Helping or Harming? Child Sponsorship and Voluntourism in Ghana

By Lauren & Jo

Introduction

The concept of volunteer tourism, or “voluntourism,” has been a subject of hot debate in recent years. Harmful ideologies and unimpactful “service” projects abroad have been increasingly problematized, sparking a discourse about Americans volunteering abroad, with specific attention paid to the expected or intended impacts versus the reality. Although the white hegemonic narrative of helping, saving, and enlightening the non-white “other” is still by far the most dominant and pervasive narrative told through voluntourism, some scholars, travelers, and activists have taken on the daunting yet necessary task of challenging and rupturing this narrative in order to reveal the more sobering and problematic truth of the matter. This truth is that many voluntourism agencies and trips promote the idea of a white savior and do not significantly contribute to the wellbeing of the recipient community, but instead serve the volunteer and contribute to an oppressive and racist social structure, further harming the communities allegedly being “helped.”

Expenses of Voluntourism

One of the foremost criticisms of voluntourism is the amount of money involved and where it ends up. The majority of the finances involved in voluntourism do not contribute to sustainable development within the recipient community, but rather are spent for the purpose of travel and transportation for the volunteers. These large sums of money support the travel industry, but the reality of how little actually contributes to development efforts in the communities that volunteers claim to be helping, must be seriously considered and problematized. Anderson, Kim, & Larios (2017), in an examination of 60 short mission/service trips to a variety of countries, found that a whopping 82% of funds going toward these trips were spent on travel costs. This figure is quite ironic, given that many voluntourism efforts claim to serve the purpose of supporting under-resourced and impoverished communities. These costs point to one of the central issues of voluntourism: that its main purpose– to serve the volunteer– is often disguised under the mask of altruism.

Reasons for Volunteering

A variety of studies examine the why behind voluntourism, attempting to unearth its recently growing popularity and what it provides for volunteers who choose to take part. Otoo (2013) finds that the two main overarching reasons that Americans volunteer in Ghana specifically are for purposes of altruism and self-education. Thus, it is evident through this study that many American voluntourists in Ghana are serving themselves and their interests first, rather than prioritizing the needs and desires of the community. In an extensive literature review, Bargeman, Richards, and Govers (2016) also assert that a main goal for voluntourists to Ghana is deeper self-discovery and learning through experiencing another culture [Andereck 2012; Brown 2005; Clifton & Benson 2006; McGehee & Santos 2005; Raymond & Hall 2008]. The breadth of literature that these researchers cover in their analytical review exhibits just how prevalent these self-serving priorities are within the context of volunteer tourism to Ghana as well as to other destinations.

Local Perspectives & Community Impacts

The most important voices missing from the literature surrounding voluntourism are those of the individuals in the recipient communities; those who these trips and efforts are allegedly supposed to serve. In recent years, thankfully, a handful of scholars have focused on bringing these voices into the conversation. Lediard (2016) discusses an intensive study focusing on semi-structured interviews with Ghanaian residents of communities that are often sites for voluntourism. One of the themes that Lediard identified within these interviews is the problem of myopic voluntourist projects and visions. These informants provide the example of World Vision, a child sponsorship organization to be discussed more in depth later, building a school in Ghana. Although schooling is important, one informant, J.K., highlighted the lack of systemic change inherent in this effort. He brought up the lack of employment in his community, asserting that the building and painting of this school is not useful if there are no jobs for students when they finish.

Frempong and Deichmann (2015) also conducted a study and analysis of Ghanaian perspectives of voluntourism in their communities. In this study, hospitality professionals are interviewed because of their unique perspective and interaction both with recipient communities and with voluntourism agencies and actors. The informants involved in this study reveal that the social problems that voluntourism creates are even greater than the economic problems, which may serve as a surprise based on the lack of financial support for recipient communities discussed earlier. The researchers identify themes in the informants interviews of unrealistic expectations on the part of travelers regarding systemic and cultural change, as well as cultural insensitivity and a lack of knowledge about the local community. This can be extremely harmful because it, in turn, contributes to “cross-cultural misunderstanding and the reinforcement of cultural stereotypes” (Raymond & Hall 2008: 530), which further perpetuates white supremacy, hegemony, and the social construction of the inferior non-white “other.”

