Going for good
When Anthony Damaschino went on a vacation with his wife and kids last year, they didn’t jet to Hawaii or jaunt around Europe.
They went to Thailand and spent a day volunteering at an elephant sanctuary.
Then, in Cambodia, they helped teach English to students at an after-school program. “It was a great way to give back. And my kids will never forget it,” the 49-year-old California resident says.
The Damaschino family is part of the growing ranks of “voluntourists,” vacationers putting a philanthropic twist on experiential travel. An increasing number of travelers are incorporating a lend-a-hand spirit, even if adding only a day or so of volunteering to a typical globe-trotting itinerary.
Though the trend is hardly new, it tends to see an uptick after a year when natural disasters have been so dominant in the national consciousness — from devastating fires in California to earthquakes in Mexico to hurricanes ravaging Houston and a broad swath of the Caribbean — especially with so many in “the neighborhood.”
At the same time, however, critics have begun to put up “caution” signs about voluntourism, noting that, for all their good intentions, drop-in volunteers might be doing more harm than good.
“Go online, and you’ll see a ton of ‘volunteer’ organizations where you pay a lot of money to mostly get photographed with natives,” says Jeff Greenwald, a journalist and co-founder of the Ethical Traveler (ethicaltraveler. org), a watchdog group that ranks developing nations based on their ethical practices.
“Is it evil? No — you’re not sending locals to diamond mines,” Greenwald says. “But are you doing good? Not really.”
So how does a well-intentioned traveler make a difference?
A 2015 study sponsored by Tourism Cares, a nonprofit online community that pairs companies with needs, states that more than half of Americans engaged in some kind of philanthropy while on a recent trip, with the number of philanthropic millennial travelers reaching more than 80 percent. Other research predicts that volunteer travelers in the United States could hit 20 million by 2020.
Not surprisingly, tour companies, tourism organizations and even luxury cruise lines are adding volunteering experiences to itineraries. For example, Crystal Cruises’ “You Care, We Care” excursions let guests volunteer for a day at selected ports of call. Past experiences have included helping at a salmon hatchery in Sitka, Alaska, and joining a beach cleanup in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
United Kingdom-based Responsible Travel, for instance, an online travel booking site and resource that focuses on a more thoughtful approach to trips, offers more than 200 volunteer tours, from trekking in Nepal while rebuilding quakedamaged homes to working at a bear refuge in the Carpathian Mountains. Options generally include wildlife or habitat conservation, community projects, teaching or coaching and working with youth (although the company posts strict guidelines about volunteering that involves children).
But Claire Bennett, co-founder of the advocacy and information group Learning Service, believes that certain types of “drop-in” voluntourism can, in some cases, actually damage local economies.
“Most voluntourism programs aim to provide unskilled labor, such as building or painting things,” Bennett says. “But it’s rare for a country’s problems to stem from a lack of unskilled labor — they usually have that in abundance.”
The real concern, Bennett notes, is voluntourism’s simplistic approach to deeper socioeconomic problems. “Voluntourism can change fragile power dynamics in a community and perpetuate the ‘white savior’ complex,’ ” she says.
Perhaps most troubling are reports of truly harmful “volunteer” efforts, particularly those involving children and orphanages. (Reports of fraud and child trafficking cast a pall, as do discoveries that some orphanages have been filled with children who aren’t even orphans, just to pull in donations.)
That’s not to say that all farflung volunteer efforts have zero positive impact. The volunteers themselves often rave about the experience, Bennett says. “We have seen volunteers’ lives transformed by a short time spent abroad, and they go on to do things in the future that have a great impact, like volunteering at home, changing how they live or shop, and even switching careers.”
Travel expert Kerry Rogers is another voice in support of responsible voluntourism. “Yes, there are problems with voluntouring,” she admits. “But I don’t want people to just go back to their expensive lattes and think, ‘Wow, I dodged a land mine not signing up for that.’ ”
To help people find quality opportunities, she created Give a Day Global (giveadayglobal.org), a free, online clearinghouse for volunteer opportunities worldwide. Each activity is vetted by Give a Day Global, using questionnaires and in-country visits.
Another option: Lend your professional skills. This type of volunteer work usually lasts longer, with volunteers working like short-term consultants for specific skilled needs, rather than using unskilled laborers.
One company that facilitates this approach is Moving-Worlds (movingworlds.org). Its website showcases dozens of global projects — in arts, finance, architecture, even fashion — with stints for skilled workers averaging about two weeks. For a small fee, Moving Worlds will facilitate a match between your own skills and available postings. Before and during your trip, Moving Worlds staff provides support and on-site resources.
“The goal is to guide you, and to make sure that your work has a positive impact,” says cofounder Mark Horoszowski.
Travelers who want to make a difference, but who aren’t as hands-on, can lend support with tourism dollars, according to experts, especially in destinations where rebounding from a major catastrophe relies on the return of visitors.
Six months after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, for instance, most of the parts of New Orleans that are popular with visitors were up and running, but lingering perceptions about widespread devastation kept travelers away. Similarly, in Mexico City, fears that the city was destroyed by the earthquake in September have kept tourists away, making recovery more difficult for hotels, restaurants, shops and guides. (In fact, all major attractions reopened quickly.)
That doesn’t work everywhere, however. Infrastructure in Puerto Rico is still spotty enough that officials are encouraging people to donate to appropriate organizations rather than to visit on their own.
Greenwald, of Ethical Traveler, also is encouraging people to support with tourism dollars but within the broader scope of rewarding the ongoing practices of developing nations. The organization releases its annual “10 best countries” list in mid-January that includes developing nations that promote human rights and animal rights, preserve the environment, and support social welfare. These are the countries, according to Ethical Traveler, that should be supported by your travel dollars.
In the end, nearly any wellresearched attempt to make a difference tends to make a difference, both among those who need support and the travelers trying to help. The experiences in Thailand and Cambodia, says Anthony Damaschino, left an undeniably positive impression on his family — and its future travel planning. (Next up: a trip to South America, with plans to volunteer along the way.)
“There are a hundred lessons my kids learned — to have respect for other cultures, to understand that everything isn’t just about cellphones and living a Bay Area lifestyle,” Damaschino says. “It’s about being better global citizens.” Harriot Manley is a freelance writer.