Today being International Volunteer Day, we’d firstly like to give a big shout out to all those who are currently or use to volunteer for Our Sansar!
Secondly we thought we’d focus on the recent, and highly troubling documentary broadcast on Channel 4 by Unreported World:
Voluntourism
Haven’t seen it?? Let me paint you a picture:
You’ve saved up a load of money and decide rather than going on an all out holiday, you’re going to volunteer. Lovely. So you jet off across the world to some foreign destination in order to help at an orphanage, wildlife reserve, school, sanctuary etc – you get the picture. All under the premise that you’re truly helping a worthy cause (and for that warm tingly feeling you get from helping someone else).
But what if say the children at that orphanage you’re volunteering at aren’t actually orphans?? Ok, not so big a shock, some children leave home for numerous reasons, yes. But what if they were taken from their home? What if they were taken either forcibly or with false promises of a brighter future?
Not sounding so good now is it?
Unreported World highlights the dangers of VOLUNTOURISM.
Essentially exploiting volunteer workers for their cash, with little of that money ever truly seeing the cause. This episode looks at an orphanage in Nepal and highlights the appalling treatment of children as mere commodities. Shocked enough yet?
If you haven’t already watched it you can still catch the episode on 4OD, or here’s the short:
This programme would undoubtedly make anyone nervous about volunteering abroad again! So we’re joining in International Volunteer Day to help dispel any concerns any potential volunteers for Our Sansar might have.
If you’d like to find out more about volunteering for us either in Nepal or here in the UK please check out our site: https://oursansar.org/what-you-can-do/
and feel free to either Tweet us or Facebook us all day tomorrow with any questions BIG or small that you might have and we’ll try to get back to you with a speedy response!
Also if you have any comments or experiences you’d like to share, please write to us!
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