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Orphanage tourism

December 2021

  • Orphanage in Phnom Penh, Cambodia

    Rights and freedom
    Urgent action needed to halt trafficking of children in world’s orphanages – report

    Millions of children worldwide are at risk of abuse and exploitation in institutions, often to attract funding from donors, says Lumos charity

October 2019

  • JK Rowling urges young people not to volunteer at orphanages – video

  • One Young World<br>Handout photo of Harry Potter auther JK Rowling speaking at the One Young World summit in central London. PA Photo. Issue date: Thursday October 24, 2019. See PA story ENVIRONMENT Summit. Photo credit should read: One Young World/PA Wire NOTE TO EDITORS: This handout photo may only be used in for editorial reporting purposes for the contemporaneous illustration of events, things or the people in the image or facts mentioned in the caption. Reuse of the picture may require further permission from the copyright holder.

    JK Rowling urges students not to volunteer at orphanages

November 2018

  • Maji Mazuri institute

    Stigma pushes disabled children into 'dangerous' Kenyan orphanages

    Report reveals widespread neglect in institutions, yet fierce discrimination means such children may be at risk of being killed if they remain in their communities

October 2018

  • A volunteer student tourist playing with young girl at the Orphanage at Sangkhlaburi. Kanchanaburi. Thailand<br>ENJ7EY A volunteer student tourist playing with young girl at the Orphanage at Sangkhlaburi. Kanchanaburi. Thailand

    The Audio Long Read
    The business of voluntourism: do western do-gooders actually do harm? – podcast

    A holiday helping out in an orphanage can be a rewarding experience. But voluntourism supports a system that is breaking up families

April 2018

  • Liberal senator Linda Reynolds

    Orphanage tourism a ‘scam’ fostered by Australians, Liberal senator says

    Linda Reynolds says ‘we need to be part of the solution’ after revelations 80% of children have a living parent or family

February 2018

  • baby in India

    Australia to curb tourism to foreign orphanages that exploit children for profit

  • Children play in the Jodie O’Shea orphanage

    'Most of the children still have parents': behind the facade of a Bali orphanage

September 2017

  • Children draw at a private orphanage in Myanmar.

    Australian government urged to ban orphanage tourism immediately

  • Senator Simon Birmingham

    Education minister vows to reduce support for orphanage tourism

August 2017

  • A family in Battambang, Cambodia, supported by the Cambodian Children’s Trust which works to keep families together and stop children going to orphanages.

    The race to rescue Cambodian children from orphanages exploiting them for profit

    Despite good intentions, Australians and others from western countries are often propping up Asian orphanages that separate children from families. Now there’s new efforts to tackle some of the consequences of ‘voluntourism’

September 2016

  • The ancient city of Bagan in Myanmar. The country is braced for the arrival of many more tourists but Unicef has warned about the dangers the influx might bring.

    'Orphanage tourism': fears of child exploitation boom as Myanmar opens up

  • A child sits in a wheelchair, reaching for the photographer

    Out of sight: the orphanages where disabled children are abandoned

May 2016

  • A group of African adults and children wave at the camera for a group photo

    Volunteers are fueling the growth of orphanages in Uganda. They need to stop

    Mark Riley in Kampala
    Orphanages are an intervention without an exit strategy and do nothing to solve problems that cause separation. Families need to be kept together

January 2016

  • Girls learn English in a small school in Cambodia

    Volunteer travel: experts raise concerns over unregulated industry

    Sending unqualified young people to volunteer with vulnerable people is unlikely to help communities, warn responsible tourism and child protection experts

May 2014

  • Modern-day slavery in focus
    Nepal's bogus orphan trade fuelled by rise in 'voluntourism'

    Poor parents routinely duped into sending children to homes where owners use them to extract money from foreign visitors

January 2014

  • cambodia orphans

    Cambodia: child protection workers call for end to ‘orphanage tourism’

    Professionals urge volunteers and visitors to stay away, saying their presence damages children and enables exploitation

November 2010

  • Ian Birrell

    Before you pay to volunteer abroad, think of the harm you might do

    Ian Birrell

    Ian Birrell: A damning report says that well-intentioned westerners do little to alleviate the lot of poverty-stricken children in developing countries

September 2009

  • kibera nairobi

    Kenya's slums attract poverty tourism

    Local organisations sell guided trips through Kibera, one of the world's largest slums

August 2006

  • Are these the new colonialists?

    Patrick Barkham: They're the students who go abroad to boost their CVs, have a laugh - and help out in the developing world at the same time. But this week a charity claimed that young people on gap-year trips risk doing more harm than good. We ask 10 volunteers what they think.

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