Today, when many think of travel they want to be able to help while they are traveling. One kind of travel that has become very popular is volunteer tourism. Volunteer tourism as defined by Merriam-Webster dictionary is, the act or practice of doing volunteer work as needed in the community where one is vacationing. Volunteer tourism also known as, “voluntourism” is seen as the “do good vacation” but there are also specific organizations that create vacations and trips to go on that are centered around volunteer work. But often there are many flaws that come with these trips.
Two organizations that are big specifically, with high school students are Global Leadership Adventures (GLA) and Rustic Pathways. Both of these organization have trips all over the world that high school students can pay to go on. On these trips you choose the country you want to go to or the type of service you are interested in; after that you will pay and get into the program. On these programs you fly to the place and are usually picked up by the chaperones from the organization who will be with you the whole time while on the trip. Once you are there you will be there for however long your trip is and do the service work along with some excursions or cultural activities. Many of these trips have service activities like, painting schools, teaching english, building schools or other structures, cleaning up the beach and other things like that. While having excursions to “keep it fun” like zip-lining, hiking, surfing, hot springs, going to the beach and other little things that might be specific to the country you are in.
Over the summer of 2018 I went on one of these trips with Global Leadership Adventures, called “Children of the Maya” which took place in Guatemala. On the trip we learned about some culture and both taught english and painted a mural for a school. Along with that “service work” we learned about some of the history of Guatemala and also went to specific shops and places to learn about pottery, tapestry work, the jade industry, and other sorts of work that are special to Guatemala. We also went on a long hike and zip-lining. After the trip I completed 30 hours of community service, but in all honesty, after the trip I had to talk myself into believing I did good and did enough service on that trip to have 30 service hours. Before this trip I did not know the effects of these trips and how they do more harm that good. While I was there and on the trip we would have debriefs or we would talk about why we went on this trip and during those moments I got a glimpse of the issues that may come from these trips. Many of the other students on the trip said that their parents sent them because they wanted them to “experience poverty and get a wake up call” or that they came so that they could check their own privilege, and some other came because they truly believed they were doing good, or because it would look good on a college application and instagram. When hearing these reasons I felt extremely uncomfortable. Personally, I went on the trip because I wanted to try and find a way to make a connection/memories with my home country of Guatemala that did not relate or have to do with my adoption. So after hearing those reasons, I wanted to leave and go home right then and there. Hearing people see that trip as something for themselves in such a gross and close minded way really left me with an off feeling. It is weird to think that some need to pay $3,000 to travel to a third world country, see a poor child, and THEN seeing that leads them to understanding their privilege.
While on that trip I found myself thinking a lot about The Danger of a Single Story TEDTalk by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I watched this TEDTalk for the first time during my sophomore year of high school after reading Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. One quote that stuck with me from the TEDTalk that explained that, “The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story”. I found that quote and definition really interesting because I had always thought about how sterotypes create these narratives but never in the sense of a “single story” leading to one being “single storied.”
Continuing from the TEDTalk she said, “The consequence of the single story is this: it robs people of dignity. It makes our recognition four equal humanity difficult, it emphasizes how we are different rather than how we are similar”. That quote is one thing that really drove me to this topic. She said that the single story robs people of dignity, similar to the ways that thinking all children in third world countries need someone from America to save them. Often there is a single story told of those from third world countries and it usually revolves around people from the US or Europe needing to go help and save them. Thus creating, the White Savior Complex: The phrase refers to a white person who acts to help non-white people, but in a context which can be perceived as self-serving. One Twitter account that does an amazing job brining these issues to light is @nowhitesaviors ! They continuously educate their following through real hard work.
When looking at this project, I realized, I could point out all the flaws in voluntourism and shame those who have gone on service trips, but instead I realized education is the best way to go about this!
Volunteering while learning about culture isn’t a bad thing, but when you pay upwards of $2,000 to “paint” or “build” a school, you are not doing work for the community, you are doing it for yourself. (And most of the time, the projects either aren’t done or are finished too quickly and the local people have to take down your structure and actually rebuild it creating more work for the local community. Also high school students paying $2,000 to build something with no knowledge takes jobs away from locals who actually need the money.) If your intentions are to volunteer and help, you could easily walk down to the local food pantry and help there or make bags with necessities and food for homeless people. But many want to have the travel component be a large portion of their trip and work. One of my suggestions would be, find local organizations that are run by those living in that community for that community that are doing work to legitmatley help them. Along with that, give your money to an organization that isn’t from the US and one that is grassroots and needs more help.
While it is hard to find organizations that are local, there are many organization that are part of larger organizations that may be all over but have a small sector for their organization in that specific community. Now, connecting this to my trip with GLA to Guatemala, I have gone back and volunteered again but through a different organzatoin.
For the past two summers and part of last April, I went back to Guatemala and volunteered at Esperanza Juvenil (Boys Hope Girls Hope). They are an organzation that exists in America, but they have their special school called Esperanza Juvenil in Guatemala City. We send my brother to that school and that is how we gained the connection. They are a great school that is also a boarding school taking kids out of unhealthy and unstable homes giving them a safe loving environment to put them on a path of education for upward mobility. When I volunteer there, I help teach English, but I do it alongside the actual teachers rather than me actually teaching the students because, I am not able to do that. I worked with the English teachers learning how they create their lessons and teach their students. Along with not taking teaching into my own hands, I lived in one of the boarding houses with some of the students. While this still plays into the “I am here to help and be there for these kids” I feel like I am doing better work that the nonexistent work I did while on my GLA trip.
To end this, work with more local organizations and keep your true intentions in mind. Don’t take offense to people calling you out, they just want you to be conscious and learn. Last thing, you do not need to take pictures with the trophy poor brown girl and post them all over social media talking about how thankful you are.
Last things to leave you with, this list from @nowhitesaviors
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