Volunteering and Tourism

A growing evidence base has consistently highlighted the negative impact on children of living in institutional care such as orphanages – especially when parents or close family members are still living nearby. The increasing trend in volunteering in or visiting these facilities compounds the issue and the impact on children. Not only does it encourage the expansion of orphanages, but it also makes children vulnerable to abuse in those areas where regulation is lax, creates attachment problems in children who become attached to short-term visitors, and can heighten the risk for unregulated inter-country adoption by well-intentioned volunteers who form a bond with a child and want to take them home.

This section highlights resources focused on international volunteering, tourism, and donations in residential care centres.

Displaying 91 - 100 of 137

Elevate Children Funders Group,

This infographic from the Elevate Children Funders Group describes how private donors add to "the pull factors drawing more vulnerable children into institutional care and away from family or community care" in Haiti.

ACCI Missions & Relief,

This briefing note has been written to give Australian charities currently engaging with overseas residential care institutions an overview of the issue and an understanding of some of the potential ramifications of the proposed Modern Slavery legislation.

Elevate Children Funders Group,

This policy brief from the Elevate Children Funders Group describes how private donors add to "the pull factors drawing more vulnerable children into institutional care and away from family or community care" in Nepal.

Andrea Lee Freidus - Journal of Sustainable Tourism ,

This project adds to the newly emerging literature on orphan tourism. In-depth, open-ended interviews and participant observations were conducted over a three-month period with American travelers to a Malawian orphanage between 2009 and 2010.

Better Volunteering Better Care,

Better Volunteering Better Care (BVBC) responds to a blog by the Executive Director of the volunteer travel company IVHQ expressing his views about the benefits of orphanage volunteering.

Better Volunteering Better Care,

This infographic produced by Better Volunteering Better Care explains in an accessible way why we should say NO to international volunteering in orphanages (residential care centres). 

London School of Economics Volunteer Centre and Better Volunteering Better Care Initiative,

The London School of Economics Volunteer Centre and the Better Volunteering Better Care Initiative have collaborated to develop a pledge that can be adopted by universities and other institutions of higher or further education. By adding this pledge to their websites, universities and other supporters promise not to advertise orphanage volunteering trips to students and to “endeavour to ensure that such opportunities are neither facilitated nor promoted within our institution.”

Kathryn van Doore, Florence Martin & Anna McKeon - Better Volunteering Better Care,

This paper provides an overview of international volunteering, or “voluntourism,” and its potential vulnerability to child sexual exploitation, particularly in residential care centres. 

Better Volunteering Better Care,

A detailed explanation of the problems associated with volunteering in orphanages (residential care centers). 

Bertine Bargeman, Greg Richards & Ellen Govers ,

Using a practice approach focused on interactions between foreign volunteers and local staff, this study examined the impact of volunteer tourism on Zion Primary School and Tamale Children’s Home (an orphanage), both in Tamale, Ghana.