8/10/2019 1st Speaker Debating - Voluntourism

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Good evening adjudicator, negative team and audience. Tonight, we the affirmative team will be

outlining the reasons why volunteer tourism, or voluntourism as it is commonly termed, should be

prohibited by Australia. We define volunteer tourism as travelling overseas, with thespecific

intention of participating in voluntary, unpaid work typically for a charity. There are a number of

issues associated with Australian volunteers taking part in these projects, and tonight we will be

arguing that these reasons are proof enough that volunteer tourism should be prohibited. I, as the

first speaker will be introducing the theme that charity needs to start at homewe need to help

ourselves before we help others, and if we are unwilling to do so then we need to question the true

moral intentions of flying thousands of kilometres overseas to simply give back to those in need.

Our second speaker will be arguing further that volunteer tourism can often do more harm than

good to the long term economic growth and sustainability of the communities they are supposed to

be benefitting. She will be exploring the concept that the community knows best what the

community wants, and will further emphasise the need for drastic action in order to redirect our

volunteer focus to more effective methods. Our third speaker will reinforce our teams case and

rebut any further arguments in support of volunteer tourism.

So, we all want to help. In modern day Australia, we as a society generally believe that we should

value giving back to the community - to those in need and those less fortunate than ourselves.

However, it has become a growing trend for Australians, and particularly the youth, to participate in

volunteer tourism programs overseas in order to fulfil these moral desires. We agree that fulfilling

values such as helping the less fortunate in poverty-stricken communities is commendable. BUT, the

problems occur when we start to conveniently ignore the fact that there are people in our very own

backyard starving and homeless, and asylum seekers and refugees practically knocking on our back

door.

You dont ever hear about that guy from Uganda that came over to Sydney to help feed the

homeless asylum seekers of Australia. Its simply because if he cant even help himself in the first

place, then how is he supposed to help others. And you cant simply assume that just because you

might be in a position to help others, the same automatically applies for every other person in your

country. There are over 100,000 homeless on the streets of Australia and not all of them are able to

help themselves. Something is morally flawed with the concept of volunteer tourism if we dont

want to acknowledge the uncomfortable truth that its not just the homeless child in the slums of

India that wont have dinner tonight or a safe place to sleep.

So WHY do we choose to put our volunteering efforts overseas when we cant even dealwith the

problems close to home? If we are able to claim there are no problems whatsoever in Australia, then

by all means we endorse going overseas and offering help to other communities in need. But we

cant deny that our country is far from perfect. It all comes down to what the real morals behind

volunteer tourism actually are. Our country boasts inconvenient realities we often want to forget.

Unfortunately, the appeal of volunteering in faraway distant lands helping the needy is often more

tempting than helping the needy at our own doorstep seeking equally as legitimate assistance.

If volunteers are as selfless as volunteer tourism projects them to be, then those same volunteers

wanting to travel abroad should not turn down the offer to spend the same time and effort

volunteering for those at home. Lets put it this way. Its far more likely for an Australian volunteer

to pick the enticing option of an adventure to deepest Cambodia to build a school for the orphaned

8/10/2019 1st Speaker Debating - Voluntourism

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children than choose to volunteer to feed the homeless, unsettled asylum seeker around the corner.

It is simply more appealing, exciting and easier to emphasise the gap of poverty as they appease the

guilt of their life of privilege and luxury.

Before you say there is nothing wrong with wanting to gain a fulfilling cultural experience whilst

conveniently helping someone in need, think again. Your so called help with volunteer tourism

projects not only achieve little for the communities themselves, but involves elevating yourself to an

inappropriate status of royalty that is by all standards completely artificial. By all means travel

overseas if you want to experience different cultures. But this is plain simple tourism. We dont

condemn this opportunity to see the world in any way. What we do condemn is the power of

volunteer tourism to inflate the egos of ignorant Australians who wouldnt give a thought to

carefully side-stepping the homeless man on the street, but would travel halfway across the world to

help another. How is this going to fix the problems at home when we have volunteers with attitudes

like this. The fact that we are turned off by the poorly dressed, smelly homeless man under the

bridge near our house, and not by the equally as homeless and poorly dressed child in India is

shameful.

THE LINK THAT SHOULD BE HERE

Some argue these voluntourists come back with a better awareness of poverty so are more likely to

be aware of those in need at home. Sure awareness is often hard to develop in the rich and wealthy,

and yes volunteer tourism sometimes is able to do this. But surely this inefficient way of achieving

this result is not worth the environmental and economic disadvantages. Would it not be practical to

distribute lesser skilled volunteers to Australian causes, who are better suited and capable of helping

those at home? The government has the ability to employ specialists whereas charities on a

volunteer basis are not. And if charities and volunteers are able to put their suitable skills towards

aiding the people at home, wont the government be able to redirect more money into foreign aid

so they can effectively make a targeted difference to those overseas?

In summary, charities in Australia setting up programs for volunteer tourism need to redirect their

efforts back to home. If there were no problems at home, it would be perfectly legitimate for them

to help our global neighbours; but we cant let them neglect our Australianfamily and prioritise the

needs of those overseas above the very real needs of those at home. The only way to ensure this is

fully understood is to take measures to prohibit charities from organising volunteer tourism

programs. We cant simply tell the public to stop volunteering overseas and instead spend all that

money saved up on a car trip around the corner. The public wont do that; the temptation of a

meaningful getaway is too great to even reconsider spending that time, effort and money within

the boundaries of home. Drastic action is needed to truly educate the ignorant. What is to stop

people from continuing to volunteer overseas when nothing is legally there to stop them? If we

remove these volunteer tourism programs I think we will see where the true selflessness exists.