Yes, that week in Uganda really didn't make a difference. As Spring Break reins across the country, there are a ton of people going abroad to "help the needy" rather than drink away their problems on the beach or binge watch Netflix in the comfort of their homes. You may be tempted to think that those kinds of people are morally superior, especially since they often have the pictures to prove it, but that's just simply not the case. In fact, they may be making things a little bit worse, if not doing absolutely anything at all. So feel free to catch up on the latest episode of Jane the Virgin, or re-watch Parks and Rec, at least you're not harming anyone! Here are some reasons why short-term service trips are useless from a global perspective.
1) The volunteers are often fulfilling themselves rather than fulfilling the lives of others
Everyone has their own spiritual journey to take in this world, but trying to gain enlightenment at the expense of others is not the right way to discover your privilege. If you're doing this for you rather than for them, then you're doing it wrong.
2) Temporary solutions do not usually fix chronic societal problems
Oppression, racism, sexism, homophobia, education, healthcare, labor, economics, politics, the list can go on and on. It would be a miracle for someone to fix any of those problems within a year, nevertheless two weeks.
3)Those that find themselves attached/adapted to short-term volunteers will be devastated once they leave, especially if they're children within unstable living conditions
Imagine being five years old, without any friends in the whole wide world, living in a world of uncertainty, then bonding with someone incredible for a week. Suddenly, they are out of your life forever, leaving you in the same wreckage you were in before.
4) It's really offensive
If volunteering in an orphanage is on your "bucket list" then you may have a problem viewing people as people. Tourist volunteerism has even devastated many parts of the world that create businesses that profit from it like, like orphanages that kidnap non-orphans because they know there's a demand to see their sad faces in order to make yourself feel like a good person for visiting them.
5) SERVICE TRIPS WASTE A TON OF MONEY!! $$$$$
This is huge for me. Service trips are a multi-billion dollar industry, why not just invest in the community itself. If six Americans who want to travel to Tanzania, in order to volunteer, pull their funds together then they can invest in the salary of a doctor there. In fact, there are many organizations out there that are willing to do that for you!
6) Service trips create a dependence on volunteers
The goal of volunteering should be to help create a system of self-sufficiency and independence in the area you're volunteering in. Yet, if you're not really making any change and are just providing little services, people will just grow to depend on those little services. Only working on long-term solutions can create a necessary and important change.
7) Volunteers may not necessarily have the skills to help
Let's say you're a construction worker or an engineer, you'll probably be of use when building houses in a region devastated by environmental destruction. If you're a teenage that's never built a thing in his life, then you probably won't be of much use. In fact, you may just be taking away a local's job.
8) Service Trips create an "other"
If you volunteer, you are not a savior. You are not better than those you are trying to help. You are not rescuing anyone. Click here to read more about how harmful this "white savior industrial complex" can be.
