunteer tourism and the ways it has and continues to harm the people it aims to serve, and to write her book, Ours to Explore: Privilege, Power, and the Paradox of Voluntourism.

A growing industry before the pandemic, the global annual figure for people taking part in volunteering abroad was estimated at 10 million, with volunteer tourists spending up to €1.45bn (£1.25bn) on trips in 2019. Demographics and activities vary but volunteer tourism is largely fuelled by young, unqualified and often white volunteers on short-term placements in vulnerable communities.

Critics say volunteer tourism turns poverty into a tourist attraction that travellers are eager to see without meaningfully engaging with. Volunteer tourists can inadvertently exacerbate the problems they seek to address, by putting people out of jobs, harming child psychological development or reinforcing belittling stereotypes about poor communities in the developing world.

Biddle dedicates several chapters to exploring how volunteering with children (one of the most popular volunteer activities) can be harmful to their wellbeing and development. For example, volunteering has increased the demand for children to be in orphanages, leading to care facilities offering parents money to recruit children, resulting in family separation. Many organisations do not vet volunteers, exposing children to danger in places with inadequate child protection procedures. The constant turnover of volunteers can cause attachment disorders and affect children’s psychological development.

The book exposes what happens when unqualified volunteers find themselves in situations they are not trained to handle, such as a young medical volunteer who fainted during surgery.

Biddle’s stories suggest the industry is built to meet the needs of volunteers, not communities. But the problem is not simply that volunteers are unqualified, the entire industry seems to be an extension of a colonial mindset and with colonial structures of economic and political power.

Biddle says she does not want to demonise volunteers, but hopes to shed light on the problems. She says the history of volunteer tourism has “too many instances” of westerners deciding what help looks like, and too many stories of communities struggling to have their voices heard.

For those familiar with volunteer tourism or aid work these arguments are not new. But Biddle hopes to make the debate more accessible for beginners.
https://www.theguardian.com/global-deve ... -than-help

Bloody capitalists and christians and charitable volunteers, giving us Do-gooders a bad name.

Hey, don't forget folks, there are still salt of the earth, hands dirty, in touch, hardcore, professional and unpaid, real Do-gooders here too.

just look at what Alex achieved.

SternAAlbifrons wrote: ↑Sat Jun 12, 2021 1:32 am Bloody capitalists and christians and charitable volunteers, giving us Do-gooders a bad name.

Hey, don't forget folks, there are still salt of the earth, hands dirty, in touch, hardcore, professional and unpaid, real Do-gooders here too.

just look at what Alex achieved.

He is banned from entering Cambodia and the local Mother Nature activists are in prison. But I don't think that is the topic really ?
For me, that's not voluntourism at all. That is activism.

IMO "Voluntourism" is a means of grabbing money from westerners who pay to go and assist in projects that would be better off sourced locally. For example; People who are skilled at building are useful, but getting western students with no skills to build houses in Cambodia is not useful.
I get that westerners want to give a hand and I don't spit on it, but sometimes it's just plain stupid.

He has started a movement. He has empowered thousands of Cambodia's young.
Some of them have now the courage of their convictions. They consider that going to gaol may be the price.

I agree with your other nit pickings.
Sorry, to expand your "voluntourism" thread by mentioning other "do-gooders" to make that very point.

SternAAlbifrons wrote: ↑Sat Jun 12, 2021 2:19 am He has started a movement. He has empowered thousands of Cambodia's young.
Some of them have now the courage of their convictions. They consider that going to gaol may be the price.

I agree with your other nit pickings.
Sorry, to expand your "voluntourism" thread by mentioning other "do-gooders" to make that very point.

Yeah, I was disagreeing about making any sort of comparison between people who are truly invested in Cambodia, and in helping Cambodians to help themselves, and the people who come to Cambodia in order to make themselves feel better while on holiday. As you know, I'm not a big fan of voluntourism, no matter the good intentions.
But I am a huge fan of those kids from MN. Their reports from SHV and Koh Rong on waste pollution going into the sea were timely, and possibly helped to get some improvements started, in SHV anyway.

Go and ask the fisherfamilies of Koh Kong what they think of MN stopping the sand mining
Go and ask the elephants of the Areng Valley if they wanted the dam stopped
Go and ask the millions of youth hits on their facebook pages
go ask the grandmothers who would hop into bed with Alex in a flash. they adore him.

People devote their lives
people risk their lives and their freedom
people have finally found their courage
Thanks Alex

Your casual self-rightous dismissal is cluelesss, AM. imo
fin.

I’m confused. Who is Alex?