Travelers' Philanthropy Handbook - Center for Responsible Travel

Unwanted PhilanthropyThe Paint SyndromeThe following is written by Priscilla Macy, President of Global Sojourns.As we look at how we can assist those who are less fortunate, our focus often goes to “Whatcan we give them? What can we do?” As well meaning as these questions are, it is importantto be careful to avoid paternalistic attitudes and wasteful action. Too often those living ineconomic poverty have had projects implemented in their communities without their request,guidance or input and the efforts often end up making the visitors feel good but do little for thelocals and at times, causing more harm than good.Global Sojourns’ appreciates the comments by a Kenyanpastor who has Westerners visiting his church/communityfrom time to time. He finds that the visitors always want to“do something” and more often than not, they come up withthe idea of painting. So he lets them paint to feel like theyaccomplished something even though it was an unnecessarytask. We feel this situation is all too common and we’vecome to call this scenario, “The Paint Syndrome”.His comments: “You know, Americans always want to paintthings. They want to paint buildings, so we have a buildingwe let them paint. Usually we have to repaint the walls afterthe Americans leave because they don’t do a very good job.”Volunteers painting houses, NewOrleans. Credit: St. Bernard ProjectWe use this example to remind ourselves that we need to be careful about looking at a situationfrom our Western perspective in which “being productive” is a driving motivator. Unless there isa specific need and request for our skills, we find the best thing we can do is to focus on“absorbing” and developing relationships with our local partners rather than “doing”.Bali’s Orphanage ScamThe following is a portion a shocking article from the Bali Advertiser in Indonesia sent by JaneCrouch, Responsible Travel Manager for Intrepid Travel. Sadly, Bali isn’t the only place wheretravelers’ philanthropy is fostering exploitation. Jane sent CREST a similar article from SouthAfrica.Orphanages in developing countries are often run as profit centres, and Bali is sadly noexception to this evil practice. These facilities can be a lucrative business for the people whorun them. Many solicit donations in cash or kind from sympathetic tourists and expats which godirectly into the pockets of the owners or to benefit their families. Some orphanages use thechildren as slave labour, forcing them to work on construction sites and beg in the street insteadof sending them to school. Most of the orphanages here operate under religious banners;sadly, even a clerical collar is no guarantee that donations will not be misappropriated. How totell the good ones from the bad?177