THE PROBLEM
I’m going on a volunteering gap year. How do I find the right developing world orphanage for me?
After seven years a prisoner of the British schooling system, I am ready to know more than exams. I want to travel to other countries, and have the chance to 'give something back'. I'd love to help out at an orphanage. But, how do I find the right developing world orphanage for me?
The Fix
We can be heroes, just for one day…
Culture reveals how people think. David Bowie released his ‘Heroes’ album in 1977. Its title song was a commercial flop, barely even scraping into the UK music charts. And yet, almost 50 years later, the anthem still resonates with the British public. Why?
Psychologists say we look up to people because they embody an ‘ideal’ morality. Growing up means learning what’s ‘right’ and ‘wrong’. We develop a sense of justice.
That inspires us to make a mark on the world. We admire those improving the lives of others.
Over the last three decades, 'voluntourism' has become a rite of passage for many school leavers. Often that means working with vulnerable children while traveling the world.
It’s inspired by the same brain mechanics that keep us on the right side of the law. The conviction that it’s a valuable way to ‘give back’.
And why wouldn’t it be?
What could be wrong with orphanage volunteering?
And yet...
We’ve been misled.
The internet’s saturated with Western perspectives on volunteering in developing countries. Often, it's presented it as an adventure. The wider 'voluntourist' industry is now worth an estimated $3 billion a year.
It's easy to overlook how it can negatively impact the communities themselves.
Working with vulnerable children requires specialist training. That goes without saying in the UK. So, why don’t we apply the same standards to child safeguarding in other countries?
What does it say about how we view the people that live there?
Unfortunately, many orphanages don’t ask for specialist training in staff or volunteers. This can impact children and babies for the rest of their lives.
A 2009 study on Romanian orphanages revealed just how damaging this can be. Being institutionalised from a very young age can harm brain development.
In babies and toddlers under three, the impact is akin to lead poisoning or drug use during pregnancy.
A culture of neglect
In 2019, we released a report into institution-based care in Indonesia.
Our researchers looked at how children were being affected by being placed in these institutions. We found, 'the quality of care and education in many institutions are poor, and many children are neglected...[and] abused. For a child, the most protective environment is the family; even poor families provide much more love, security and protection than even the best childcare institutions.'
Why orphanage volunteering is a thriving industry
And yet, orphanage volunteering remains a booming industry. Unfortunately, the longer it thrives, the more children will suffer.
Just 20% of those in orphanages are orphans. In some countries that figure is even higher. Our investigation found that 90% of childeren in Indonesian orphanages have at least one living parent.
Despite this, they’re still being institutionalised.
So how come they end up there?
Our researchers found that – on average – it’s 10 times more expensive to fund orphanages than childcare in communities. Orphanages are also a lot less safe and much worse for child wellbeing than this alternative.
So why are they thriving?
Incoming funding makes this worthwhile. That money is coming from overseas volunteers.
In other words – volunteering in ‘developing world’ orphanages is inadvertently supporting dangerous, unregulated institutions. Those institutions can prevent children from building futures for themselves. This cycle deepens local dependence on well meaning volunteers.
Our projects, such as Families First, which reunites children in orphanages with their families. And, successful nitiatives to improve safeguarding laws, are not enough to solve this issue.
That requires the end of orphanage volunteering altogether.
The only way you should be interacting with this process is through exiting it.
