• Home
  • About us
    • Get Updates from Women Travel
    • WomenTravelBlog.com meets WomenTravel.info
  • Tours for women
    • Stories of Tours
  • Accommodation
    • Accommodation Stories
  • Retreats
    • Retreat Stories
  • Local Guides
    • Local Tour Guide Stories
  • Tour Companies
    • Tour company Stories
  • Cheap Travel Insurance
    • OnLine Booking

Women Travel The World

Women Travel - stories and news for women travellers, solo travelers

womentravelannimated banner

  • Story Map
  • Destination Stories
    • Europe
    • North America
    • Asia
    • Australasia and the Pacific
    • Africa/Middle East
    • Central/South America
  • Niche Stories
    • Women Travel India
    • Women Travel New Zealand
    • Adventure Tourism
    • Budget Travel
    • Business Travel
    • Cycling Women
    • Eco/Sustainable Tourism
    • Food and Wine
    • Girlfriend getaways
    • Lesbian Travel
    • Packing Tips
    • Photography
    • Travel Resources
    • Volunteering
  • Links
    • Women Travel Links – our pick of the best
    • Rosemary’s Pick of Links For Volunteer Links and Work Exchange Travel
  • For WT Business
    • About Women Travel
    • Advertise Women Travel Businesses
    • Women’s Travel Business – Join us
    • WTW Promotional Items
    • Updates from Women Travel
    • Link to Women Travel
    • Login NOW
  • Travel Writing
    • Guest Bloggers Welcome
    • Women’s Travel Writing

Doing good while travelling? What’s wrong with voluntourism?

May 31, 2020 by Rosemary

I walk along the brown Thu Bon river,in the  golden beauty of the UNESCO World Heritage town of Hoi An. I skirt the groups of Japanese tourists in traditional dress, Vietnamese women slender in white Ao Dai, and older women enticing me on to their brilliantly painted boats. I am neither tempted nor diverted: my goal is in sight.  An ethical, local based craft collective, a charity that helps disadvantaged Vietnamese people and their families to become self sufficient.

Blessed air conditioning polished floor, elegant displays. Fine embroidery, handstitched tablecloths limpid silk scarves. Not your usual crowded market at all, but I recognise the handwork of the Hill tribes in the north of Vietnam. In Sapa,  I observed the traditionally dressed women in the public squares with their children, bargaining, selling, scratching a living. This is much the same product but in a very different environment.

An Australian voice welcomes me. She describes her annual trip to Vietnam- 3 months every year helping with the products and people associated with the shop.

All the makers here are paid a fair wage, so they can send their children to school. We give them advice about what sells best, we support them to keep these crafts alive and productive.

Now that I have read It’s Not About Me: Discovering Voluntourism is a Problem, Not a Solution, I ask myself, Is that voluntourism?

In neighbouring Laos, there is a picturesque little town in the north called Luang Prabang. This is where the Mekong river is joined by the Nam Khan river. A must-do is to get up at dawn and walk to the street leading from the temple. You take packages of food , and you sit quietly and respectfully on the edge of the high gutters . You hear the bells first, ringing out in the morning mist, then you see the long orange line of monks coming toward you. The youngest, smallest monks come first, then they get bigger and older, all carefully processing in increasing size,like an old fashioned sports team.

You bow your head and hold out your offering, which is received silently, wordlessly. The procession moves off into the distance, and you turn back toward your guest house, knowing you have done well, you have been generous, you have contributed to the local people.

Later in the morning I walk up to the house of Big Brother Mouse. I sit at a long dining table and wait for a local to join me. Sometimes my partner  is a young shaven head monk, sometimes a teacher from a local school. Often it is a well dressed business woman who owns two very smart dress shops on the main street. They all come with excellent grammar and vocabulary, but they want to practise their spoken conversational English with a native speaker. It is fun, like meeting friends in a café. It seems to be contributing something , I feel like I am offering something in return for the privilege of travelling in this  little country with a big sad story. IS this voluntourism, I ask?

Was that a ‘good thing’ to do? Was it wrong to have these short-term encounters?

I am beginning to doubt myself, having read Sally Hetherington’s book.

Sally is an Australian woman who travelled to Cambodia on a short term assignment with a development agency.

In 2011, while working in a financial sector job in Sydney, Sally came across statistics that frustrated her like how 1 in 4 Cambodians over the age of 15 are illiterate. Sally bought a one-way ticket with the one mission: to help build the Human Hope Association (HHA) become a social enterprise and be self-sustainable.

