‘Hug-an-Orphan’ holidays: Voluntourism and what we all need to know about ‘heroic’ journeys to the Global South

Caity Boyle

In December 2017, two friends and I travelled to Kathmandu, Nepal, to work in a disability rehabilitation centre in Gohkarna. We engaged with the children daily for three hours, taking videos and photos, helping them with homework, and playing with them after school. Prior to and after my trip, I was praised for my selfless journey to the Global South. I had been motivated by the positive testimonials I’d read online and felt as if I needed to develop as an individual before I set off to university and moved out of home. Volunteerism seemed to provide the opportunity to benefit a community, to grow as an individual and to learn about the world in a unique way that was different to the common Contiki trip through Europe. 

Funny thing is, maybe Contiki would have been better for the communities I thought I was helping. I wouldn’t have contributed to the lucrative and exploitative business of orphanage volunteerism, which has been linked to increased circumstances of child trafficking throughout Nepal. I acknowledge that this is a dangerous argument to make. My intention is not to discredit yours or your friends’ efforts to help alleviate suffering in these communities. Instead, I urge you to think critically about your experience, or your intention to set off on a similar journey to the Global South.

Here are a few things we all need to know about volunteerism:

What is Volunteerism?

Volunteering in foreign countries has become a common practice and rite of passage for young adults and high school graduates. Volunteerism sells itself as a way to provide individuals with the opportunity to ‘find themselves’ during trips to the Global South which directly benefit impoverished communities. Chances are that either you or someone you know has at one stage been a ‘voluntourist’. The popularity of Volunteerism has been increasing since the 90s, with testimonials, images, and videos shared globally with the development of the internet.

Volunteerism is actually illegal. 

When entering a country on a tourist visa, it is a condition that you cannot partake in work; paid or unpaid. Volunteering, as unpaid work, is therefore an illegal activity. 

Why is it so popular then? 

In 2008 volunteerism was estimated to be worth $2 billion USD. As a result, South East Asia’s tourism industry became the fastest growing globally in 2014. The reality is that governments within the countries frequently visited by volunteer tourists simply ignore legislation relating to the practice. Volunteerism is too important to many of these nations GDPs as it exists as one of the most lucrative sectors of tourism throughout the Global South. This opens it up to multiple forms of exploitation. 

Volunteerism specific to orphanages has resulted in the creation of Paper Orphans. 

The Australian Institute of Criminology defines ‘paper orphans’ as children who have been removed from their homes and communities by child traffickers so they may be reconstructed as orphans through falsified documents. They are then able to live in the orphanages throughout the main cities of popular tourist destinations in the countries like Nepal, Cambodia, and Thailand. As a result, Save the Children have reported that of the 8 million children living in orphanages worldwide, up to 90% are not actually orphans. 

When we pay for ‘hug-an-orphan’ holidays, we incentivise this process. In fact, by turning children into orphans, they’re subject to commoditization and can be made into profitable units. Our demand for these ‘heroic’ journeys generates a demand for a literal supply of orphans. As we pay for what these trips will do for us, we are led to believe that we are helping the very communities subject to these processes.

It’s a product of neoliberalism and neo-colonialism. 

What’s important to remember is that I was unaware of how detrimental my work in the Gohkarna orphanage could be until I started to critically think about volunteerism. If you have partaken in the practice, then I’ll assume that like me, you also didn’t know it was actually illegal or that it created markets of supply and demand directly linked to increased child trafficking operations. The reason volunteerism is depicted as being so beneficial is because of its underlying foundations; we operate as good citizens of the neoliberal Global North, attending to the needs of those who are less fortunate than ourselves. We are able to ‘help’ in these ways because of the privileging of Western knowledge, even within countries of the Global South. Regardless of the actual value of Western intervention, we are encouraged to ‘help’ these communities, a trope connected heavily to conceptions of the ‘white saviour’. 

Essentially, volunteerism is colonialism undertaken by members of neoliberal society. It maintains the dichotomous positions of power between the Global South and the Global North. In many ways, volunteerism is more problematic than it is beneficial. We only see it as selfless and positive due to the discourse that presents it as such. This is why we need to critically think about the practice.

What can we do about this? 

I’d like to make sure that any feelings of discomfort brought on by this article are addressed. It is important that we feel guilty for unintentionally having contributed to these experiences of suffering or exploitation. But it is more important that we take that guilt and turn it into passion to change the way the world works. 

Scholars, institutions and past volunteers have all identified the need for a shift in focus. We cannot continue to facilitate the ‘white hero’ fantasy. ‘Help’ cannot be the fundamental motivation for engaging with communities throughout the globe. It is invasive and privileges Western methods of knowing and doing. Instead, we need to recognise what communities want directly and work towards answering their unique needs and wants. The Australian Institute of Criminology argues that we must focus on the establishment of community-based projects, support for families and grassroots operations. 

Importantly, we need to disrupt the discourse of volunteerism. By informing people of how problematic our involvement abroad can be, we are able to reduce the demand. No demand means no need for supply. Obviously, the economic value of volunteerism must be attended to. New methods of engagement are thus required, for instance. tourism less focused on imposing Western knowledge upon communities and instead focused on respectfully learning about cultures. 

As we become more aware of our engagement with the world, we develop new understandings of our orientation to it. You don’t need to have photos of orphans all over your Instagram for people to know you’re a good person, so why continue partaking in a practice we now understand as detrimental? Let’s break boundaries, stop avoidable suffering, and reconfigure our understanding of the meaning of ‘best’.