Many global activism organizations, such as Invisible Children, primarily aim to raise awareness of the issues they advocate. This, I believe, is a huge problem. Instead of raising activism, we are raising awareness. Or, we're raising misled activism like white savior activism. Here's the truth: people should indeed be aware of the horrific events happening outside the safe, comfortable walls of developed countries. We need to be aware that over 43 million people worldwide today are being forcibly displaced from their homes due to armed conflict. We need to be mindful that famous brands such as Nike, Coca-Cola, H&M, Walt Disney, and Apple violate human rights as they move production to sweat shops in east Asian factories, taking advantage of child labor in order to increase profits. We need to be aware of the global health and human rights issues that surround us.
So first, we get people aware as they continue to sip their fair trade lattes and check facebook on their iPhones. If they feel up to it, maybe we can convince them to become activists! Tell somebody that there are starving children in Africa, and they might even act because they believe they must. After all, things are so FUBAR'd in Africa that the continent is simply incapable of saving itself, right? The poor, helpless Africans need us to save them.
This is the misled activism that I'm talking about. At Emory, I've met countless fresh-faced twenty-somethings eager to make a difference. "I volunteered at an orphanage/school/hospital in [insert developing country] and it changed my life/my eyes were opened/I felt so bad."
As altruistic as it sounds, the problem with these "service trips" is that they focus on the volunteer's quest for experience, instead of the recipient community's actual needs. The growing "AIDS orphan tourism" industry is making vulnerable children in the region even more vulnerable, because these children are being treated as commodities since they now have the potential for economic profit. Volunteers pay for the "privilege" to build a school or play with orphans for a few days. Moreover, most volunteers are unskilled and do not intend on staying in the area for an extended period of time. As a result, not only are volunteers taking away jobs from local workers, but the work that they do is usually not sustainable and low-skilled.
These volunteers are not helping the community. They are exploiting the community.
So first, we get people aware as they continue to sip their fair trade lattes and check facebook on their iPhones. If they feel up to it, maybe we can convince them to become activists! Tell somebody that there are starving children in Africa, and they might even act because they believe they must. After all, things are so FUBAR'd in Africa that the continent is simply incapable of saving itself, right? The poor, helpless Africans need us to save them.
This is the misled activism that I'm talking about. At Emory, I've met countless fresh-faced twenty-somethings eager to make a difference. "I volunteered at an orphanage/school/hospital in [insert developing country] and it changed my life/my eyes were opened/I felt so bad."
As altruistic as it sounds, the problem with these "service trips" is that they focus on the volunteer's quest for experience, instead of the recipient community's actual needs. The growing "AIDS orphan tourism" industry is making vulnerable children in the region even more vulnerable, because these children are being treated as commodities since they now have the potential for economic profit. Volunteers pay for the "privilege" to build a school or play with orphans for a few days. Moreover, most volunteers are unskilled and do not intend on staying in the area for an extended period of time. As a result, not only are volunteers taking away jobs from local workers, but the work that they do is usually not sustainable and low-skilled.
These volunteers are not helping the community. They are exploiting the community.