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Is voluntourism with children ethical?

Whole families can now volunteer to help people in poverty in developing countries. But should they? Yes, says Jane Anderson, after a trip to Rajasthan - Jane Anderson
Whole families can now volunteer to help people in poverty in developing countries. But should they? Yes, says Jane Anderson, after a trip to Rajasthan - Jane Anderson

My sister Louise was eyeing me sceptically from across the windowless room of Ganeshi Bai’s home in Kamoda, a community of eight families in the Aravalli mountains in Rajasthan. By day this room, which has no electricity or running water, serves as kitchen, dining and sitting room.

At night, Ganeshi Bai brings out plastic bags stuffed with old clothes for herself, her husband and their four children, aged from eight months to 19 years, to sleep on. In the patch of light shining through a hole in the tin roof, I could see that Louise was trying to send a message, as her eyes flicked back and forth from me to my two children, Scarlett, aged 13, and Fin, who is 10.

We had come to northern India to “help”, and this was precisely what was troubling Louise.      

Globalisation means that my children have access to so much more than Louise and I did when we were young. But it’s filtered; while the South Korean song Gangnam Style had its moment when Fin was in reception, and the children cut their skiing teeth in Norway, these are superficial incursions into wealthy parts of the globe.

Even well-executed CBBC news programmes on poverty are a world away from witnessing the staggering inequalities that exist. What if we could go to Rajasthan and make friends, learn about a different way of life, see beyond the cursory “cultural” events – Bollywood dancing lessons, hennaed hands – usually put on by tour operators?

By immersing yourself in local culture, your children return home with a new sense of the world, says Jane Anderson - Credit: Jane Anderson
By immersing yourself in local culture, your children return home with a new sense of the world, says Jane Anderson Credit: Jane Anderson

And this was how I found myself with Louise, Fin and Scarlett, learning to make chapatis. With flies buzzing around us in the 104F (40C)-degree heat, Fin rolled a lump of dough into an acceptable circle, and Ganeshi popped it into her wood-fired oven.

This oven was a big step up from the open fire she used to rely upon. It uses less firewood, and the new challah (pipe) extracted smoke from the room; billowing smoke is the cause of many respiratory diseases in rural Rajasthan. When we gazed up at her ceiling, it was still covered in soot.

Ganeshi, a strong, petite woman who is probably in her late 30s, also used to drink water directly from her well, but with health education, she now boils all of the family’s drinking water.

These effective changes, along with a watertight grain storage container, were instigated by Me to We, the Canadian social enterprise through which we’d received our invitation to Ganeshi’s house.

Founded 21 years ago by teenaged brothers who wanted to help reduce poverty worldwide, half of Me to We’s annual net profits , which come from trips like ours, and from its ethical lifestyle brand, are donated to the We Charity. The other half is reinvested to keep the enterprise sustainable.

Me to We included a wall-building exercise which our reviewer said was a mistake - Credit: Jane Anderson
Me to We included a wall-building exercise which our reviewer said was a mistake Credit: Jane Anderson

Voluntourism (volunteer tourism) is much criticised. The notion that affluent, usually white, foreigners can sweep into a community for a week or so , without the right skill sets, and make a difference is , of course, ludicrous. It was just this sort of “help” that had raised Louise’s sckepticism; J K Rowling and Philip Goodwin, the CEO of Voluntary Service Overseas, have expressed concerns over poorly managed ‘voluntourism’ placements.

But Me to We comes with a good pedigree: its founders have collaborated on projects with Jane Goodall and Desmond Tutu. Malala Yousafzai, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, went on one of its trips, which focus on volunteering and leadership around the world, and are hosted everywhere from Kenya to Nicaragua to Arizona.     

The key to Me to We’s success, and what sets it apart from other voluntourism operators, is that it raises funds by partnering with tour operators –- in our case, Audley Travel –- to add cultural immersion sections on to trips, using the profits to sponsor change in the communities travellers visit. But this is just an add-on to its main work: Me to We believes that providing education offers the single greatest social return in the eradication of poverty. Its other pillars are clean water and sanitation, health, alternative income and livelihood, and agriculture and food security.