For almost four years, Sally Hetherington OAM worked as an Operations Manager for Human Hope Association, one of Cambodia’s ethically driven grassroots organisations which is now sustainable, being solely operated by locals who have overcome poverty themselves.

It is a fascinating story. She describes dealing with numerous well-intentioned volunteers, and with insensitive tourists, led by enthusiastic tour guides with no idea of the impact of their visit. Sally and her team established schools for the local children with carefully designed programs, which were regularly disrupted by a group of tourists wanting to teach them a song and pose for the poignant picture.  The mental health of the teachers, associates and of Sally herself was regularly challenged by unthinking do- gooders and go-getters. Finally they banned volunteers, and began the process of indigenising all the staff.

The aim was to make the program entirely run by locals, and providing the training and support to make this happen.

Sally was heartbroken to leave Cambodia but ‘it isn’t about me and my wishes. This is about empowering Cambodians to take care of and empower other Cambodians so that the country can grow and thrive, which is exactly what sustainability should be about.’

She is now back in Australia, and the CEO of Human and Hope Association Incorporated, which is about Empowering Communities to reduce inequalities. https://humanandhope.org/

SO does she support any kind of volunteering or tourism? Yes, for Human and Hope, you can volunteer  in marketing, fundraising, social media and events coordination, all based in Australia! She organises ethical travel to Cambodia intended to inject money into the Cambodian economy. https://humanandhope.org/travel-to-cambodia/. The trip is limited to 10 people and has been rescheduled to 2021, because of Covid 19.

What do I now think about the Luang Prabang experience of English conversation? It is not exploitative, it is probably of some short term benefit, and it certainly raises awareness. So I checked  the Big Brother Mouse website.

I was so pleased to see that ‘Big brother Mouse is a not-for-profit, Lao-owned business, licensed by the government since 2006. All of our paid staff is Lao, and they earn a living by working here: we have no foreign paid staff. The aim is to educate young people, with high quality books and exciting inter-active schools.’ http://www.bigbrothermouse.com/

And the beautiful shop promoting local craft and art in Hoi AN which I visited two years ago? The website says it is now closed, because their focus is now solely on fundraising  (in Australia) for educational scholarships.

If travel broadens the mind, then reading about what happens if you include some volunteering in your itinerarywill challenge your mind, and probably make you rethink.

Sally tells a great story about her personal journey and discoveries and decisions, her heart and mind adventures, and her determination to make this part of the world a better place.

 ‘It’s Not About Me: Discovering Voluntourism is a Problem, Not a Solution
Sally Hetherington OAM | CEO
Human and Hope Association Incorporated

Filed Under: Eco/Sustainable Tourism, Sustainable Travel, Volunteering

Keep in Touch with Women Travel

  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
email list sign up

WTW Quick Links

  • Accommodation for Women Travelers
  • Womens Tour Calendar
  • Womens Tour Business
  • Women Local Guides
  • Retreats for Women

More Stories here

Local Websites

wtnz Women Travel India

Great Packing Advice

whattowear

Women Travel NZ Blog

Rosemary Neave PO Box 17727 Sumner Christchurch 8840 New Zealand Phone +64 27 289 0383 Email Rosemary

Women Travel the World

Accommodation and Tours for Women in New Zealand around the World

Women Travel the World Blog

Stories from Women Travelers

Web2Blog:

Would you like a website like this? You can have one! Contact Rosemary

Rosemary on Trip Advisor

Follow Rosemary's travel and reviews around the world

Tags

Adventure Women Bali Indonesia Bushwise Women Camino de Santiago de Compostela ceridwyn parr Cooking classes Cruises cycling holidays cycling women Food and wine India Ireland Italy Kenya Kerala keralablogexpress Ladies trekking Club Lyn Taylor Morocco New Zealand Paris Tour pilgrimage Portugal Rensina van den Heuvel retreat for women Safari sailing shopping skiing solo traveler Solo Women travel Spain Sustainable Tourism Thailand tours for women Tuscany VakanShe Venus Adventures volunteer travel Walking Tours what to pack Wild Women Expeditions womens travel blog women travel women trekking
Olivia Jones Uluru Photo
Olivia Jones Uluru Photo Uluru base ride
Olivia Jones Uluru Photo
Blue Walk Walking Vacations - mindful walking
Global heart journeys
Wild women expeditions

Copyright © 2023 · Magazine Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in