This opinion piece in the New York Times by Tina Rosenberg is a follow-up to a previous piece on the "harmful system of orphanages" and the ways in which donors from the US perpetuate that system and aid family separation around the world, with a particular focus on Latin America. This piece presents alternatives to volunteering in, or donating to, orphanages. "For sure, every backpacker on a volunteer trip and Christian on a short-term mission to help children wants to do as much good as possible. So what can donors and volunteers do?"
First, says Rosenberg, those looking to help need to drop the idea of "saving" people, a common pitfall some have called "Great White Savior complex." "When we travel to countries we know nothing about and perform work we are unqualified to do," says Rosenberg, "we reinforce the idea that local people are helpless and need privileged people from [the United States] or other developed nations to solve their problems. And that message is counterproductive for fighting poverty."
Secondly, she continues, volunteers should avoid contact with young children and to encourage children's attachment to their primary caregivers. "Everyone loves to hug babies. But that prioritizes the volunteer’s emotional needs over the child’s best interests. This is especially true for children in orphanages, who have already been abandoned."
Rosenberg also encourages volunteers to work with community programs instead of orphanages and support family-based care and family reintegration programs. She highlights the work of an orphanage in Guatemala called Oasis which houses girls who have experienced sexual abuse and works to reintegrate girls into their homes and families once their abusers are gone and the situation is safe. She also describes the work of others in Costa Rica and El Salvador to build up foster care and other forms of family-based care as part of a continuum of care for children who cannot be reintegrated into their families.
Other suggestions include staying home and donating the cost of the trip to an organization working to support vulnerable families ("If the only thing you can bring is your good intention, you’ll be more helpful staying home and contributing money"). "We confuse our own caring for help. In pursuit of those emotions, we spend money, time and good will on things that are often of no value to the people we care about — and are, at worst, the very opposite of true service."