#decolonise_the_gap_year

It is a sunny Thursday afternoon. Once again, you are scrolling through your feed; a picture of young kids in an impoverished village somewhere ‘far away’, captioned: ‘Will miss these ones, these past 2 weeks have been so great! Made so many connections. #doing_my_part’. You sigh, and scroll some more.

Text Kyriaki Mallioglou Image Islay Kilgannon

We know it as ‘voluntourism’, by no means a totally destructive venture, yet it can certainly turn sour when done in a hasty fashion. The most common form of ‘voluntourism’ exists as the widely known and somewhat elusive ‘gap year’. This consists of a year or longer where young people take the time to ‘find themselves’ either before or after their higher education. You may read this and say ‘Hey, that’s me’ or adversely snicker at the prospect of a gap year entirely. Regardless of affiliation, gap years exist, and money-grabbing volunteer tourism exists right along with it.

The Bad

The Good Volunteering has always been a revered profession or hobby, and for good reason. There are countless institutions and projects built from the ground up in order to genuinely help and better the lives of humans, turtles and honeybees alike. In violent and poverty stricken areas it is imperative that there is a flow of well rested volunteers ready to take on the task of helping. Voluntourism gives youth a platform through which to join in and give something back to the world. No doubt a fulfilling and world-building endeavour. It gives young people a chance to travel and find things out for themselves. For many of the young kids joining these programmes, it will be their first exposure to extreme poverty, famine or the truly scary effects of climate change. All of which will be relayed back to their peers and in turn hopefully instigate change. Also, at the beginning of many of these programmes, training about cultural sensitivity and White saviourism takes place to keep selfie-seekers shamed enough that they do not use the experience as a stepping stool in their own societies. However, this training is not exactly followed up on and only truly self-reflective people will take it to heart. This brings me to my next points.

The volunteer gap year takes funding. Usually paid for by the volunteers themselves. Without even thinking about the transport tickets, volunteer programmes can cost anywhere from $3800-$5000. This price tag takes into account accommodation, medical needs, mental health aids and other field expenses of the volunteers. This creates an inherent wealth gap stacked against those who can afford it and those who cannot. Further enhancing this gap is the uneven spread of how charity money is used. Namely how little of the donations is invested into benefiting the projects. In our world today, more wealthy (White) people can afford to go on excursions, dubbed ‘poverty tourism’, than any other group. It is especially concerning that gapyear voluntourists are taking on teaching and building jobs when they are unskilled in the profession. The problematic imagery that comes with these adventures is what critics of these programmes base their viewpoint on: hiring a volunteer should come with proof of credentials, not just skin colour and a high school diploma. The neo-colonial White saviour practices that these programmes are propagating are eerily reminiscent of the ‘civilising’ missions of forefathers lost in the passage of time. Charity work done in this manner can always have the drawback of creating more harm than good. A bit of tact can go a long way. This idiom can only be applied to the programmes that truly create a change in the communities they are based in.