I reminded Louise to hold her tongue as we stepped outside to meet the 10 “super goats”, a donation from Me to We. The hero moniker comes from the fact that these goats produce more milk, grow faster, and have a higher rate of twins than ordinary goats. Ganeshi can sell them for $100 (£76), which is five months’ income for a local farmer.

Ganeshi explained to Scarlett and Fin that, thanks to these goats, she had formed a co-operative with a dozen other women, and that together they had opened their own bank account for the first time, allowing them to loan money.

It did not escape Scarlett’s notice that this was massively empowering: financial freedom means that Ganeshi is far more likely to send her daughters to school, as she won’t need to rely on their work in the fields for income.     

Jane Anderson and her family visited a primary school - Credit: Jane Anderson
Jane Anderson and her family visited a primary school Credit: Jane Anderson

Women in the village do much of the work. For example, they carry water from the well, balancing ceramic pots on their heads. As I watched Scarlett and Fin try to balance just one empty pot at a time, I noticed something I don’t often see on family holidays: they were more focused on their hosts than on themselves as they tried to learn a new skill.     

Laughing along with the children at their clumsiness, Naveen, our Me to We coordinator, told how Ganeshi Bai and her friends balance up to three of these five-litre pots at once, full of water, walking up to three miles many times a day. Naveen put things in perspective: a modern lavatory uses six litres of water to flush just once. My children’s eyes were wide. And while the rest of our 12-day trip around Rajasthan, visiting temples, travelling through breathtaking scenery, and sampling endless food, was a joy, it’s these four days in the Aravalli Range that have stuck most with us.     

Because this is part of a larger trip that is meant to be a pleasure as well as a learning experience, the accommodation at Aravalli Cottages is elegant and luxurious. While this contrast wasn’t lost on me or my children, the beautiful villa we were staying in was built by local craftsmen, and was a comfortable base.

Steve McCurry's India
Steve McCurry's India

One day we built a wall, part of a new classroom at a secondary school. And this was a mistake on the part of Me to We. For even as I watched Scarlett gain satisfaction from laying brick after brick –- and as our guides reassured us that local craftsmen had done most of the work – I was conscious that this is the clichée of voluntourism: getting Westerners – children, at that – to do jobs they could not perform at home.

Far more successful was a visit to the primary school in Kalthana village. A priest greeted us with prayers and an exchange of cotton bracelets in an elaborate welcome Scarlett found overwhelming. But then she was introduced her to children at the school, and joined in a local board game that transcended language barriers. This gave way to smiles, gesturing and camaraderie. Scarlett observed later that she imagined their visit made the school children feel special – but that it had made her feel special, too, to be a part of a group that is bringing positive change to children like her.     

So, what is the legacy of our trip? It may be a small change, but Fin has been asking for fewer flash new clothes, saying he’d rather have “just what I need”. Scarlett has grown interested in women’s rights since our return, telling friends that girls her own age in Rajasthan might stop going to school because there is nowhere private for them to deal with menstruation.

As for Louise, she characterises our trip to Rajasthan as one of the most astonishing experiences of her life. “I saw people living a harsh subsistence way of life. Even at my age, I didn’t realise that people actually lived like this.”

The experience was both sobering and life-affirming. And that can only be a good thing.     


The package

A 12-day tailor made itinerary through northern India with Audley Travel (01993 838300; audleytravel.com), including four nights at the Me to We (metowe.com) Aravalli property (all meals and experiences included), plus a night each in Shahpura and Agra, and two nights each in Jaipur and Delhi (all B&B) costs from £3,995 per person, based on two adults and two2 children, sharing two rooms. Includes private, guided excursions, international and one domestic flight as well as a private vehicle and driver throughout.

When to go

The best time to go is between October and March, after the monsoon and when the desert sun isn’t so intense.