Child Sponsorship (CS) in Ghana:

Where CS (child sponsorship) operates; how it impacts Ghanaian family dynamics; & ethical concerns behind the portrayal of Ghana

What is Child Sponsorship?

Child sponsorship is a type of fundraising where a charitable organization cultivates a relationship in which a donor/sponsor is connected with, and consistently provides mainly monetary support to a child beneficiary. The purpose of CS is to support the children out of the depths of poverty.

The Different Forms of Child Sponsorship

To see the breakdown of various forms please click the link for the Infographic: https://create.piktochart.com/output/42650724-untitled-infographic

Child Sponsorship in Ghana by Region and District

In the district of Kpone, most sponsored children are sponsored through a global organization called Compassion International. Compassion International is a global Christian charity organization that uses the Institutional sponsorship model where the donation funds are given to the Christian churches that Compassion builds around the district. These churches then identify and support specific individual children with these funds. On Compassion’s website they state that,

“Former Compassion-sponsored children were, as adults, 40 to 70 percent more likely to become church leaders than their non- sponsored peers.”  

(Compassion, 3).

In the district of Dangme West, most children are sponsored by a global Christian Charity organization called World Vision, which happens to be based out of Federal Way, WA. World Vision primarily uses the Community development model in their approach to child sponsorship. As a recap, this means that World Vision pools the money from donors to put it towards investing in developing the communities surrounding the sponsored children so that they may benefit and so too can their families. World Vision also provides funding to their various Visionfunds, which is their loan service, as well as to their churches all throughout the country of Ghana in effort to support the beneficiaries. For example, in the Ashiabre Community (located in West Ghana), Pastor Moses Amenyo gives this direct quote written within the 2018 World Vision Annual Report on Ghana,

“The children in the Ashiabre community do not attend school due to parental neglect and irresponsibility. Through World Vision I have been educating my church members and supporting their children with school uniforms.”  

(- Pastor Moses Amenyo, World Vision 28).

World Vision started working in Ghana in 1979 and it currently implements 34 Area Development Programmes (ADPs) (34 districts in Ghana) in all the 10 administrative regions in Ghana.

In the village of Odumasi, which is located just outside of Accra, most children there are sponsored by the global charity organization called Plan International. Plan International also uses the Community development child sponsorship model which invests into developing the community for the overall benefit of the children and locals. Plan International’s efforts extend from Accra to the central region, to the eastern region, and lastly to the upper west region of Ghana. On the Ghana info page on Plan International’s website, the organization states that it’s efforts motivate children to become educated leaders through hard work.

Plan International states on their Ghana page that Ghanaian girls are shy and are not in leadership roles “due to traditional beliefs and culture, Ghanaian girls have been brought up with the knowledge that girls are to be seen and not heard.” (Plan International). Plan says that it’s efforts encourage these girls to work hard in order to achieve, which is echoed through the spotlighted direct quote from one of the beneficiaries named Ama (14yrs.): “The sky is the limit if we work hard! This has really encouraged me.” (Plan International)

The issues associated with this are not only, does this portray a perspective of Ghana from a Cultural Deficit Paradigm, but Plan International states that it combats this by motivating the girls to pull themselves up from their boot straps in order to achieve securing leadership roles.

Impacts of Child Sponsorship on Ghanaian Children and Family Dynamics

A BBC article states, in a 2008 Sussex University report commissioned by Plan International to look into the impacts of the organization’s operations, that they found that there was “anxiety, jealousy and disappointment among those children and families who receive no letters or gifts” and that “the much larger scale of unmet expectations and emotional disappointment for children poses a serious ethical concern and challenge” (Buchanan). For example, 13-year-old Ebenezer from Odemase is sponsored through Plan international, when discussing his feelings about his sponsor he says that he “feels the lack of gifts means his sponsor doesn’t care about him and that makes him sad” (Buchanan). Other beneficiaries feel as though their sponsors are like ‘relatives’ and have very positive feelings associated with their sponsors. For example, twelve-year-old Jennifer from Accra takes pride in her new concrete house that she and her family were able to afford due to her donor providing extra monetary support. She says, “I am surprised that somebody so far away that I don’t even know loves me this way,” (Buchanan). Regardless of whether the impacts of child sponsorship are viewed as supportive or hurtful by the children themselves, these relationships with donors can take a real toll on the family dynamics of the beneficiaries. This can be seen in the way that most CS organizations promote the idea of gift giving, pen pal relationships, etc. between beneficiaries and their sponsors. These seemingly harmless exchanges are actually often divisive in families due to the fact that Ghanaian fathers of sponsored children often “…believe that their authority is being undermined by the gifts, attention, and correspondence lavished on their children” (Watson, p. 75).

