Volunteering with children campaign
THE BACKGROUND - ISSUES WITH ORPHANAGE VOLUNTEERING
Since 2013 we have had comprehensive guidelines in place for the promotion of volunteering trips that involve any interaction with vulnerable children. In summary, the guidelines stipulate that:
OUR EXPERTS
We received invaluable advice and input from a group of industry experts who have helped us formulate our new guidelines - a huge thanks to all of them:
SUPPORT
The campaign received unprecedented support from individuals, Responsible Travel members and other organisations around the world.
Articles appeared in The Telegraph and Daily Mail, as well as across online media, blogs and social media channels.
ABOUT THE GUIDELINES
Our guidelines address all trips on Responsible Travel that involve volunteering with vulnerable children, not just in orphanages but in children's homes; youth centers (including drop-in centers); residential facilities; trafficking shelters; women and children violence refuges and other similar settings.
These guidelines are used by our team at Responsible Travel to screen new and existing volunteer trips that involve working with vulnerable children.
The partner organisation must:
QUALIFIED VOLUNTEERS, SAFE SETTINGS
The guidelines address the volunteer and the setting itself. The priority of the guidelines is to safeguard the children involved.
Evidence overwhelmingly showed that family based care is always going to be preferable for children over any other form of institutional based care which should be the last resort. There are very few times that volunteers should be volunteering directly with children unless they have appropriate qualifications, skills and experience in dealing with vulnerable children. This has therefore become the central point of our guidelines.
Skills matching and the need for proper child protection policies and reporting mechanisms are also essential. We hope to see an end to the revolving door of short term volunteers forming attachments and then leaving these vulnerable children, days or weeks later.
Ideas for volunteering responsibly to help vulnerable children:
Our vision is that these guidelines will help put the child back at the center point of thinking around volunteering. The good intentions of well meaning volunteers can be channelled in many ways, for example:
WHAT HAPPENS TO THE CHILDREN IN THE CENTRES?
Rebecca Smith, Child Without Appropriate Care Advisor, Save the Children:
"By removing one of the incentives for the growth of poor quality orphanages, children are less likely to find themselves separated from their families without a good reason. The closure of orphanages that have been specially set up to attract money from well-intentioned Westerners means that children will be able to return to their families and resume their lives in their home communities. As more questions are asked about the quality of care that children receive in orphanages, there will be more pressure for orphanage staff to be able to demonstrate that the children under their care are well treated and have no alternative places to live. People who want to volunteer and support vulnerable children should focus their efforts on helping poor families and communities so that these families and communities are better able to keep their children safe at home.
Save the Children believes that reducing the number of volunteers and support to child care institutions (orphanages) should be part of a larger effort to support parents and community members to care for their children and to regulate child care institutions. As such, we, along with many other agencies, work with communities, parents and governments to provide children with a variety of alternative family based care options. In many countries we assist the government to assess and reunify children in child care institutions with their families (including extended families). We help governments to write laws and policies regulating child care institutions and we train social workers to assess the best placement for each individual child. If you are concerned about what will happen to children you used to volunteer with, we recommend supporting efforts in the surrounding community (for example: supporting schools, local NGOs, parenting groups, etc) that benefit all families who are struggling."
Indeed, organisations that support and encourage family-based care will need to support these children until the system changes.
Luke Gracie, Friends International believes it is wrong to present a binary view of the argument as being about orphanages/institutional based care versus life on the streets as the only realistic alternative. This is not the case, he says: "this binary distinction actually makes it harder for innovative family-based solutions to get off the ground or get support."
There is much that people can do to support the organisational development of NGOs and progressive organisations - this type of work will be crucial. We look forward to celebrating, encouraging and supporting projects and initiatives of this nature.
Daniela Papi, learningservice.info:
"responsibletravel.com should be commended for taking leadership in this area by removing orphanage volunteering from their offerings and putting clear guidelines in place. We hope others will take note and follow suit."
THE ISSUES IN DETAIL
Read more about responsible volunteering.
Since 2013 we have had comprehensive guidelines in place for the promotion of volunteering trips that involve any interaction with vulnerable children. In summary, the guidelines stipulate that:
- Only people with professional qualifications and experience are allowed to volunteer;
- Placement lengths must be for a minimum of 4 weeks;
- Volunteer operators must have a child protection policy in place and conduct DBS checks (or equivalent).
