A recent opinion piece on the Spinoff warned of the dangers of voluntourism, a term for programmes that charge travellers for short-term volunteer experiences. Here, two volunteering organisations tell Josie Adams why what they do is different. A tourism-volunteering hybrid, the burgeoning industry of “voluntourism” has been criticised for charging westerners thousands while costing communities … Read more
Back to university today? Beware the flashy voluntourism brochures promising a chance to save the world, writes AUT lecturer Daniel Crouch. It was my first day as a lecturer, February 2018, and I was feeling pretty nervous as students filed in. Just before the nine o’clock start, a young woman approached me at the front … Read more
Voluntourism – volunteering while abroad – would seem to be a way of making your OE that little less self-indulgent, leaving the communities you visit better than you found them. But what is intended as an act of charity can leave long-term damage, writes Hannah Reid. If you are thinking about volunteering abroad, we need to … Read more