Child Protection – what is better than orphanages?

WTM 2019, London

Tuesday 5 November 2019

11:30-12:15 Child Protection – what is better than orphanages?

Responsible Tourism Notes

The issue of the exploitation of children in orphanages to create lucrative attractions for tourists was first raised at WTM London in 2011.  There has been a session on child protection every year since raising awareness of the child trafficking and exploitation of children, many of them not orphans, to secure donations and visit fees from tourists and tourism businesses. In 2019 WTM Responsible Tourism focused on what tourists and tourism businesses could do to support children in their extended families in the community and out of orphanages.

Moderator:

Martin Punaks, International Development and Child Protection Consultant

Speakers:

‘Luci’ Gardner-O’Brien, people and places: responsible volunteering
Damien Brosnan, The Code
Mehalah Beckett, Regional General Manager for Sub Saharan Africa, Intrepid

The following is a short summary of the presentations given as part of this panel.

Martin Punaks – International Development and Child Protection Consultant

• The issue of orphanage tourism and voluntourism has been discussed at WTM since 2011.
• Much has moved forward in a positive way since this time. Whilst previously we brought child protection professionals to talk on this panel about why orphanage visits are harmful, this year we are doing something different: we are showcasing models of good practice and solutions from within the tourism industry.
• In summary: there are believed to be over 8 million children living in ‘orphanages’ or other forms of institutional care around the world, and yet at 80% of them have at least one living parent.  The evidence shows that with the right support all these children they could be living with families – either parents or other forms of family-based care.  So why are they living in orphanages?  One of the reasons is that in many parts of the world orphanages are run as businesses – they separate children from their families deliberately to attract financial and material support from tourists, volunteers and other donors.
• Why are orphanage visits harmful to children?

• The orphanage model is harmful to children.  There is 80 years of evidence to prove this.  In particular institutional care means that children can develop harmful psychological attachment disorders, which later in life cause them problems with forming relationships, anxiety, depression, risk of suicide, more likely to be involved in crime, worse educational outcomes, etc.   This is a particular problem when children grow up being cared for by a rotating roster of international tourists and volunteers.  Children have better life-chances and outcomes if they grow up in family-based care, i.e. parents, kinship care, foster care, adoption. 
  • When orphanages are run as a business – as they are in many countries – they incentivise trafficking, i.e. the unnecessary removal of children from their families so they can be exploited as poverty commodities to attract financial donations from tourists, volunteers and donors.
  • Most tourists and volunteers who visit orphanages do not have the professional skills to look after vulnerable children.  This would not be allowed to happen in most visitors’ own countries.
  • Visiting orphanages, even by well-meaning visitors, leaves the door open to child abusers exploiting the system. 
  • Orphanage visits as a commercial activity fall foul of the broader criticisms of the voluntourism industry, i.e. prioritising the customer experience over the needs of the local community and the children.

• Martin’s work in Nepal on this problem began in 2012.  Next Generation Nepal (NGN) ran a good programme to rescue children from abusive orphanages, rehabilitate them, trace their families, reunify them safely and sustainably.  NGN had a 100% record of reunified children staying with their families.  But for every child taken back, another 50 were being trafficked into orphanages.
• So NGN set about trying to address the cause of the problem.  NGN documented the problem in a report called The Paradox of Orphanage Volunteering; worked with UNICEF and the Government of Nepal, and ran a conference to spread awareness in the tourism industry; worked with the local and international media; worked with embassies in Kathmandu, six of which changed their travel advice warning against orphanage visits; ran street dramas to spread awareness amongst local communities of trafficking; ran talks in a tourist pub to spread awareness with tourists and volunteers; joined the international ReThink Orphanages Initiative.  These initiatives started a lively debate, but didn’t make most travel and volunteering organisation change their business models.
• The tipping point came on 21 August 2016 when JK Rowling tweeted about the issue.  The media covered it widely and travel and volunteering organisations began to take it seriously.  This was followed by the Australian Modern Slavery Act which referenced orphanage trafficking, and the US TIP Report which referenced orphanage trafficking in 2017 and 2018.
• Following these developments, travel and volunteering organisations began to divest away from orphanage visits. This is a very welcome development.
• However, there is still much work to be done.  Two key questions being asked now:

• How do organisations divest away from orphanage visits responsibly and safely, so that children are not harmed?
  • What are the safe and responsible alternatives to orphanage visits?

• Martin and the Responsible Tourism Partnership have developed a resource to start to answer some of these questions – Beyond Orphanage Visits, available on the Responsible Tourism Partnership website.  ReThink Orphanages is developing a divestment resource which will be available soon.  Hope and Homes for Children and ABTA have also launched an Orphanage Tourism Taskforce.

Mehalah Beckett, Regional General Manager, Sub-Saharan Africa, Intrepid Travel

An Ethical Transition: Moving away from Residential Care

• As of May 2016 Intrepid no longer visited orphanages/residential care on its itineraries.
• 2017 Intrepid became Steering Group members of Rethink Orphanages (now Rethink Orphanages Australia).
• Worked with Alto Consulting for technical support in developing an exit strategy to move away from supporting residential care through the Intrepid Foundation.

Child Protection Training for Intrepid Foundation Partners:

Nairobi, Kenya- April, 2018

• Training was facilitated by local NGO- Child in Family Focus at our office in Nairobi.
• Focus was on the impact of residential care/institutionalisation and also the risks of allowing travellers access to vulnerable children.