- Research suggested children are better off in a family or community setting rather than residential care;
- 'Hug an orphan vacations': The emotional risk to the child of continual short term attachments being formed and 'abandoned' as untrained volunteers come and go;
- There has been a surge in residential care homes because parents are tempted to give up their children for the Western ideal of education e.g. Siem Reap in Cambodia is a town of 100,000 and has 35 orphanages. Many are unlicensed or funded by overseas donors who turn to orphanage volunteering and train children to perform to attract donors.
OUR EXPERTS
We received invaluable advice and input from a group of industry experts who have helped us formulate our new guidelines - a huge thanks to all of them:
- Sallie Grayson and Kate Stefanko from responsible volunteering operator, Responsible Travel member and past winner of The World Responsible Tourism Awards, People and Places
- Luke Gracie, Alternative Care Manager, Friends International and ChildSafe Movement
- Bharti Patel, CEO, ECPAT
- Rebecca Smith, Child Without Appropriate Care Advisor, Save the Children
- Harold Goodwin, Director, International Centre for Responsible Tourism
- Daniela Papi, co-author of a new book on effective volunteering and an international advocate for responsible volunteering
- Justin Francis, co-founder, Responsible Travel
SUPPORT
The campaign received unprecedented support from individuals, Responsible Travel members and other organisations around the world.
Articles appeared in The Telegraph and Daily Mail, as well as across online media, blogs and social media channels.
ABOUT THE GUIDELINES
Our guidelines address all trips on Responsible Travel that involve volunteering with vulnerable children, not just in orphanages but in children's homes; youth centers (including drop-in centers); residential facilities; trafficking shelters; women and children violence refuges and other similar settings.
These guidelines are used by our team at Responsible Travel to screen new and existing volunteer trips that involve working with vulnerable children.
The partner organisation must:
- read and agree to the guidelines for each of the trips they wish to list on responsibletravel.com
- write in their own words, what they are doing, under each of the guidelines' section headings - this will constitute their 'making a difference' section to be published on their trip page
- submit relevant child protection policies and commitments to responsible publishing of child-related images and material
- update their own responsible tourism policies to reflect the adherence to our guidelines
- publish their responsible tourism policies on responsibletravel.com
QUALIFIED VOLUNTEERS, SAFE SETTINGS
The guidelines address the volunteer and the setting itself. The priority of the guidelines is to safeguard the children involved.
Evidence overwhelmingly showed that family based care is always going to be preferable for children over any other form of institutional based care which should be the last resort. There are very few times that volunteers should be volunteering directly with children unless they have appropriate qualifications, skills and experience in dealing with vulnerable children. This has therefore become the central point of our guidelines.
Skills matching and the need for proper child protection policies and reporting mechanisms are also essential. We hope to see an end to the revolving door of short term volunteers forming attachments and then leaving these vulnerable children, days or weeks later.
Ideas for volunteering responsibly to help vulnerable children:
Our vision is that these guidelines will help put the child back at the center point of thinking around volunteering. The good intentions of well meaning volunteers can be channelled in many ways, for example:
- Supporting the organisational development of NGOs that help put children in foster care placements
- Fundraising for organisations that try to reunite children with their families
- Helping poor families and communities so that these families and communities are better able to keep their children safe at home
WHAT HAPPENS TO THE CHILDREN IN THE CENTRES?
Rebecca Smith, Child Without Appropriate Care Advisor, Save the Children:
"By removing one of the incentives for the growth of poor quality orphanages, children are less likely to find themselves separated from their families without a good reason. The closure of orphanages that have been specially set up to attract money from well-intentioned Westerners means that children will be able to return to their families and resume their lives in their home communities. As more questions are asked about the quality of care that children receive in orphanages, there will be more pressure for orphanage staff to be able to demonstrate that the children under their care are well treated and have no alternative places to live. People who want to volunteer and support vulnerable children should focus their efforts on helping poor families and communities so that these families and communities are better able to keep their children safe at home.