Additionally, many children that are sponsored by organizations that use institutional approaches are chosen by local churches, but the charities say that families of any faith can benefit. Despite the fact that children from any faith can still benefit from sponsorships, the child still is required to receive a Christian education in order to receive sponsorship privileges. This unjust structure makes it appear as though CS organizations do not discriminate yet they take advantage of the beneficiaries by forcing a religion on to them by holding necessary resources over their heads.

Ethical Concerns of Child Sponsorship Marketing

Many CS organizations rely on defending the integrity of child sponsorship models through their annual reports which includes a breakdown of success stories, drafted by employees working in their sectors, as well as supportive evidence shown through quantitative break downs of how many children were helped, how many received water, how many now attend school, and how many no longer live in poverty, etc. This emphasis of advocating for child sponsorship in displaying success through quantitative methods is strategically meant to ‘other’ these beneficiaries in displaying a veil of seeming positive statistics to donors. Hallett lifts this veil by clarifying that the “absence of social scientific theories and qualitative methodologies from such research is an indicator of a bias in favor of an econometric and statistical approach to understanding how child sponsorship works on the ground.” (Hallett, 8).

Overall Conclusion

In conclusion, child sponsorship as well as voluntourism are both traditionally viewed as giving and charitable acts of service which provides impacts that are purely beneficial to the people and communities in which these impacts are meant to enhance. Judging from the research that Jo and I have engaged with, we have found similar themes across our two topics that indicate using our lenses of African American Studies, that child sponsorship and voluntourism both actually reflect institutional ties to, and perpetuate the following: colonization, white savior complex, eurocentricity, white supremacy, othering of marginalized peoples, and self-serving service. All of these manifestations of voluntourism and child sponsorship heavily contribute to the ongoing pervasive colonization and cultural deterioration of Ghana, despite their efforts/intentions to ‘help’ Ghana. Ghana and Africa as a whole have a long history of westerners seeking to help ‘develop’ them through their domination and imposition of whiteness, yet child sponsorship and voluntourism in Ghana are just pervasive continuations of the very same process of colonization. Judging based on our conclusions of child sponsorship and voluntourism, we would have to say that these countries are still facing colonization. Which ultimately aligns with the current discussion and research surrounding Neo-Colonialism within the African continent.

Works Cited

• Anderson, S. Eric, Ricky Kim, & Kelly Larios. 2017. Voluntourism: The Economic Benefit and Societal Costs of Short-Term Mission Trips. International Journal of Health and Economic Development 3(2): 28-37.
• Bargeman, A., G.W. Richards, & E. Govers. 2016. Volunteer tourism impacts in Ghana: a practice approach. Current Issues in Tourism 1-16.
• Frempong, Foster, & Joel Ian Deichmann. 2015. Ghanaian hospitality professionals’ perceptions of international tourism impacts. GeoJournal 82: 273-291.
• Otoo, Felix Elvis. 2013. Motivations of American volunteer tourists to Ghana. African Journal of Hospitality, Tourism, and Leisure 2(4): 1-12.
• Lediard, Danielle E. 2016. Host Community Narratives of Volunteer Tourism in Ghana: From Developmentalism to Social Justice. Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive): Wilfrid Laurier University. 1862.
• Raymond, Eliza Marguerite, & Colin Michael Hall. 2008. The Development of Cross-Cultural (Mis)Understanding Through Volunteer Tourism. Journal of Sustainable Tourism 16(5): 530-543.