Lima, Peru- November, 2018

• Facilitated by CHS Alternativo- a local Peruvian NGO.
• Training also focused on child protection (specifically on institutionalised care, tourism and voluntourism).

Child Protection and Child Safeguarding

• Our leaders and office staff receive child protection training.
• Provided child protection training for communities where we stay (CBT projects in Nepal, Cambodia).
• We have child protection guidelines, which are a part of our Responsible Travel Policy: no school visits, ask our groups not to hand out gifts to children.
• Marketing guidelines for content: refrain from including children on their own in marketing materials.

Support Organisations Working to Reintegrate Families

• e.g. Forget Me Not– Intrepid Foundation partner since 2017 works with local government agencies to rescue children who are being abused/neglected in residential care institutions.
• Carefully reintegrate children back with their families through family tracing and support.

Support Skills-Training and Income Generation for Families/Caregivers

• Poverty and access to education are two common reasons families place their children in orphanages and residential care.
• Support skills-training and income generation programs for parents/caregivers via the Intrepid Foundation.
• We incorporate social enterprises, community-based tourism initiatives and small, family-owned businesses into our supply chain and itineraries.

Damien Brosnan, The Code

• For over 20 years the focus of The Code of Conduct for the protection of children from sexual exploitation in travel and tourism (The Code) has been specifically on preventing sexual exploitation of children. We ask member companies to implement 6 specific criteria, which were designed by member companies, ECPAT and other advisors (UNICEF, UNWTO) as a practical set of measures that companies could take to increase the level of child protection in their operations.
• A few years ago it was recognised that the 6 criteria did not address the specific risks of voluntourism involving children and orphanages, so working group created to develop our voluntourism policy. This policy was developed with advice and inputs from our member companies and NGOs, as well as wider industry and child protection networks
• The policy applies to our 350+ member companies, as well as being a part of the vetting of potential new members. It sets out additional requirements for companies offering voluntourism products/services, including a zero-tolerance approach to orphanage tourism
• Through our network of Local Code Representatives (LCRs) we are helping tour operators, hotels etc identify responsible, child-safe alternatives for customers who wish to contribute to the community/country they are visiting. It is important to work also through the supply chain, both with source/destination operators, but also through networks of local drivers, travel agencies, other businesses
• Much of the focus has been on specific voluntourism providers, but there is also a recognition that many of our members may be in indirect contact with these activities, whether it be a European tour operator including a orphanage visit as an optional extra in one of its packages in South-East Asia, to a hotel concierge in Dominican Republic being asked by a guest for suggestions on where to go to visit a local orphanage and contribute time or money
• Example of one of our member companies, a German tour operator, which decided in 2016 that orphanage visits were inappropriate, but were concerned about how to shift away without risk to children (and to their customer base). It took some time to end the cooperation with orphanages, but through working with existing suppliers and instituting a “no orphanages” approach (and explanation) when negotiating with new suppliers, they have now finalised the transition
• Children are also part of the communities that tourists visit, and focus needs to also be on helping tourists, whether voluntourists or a cruise ship passenger, understand that their actions, even with best of intentions, can have lasting negative impact on children. Example of gift giving, which can lead to a culture of dependency. This process of education can continue through tourists themselves. Just as social media images of riding elephants are increasingly viewed with scepticism and criticism rather than envy, hopefully we can move in the same direction with posts about orphanage visits
• Our current policy does have some provisions for working with children outside of residential care settings, with additional criteria and safeguards required of these companies. There is a fine line between emphasising children’s safety and well-being, and restricting tourism to adult-only locations

Luci Gardner-O’Brien, people and places: responsible volunteering

• people and places match skilled and experienced volunteers to work with local people to help them build the future that they want for themselves.

• Badly handled volunteering and voluntourism have been widely recognised as harmful – the white saviour complex has been called rightly out – in which a privileged person “helps” a less privileged without taking into account their dignity, thus with a self-serving attitude.

• Recognition of this problem is not enough – we need positive solutions!

• One of the positive solutions is people and places’ latest campaign “Let’s Make The White Saviour Complex Yesterday’s News”

• The social media based campaign has focused on the plethora of images shared on online platforms every day – and turned photos of real life volunteering situations into illustrations. Why? Firstly we realised that a lot of photos being shared on social media were not repeating privacy guidelines, not to mention people’s dignity. So with our illustrations we can show images of real volunteering situations, good or bad, whilst protecting vulnerable individual’s identities. Also we are not interested in naming and shaming volunteers or companies, but we are committed to getting the message across.

• One of our main concerns with badly managed voluntourism is the devastating effect that it has on children. Why would you let someone who is potentially unqualified, unchecked and with no expertise walk into an orphanage and think that they could work with children? An essential question we must ask ourselves: if I’m not allowed to do it at home, why should I be allowed abroad? We would not walk into a nursery in the UK, cuddle a baby and post a selfie – in fact we wouldn’t even get through the door!

• There are better ways of volunteering. You can be a responsible and ethical volunteer. As part of our campaign we offer advice and guidelines about how volunteers and organisations can contribute positively. For example, support community based projects, support the families of the children who end up in orphanages.

• For example, do not replace local labour, do work with local people. Support the future that they want, not that you think they should have.

• We, the travel industry and the child protection specialists need to change people’s attitudes, and negative campaigning is not enough! We’re not just commenting, we want to improve things! We have a responsibility to provide sustainable programs and guide people towards responsible volunteering.

by Martin Punaks – International Development and Child Protection Consultant