There is a huge amount of literature dealing with the topic of voluntourism. With the massive increase of commercial volunteering agencies, scientific and journalistic research gain interest into this topic. Recently, the criticism on the negative impact that so-called volunteers have on developing countries is overwhelming. People that join commercial agencies do more harm than good!
We would like to encourage you to go through the literature, studies and articles that we are presenting here. It is important to us that you understand that we are not making things up. Our concerns about commercial volunteering organisations is not only based on our experiences with certain volunteers. There is proof in the scientific and journalistic world that unprepared volunteers have a negative impact. Even former volunteers report on that issue, warning future volunteers to join commercial agencies. You can find more below in the section “journalistic articles”.
We know that reading scientific research is hard. Therefore, we have summarised The Dangers Of Voluntourism on our website.
Journalistic Articles on the negative impact of Commercial Voluntourism
-
“Before you pay to volunteer abroad, think of the harm you might do” (by Ian Birrell; in The Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/nov/14/orphans-cambodia-aids-holidays-madonna -
“Voluntourism: What Could Go Wrong When Trying To Do Right?” (by Daniela Papi, former volunteer; in HuffingtonPost)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniela-papi/voluntourism_b_1525532.html -
“Beware the ‘voluntourists’ doing good” (by Ossob Mohamud; in The Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/feb/13/beware-voluntourists-doing-good -
“Poverty porn: is sensationalism justified if it helps those in need?” (by Glendora Meikle; in The Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2013/jul/05/poverty-porn-development-reporting-fistula -
“The Problem With Little White Girls (and Boys): Why I Stopped Being a Voluntourist” (by Pippa Biddle, former volunteer)
http://pippabiddle.com/2014/02/18/the-problem-with-little-white-girls-and-boys/ -
“We Day to Me Day: The Damaging Effect of Voluntourism” (by Iram Sarwar; in HuffingtonPost UK)
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/iram-sarwar/voluntourism-travelling_b_4931814.html -
“Is ‘voluntourism’ the new colonialism?” (by Kerry Stewart; in ABC – Encounter)
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/encounter/5341384 -
“Is ‘Voluntourism’ Itself Being Exploited?” (by Daniela Papi, former volunteer; in HuffingtonPost)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniela-papi/is-voluntourism-itself-be_b_5197390.html -
“So you want to be a voluntourist?” (by Michael Nishimura; in The Nepali Times)
http://nepalitimes.com/article/nation/ethical-volunteerism,2949 -
“The Voluntourist’s Dilemma” (by Jacob Kushner; in The New York Times Magazine)
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/22/magazine/the-voluntourists-dilemma.html
Scientific Literature and Studies about Voluntourism
If you are a university student or if you access to online libraries, just search for the term “voluntourism” and you will find loads of interesting research articles. Unfortunately, we cannot upload those PDFs due to copyright of the publishers. Nevertheless, we have tried to find you some other official research which are freely available:
-
“Volunteer tourism: A global analysis” (by Tourism Research and Marketing; 2008)
http://www.atlas-webshop.org/Volunteer-tourism-A-global-analysis -
Research Probe: “Volunteer Tourism: As Good as It Seems?” (by Daniel Guttentag; 2011)
https://www.dg-research.com/Papers/Guttentag%20(2011)%20Volunteer%20tourism%20-%20As%20good%20as%20it%20seems.pdf -
“From Volunteering to Voluntourism” (by Bread for the World; 2015)
https://www.tourism-watch.de/files/profil18_voluntourism_final_en.pdf
If you have further questions or you need more information, please feel free to Contact Us.