Save the Children believes that reducing the number of volunteers and support to child care institutions (orphanages) should be part of a larger effort to support parents and community members to care for their children and to regulate child care institutions. As such, we, along with many other agencies, work with communities, parents and governments to provide children with a variety of alternative family based care options. In many countries we assist the government to assess and reunify children in child care institutions with their families (including extended families). We help governments to write laws and policies regulating child care institutions and we train social workers to assess the best placement for each individual child. If you are concerned about what will happen to children you used to volunteer with, we recommend supporting efforts in the surrounding community (for example: supporting schools, local NGOs, parenting groups, etc) that benefit all families who are struggling."
Indeed, organisations that support and encourage family-based care will need to support these children until the system changes.
Luke Gracie, Friends International believes it is wrong to present a binary view of the argument as being about orphanages/institutional based care versus life on the streets as the only realistic alternative. This is not the case, he says: "this binary distinction actually makes it harder for innovative family-based solutions to get off the ground or get support."
There is much that people can do to support the organisational development of NGOs and progressive organisations - this type of work will be crucial. We look forward to celebrating, encouraging and supporting projects and initiatives of this nature.
Daniela Papi, learningservice.info:
"responsibletravel.com should be commended for taking leadership in this area by removing orphanage volunteering from their offerings and putting clear guidelines in place. We hope others will take note and follow suit."
THE ISSUES IN DETAIL
- There is an overwhelming amount of evidence regarding the detrimental impacts of residential care on the physical and emotional well being of children (UNICEF).
- The UN Convention of Rights of Children states that the family must be afforded the necessary protection and assistance so that it can assume its responsibilities (of caring for children). Supporting families in this way is really what we should be working on.
- Residential care should be the last resort. Too often it becomes the first solution for donors who are unaware of the alternatives (such as kinship care and extended family care systems in Cambodia, UNICEF)
- Inadvertently, well intentioned volunteers are fuelling the demand for orphans. In Cambodia 74% of children in orphanages are not orphans. Almost all orphanages are funded by overseas donors, many of whom turn to orphanage volunteering vacations and train children to perform and attract donors(http://orphanages.no/).
- Orphanage volunteering is creating a surge in residential care homes, including orphanages, because parents are tempted to give up their children in response to the western ideal of education and upbringing. For example, with a population of less than 100,000, the town of Siem Reap, gateway to the famous ruins of Angkor Wat has 35 orphanages. One even parades children late at night behind placards reading ‘Support Our Orphans’ as visitors drink and dine.
- This UN report from West Africa identifies the need to protect children from ‘Orphan Dealers.’ A January 2009 study by the Social Welfare Department – responsible for children’s welfare and supervising orphanages – showed that up to 90 percent of the estimated 4,500 children in orphanages in Ghana are not orphans and 140 of the 148 orphanages around the country are un-licensed
- Research from South Africa (AIDS orphan tourism: A threat to young children in residential care’) reveals the negative impacts of volunteers on the children…
- Institutionalised children will tend to manifest indiscriminate affection towards volunteers. After a few days or weeks, this attachment is broken when the volunteer leaves and a new attachment forms when the next volunteer arrives. Although there is little empirical evidence on children’s reactions to very short-term, repeat attachments over time, evidence from the study of children in temporary or unstable foster care indicates that repeated disruptions in attachment are extremely disturbing for children, especially very young children’.
- Very few tourists are qualified to interact with traumatised or vulnerable children. Most volunteers do not have these skills or the training required. We would not allow them to interact with young children in the UK.
- UNICEF is concerned about the emotional loss that the children may feel from exposure to a revolving door of short termvolunteers. Donor educator Saundra Schimmelpfennig writes about the trend of “hug-an-orphan vacations” on her blog Good Intentions are not Enough. She says that that although volunteers feel that interacting with orphans is a great way to give back, it can have harmful effects. “While at the orphanage most volunteers seek to build emotional bonds with the children so they can feel they made a difference. Though well intended, this leads to a never-ending round of abandonment,” says Saundra.
- A report from the BBC about Bali found that ‘As tourism has boomed in Bali, it has had a strange side-effect, doubling the number of orphanages on the island in 20 years. Tourists’ donations keep the orphanages going – but some are effectively rackets, exploiting children and vacationmakers alike’
- Volunteers are under unintentionally crowding local people out of their jobs. A Human Sciences Research Council report concluded that … there is a real danger of voluntourists crowding out local workers, especially when people are prepared to pay for the privilege to volunteer.
Read more about responsible volunteering.
