Voluntourism and Our Students: How Do We Avoid Creating “Barbie Saviors?”

The well-intentioned student globetrotter.  They travel to Africa to volunteer as orphan caregivers for a week.  They spend thousands of dollars to fly to Haiti to help build a school.   This “voluntourism” can look great on the surface, but is it helpful or harmful for our students and these communities?

Voluntourism is big business and a growing trend among young people.  Between “social impact cruises,” third-party organizations offering pricey, pre-made volunteer trips, and fellowships that offer money for overseas project development, our students have a myriad of opportunities to engage in this brand of volunteering.  The impetus for student volunteerism often times is an experience with a mission trip in high school.  Perhaps they draw their inspiration from a reading in their sociology class or from an image in the media of a philanthropic celebrity.  With full hearts and full pockets, students embark on short-term journeys to tackle big social issues in foreign communities.  So what’s the big deal?  Volunteering oversees seems like an admirable thing to do.  We want students to be do-gooders.  We want them to chase their dreams.  We want them to be excited and to want to change the world.  But we know that there is a significant amount of unintentional harm that can be done in volunteer efforts.  Like many of us in the community engagement/social justice arenas of higher education, our staff wrestles with questions related to the tension that is often felt through these programs. 

A popular Instagram called @barbiesavior, while hysterical and over-the-top, highlights many challenges of the world of student service.  Barbie is in Africa running an NGO that harnesses “broken white hearts” to provide clean water to locals.  In a recent post, White-presenting Savior Barbie kneels before an African child and places a hot pink high heel on her foot: “Thanks so much @heather.heywood.makeup.artist for convicting me and inspiring me to take the next step in my work here. You are right. The lack of high heels in this country is devastating. So today, one heel at a time, I am changing the face of Africa as we know it. #heelsforthemosthigh #clipclopdontstop #changemysole #offensifabulous #healingheels #heels4realz #barbiesavior #heelsyeah.”

For our staff in the Community Engagement & Leadership Center at SMU, this account elicits so many emotions and discussions.  We try to design programs here at SMU, such as Alternative Breaks, that emphasize the social issue(s) rather than the destination.  In our trip planning and student leader development, we focus on community-based change—not just going into a community to try and “fix” them, but rather inviting community members to act as central change agents in empowering their community.  But how do we really guide student volunteers to move beyond good intentions toward humble, learning-centered volunteering that responds to true community-identified needs?

A few questions to ponder:

• Are the beneficiaries of voluntourism the local communities or the well-meaning student volunteer?
• What are the ethical considerations of voluntourism?
• Are volunteers doing more harm than good?
• As student affairs professionals, should we be concerned more about the impact on local communities or the learning and development of the student?  Is it possible to do both?