Daniela Papi's Blog

Yikes.....

.... voluntourism is getting SO much press recently. I have read at least 3 articles in mainstream press, airline magazines, Travelocity.com, etc all touting the merits of voluntourism. You would think this would make me really happy.... but actually, it makes me a bit scared.

"Selling" the idea of voluntourism must be coupled with defining what responsible voluntourism entails. My fear is that increased demand for voluntourism will result in agencies poorly planning tours which add to problems rather than mitigate them.

For example.... Steung Menchey, the biggest garbage dump in Cambodia, is now being sold as a pseudo "voluntourism" site, when in reality, it is becoming a much more harmful form of tourism, "poverty tourism." On any given day, hundreds of Cambodian children and families can be found going through burning garbage on the dump, looking for metals or plastics they can sell back to recycling shops. On average, a family will be lucky to collect 50 cents per day worth of recyclables.

How do these kids get here? Some are sold to "pimps" who have them work on the dump, others are sent to the dump by rural families when subsistence farming is not providing enough income and options are limited. In other cases, whole families move to the dump as an alternative to begging on the street.

Now, if the idea of going to "see" this place, to take pictures with the kids and "help" by unorganized and unthoughtout means, is being sold to travelers as voluntourism, this leaves travelers in a position where they will likely perpetuate the problem.

Parents are SENDING their kids there. My mother has always reflected when I tell her these stories that the bonds of mother to child are so strong that those ties must have been weakened so much by the Khmer Rouge and people must be in really desperate states to be able to do such a thing as sell their child or send them to a dump.

So, before voluntourism, no foreigners were going to the dump. Kids worked and perhaps made some money to eat. What if a bus load of travelers comes? What if one or two of those travelers, not shown other options of where to allocate their money to really help the children in a sustainable way, feels compelled to give. He pulls a $1 bill out and passes it to a child.

I've seen it happen, it happens on the streets of Phnom Penh and Siem Reap all day every day, and where does that get the child? The "pimp" who controls that child's income, gets richer, he has more money with which to buy or rent other children, more parents send their kids to beg because it has suddenly become more profitable to do that, and the situation he set out to solve is twice as severe.

PEPY has brought trips to Steung Menchey in the past. My rational at the time - we were traveling with, and only with, the director of Cambodian Children's Fund. We would never go without CCF. CCF is an orphanage/training center (www.cambodianchildrensfund.org) which works to educate, house, and empower children from Steung Menchy. If PEPY travelers visited the dump, they were first given a talk by Scott Neeson, CCF founder, and were explained the complicated intricacies of "giving" in the area. Scott has personal relationships with families at the dump and we were always able to meet families who had sent their children to CCF school and hear about the impact this schooling was having. After the visit, we would go to CCF, tour the facility, and see a performance by the children.

At least 10 of our past participants are now sponsoring children at CCF, a donation of $100 per month. We are trying our best to offer responsible travel and voluntourism options which both educate participants and show them positive ways to support change. I believe the line between responsible and harmful travel is quite thin, and walking on the right side of this line takes constant reflection, impact analysis, and thought and most importantly the willingness to change and not offer what might be "popular" or "sellable" but what is the most responsible choice.

We are no longer taking groups to Steung Menchey. I believe we were doing our trips in a very responsible way, but I don't want to be a part of a growing group of travelers visiting the area. We are working with Scott and CCF to develop a nutrition program and routine health testing visits to the Steung Menchey. When these are up and running, we will perhaps send groups with him, as those groups will have a chance to be a direct form of positive change, not just a camera and a smile.

So, my hope for travelers who read about voluntourism and its new popularity will CHOOSE WISELY! There are SO many great and responsible voluntourism operators out there.....

My hope for tour operators who hear about this newly popular market is that they will ONLY offer voluntourism if they commit to doing it responsibly. If not, I hope they stay out and continue to offer their standard tours. If not I might be forced to stand out by the dump and wait for bus loads of tourists to roll up and hand out fliers. I hope it doesn't come to that.