JK Rowling urges students not to volunteer at orphanages: Guardian
Well said! And, I would add, that applies equally to many other trips/donations that people make under the “voluntourism” or “going to help” or “just sending some cash” umbrella. Non-profit work is a profession, not a holiday or a hobby. If you don’t want random tourists from other countries coming and working in your kids’ school (or hospital or wherever else), then don’t go yourself, and don’t send your kids. There are much better ways to learn, and to help.
If you want to travel, go on a holiday. If you want to help a non-profit, either apply for a job at a reputable NGO, or donate the money that you would have spent on a flight to a reputable NGO or find other ways to be supportive. If a reputable NGO is not hiring you, and you don’t have training in program assessments/NGO program management etc yourself, consider who the trip or money is really benefitting, and what the best choice is moving forward.
Without the training to assess which projects are actually working effectively, even if you think that things look good, you may be missing something critical that impacts the project, and, by extension, the community and the region as a whole. Even seeing a project first hand isn’t enough to assess accurately, if you don’t know fully what to look for, which is usually the case for the general public.
Stick with giving your time and money to reputable NGOs, and let them decide which specific projects to partner with. They know better, and it’s their job to do the screening for you. Trust them. 🙂
JK Rowling urges students not to volunteer at orphanages
