The Reason Why You Shouldn’t Volunteer in an Orphanage

What I learned from my time volunteering in Ghana

Volunteering. A big word with a strong meaning. You’re doing something voluntarily. Nobody forces you. Nobody pays you for what you do. Without volunteers, a lot of things on this planet wouldn’t be existing.

Volunteers can be found in lots of different areas of our daily lives.

There are volunteers working at shelters feeding the hungry.

There are volunteers working at the fire brigade coming in to kill the fire if your curtains are in flames.

There are volunteers looking after stray pets on the streets.

There are volunteers working in wildlife conservation making sure we’ll still have wild animals on this planet in a few years from now.

There are volunteers working in public health making sure everyone has the chance of medical help.

There are volunteers teaching all around the world.

There are volunteers working in all kinds of sports keeping sporting events alive and running.

And, and, and …

This list could go on forever. And I’m glad about it. Or not. Because a lot of those jobs should be paid. If not all of them. People invest their time, skills, and often also money to get things going, to keep things alive and all of it without getting acknowledged for it.

But that is why they do it. Because they don’t do it for the money. They do it out of love. They do it because they care for the hungry/ children/ animals or our planet in general.

Volunteers often have a much stronger bond to their activities than workers (who get paid). Their dedication is what describes them best.

“Volunteers do not necessarily have the time; they just have the heart.” — Elizabeth Andrew

The volunteer business

In the past decade, another type of volunteering has been booming. The kind of volunteering where you leave your home country to volunteer somewhere abroad.

It’s a business. The business of sending western graduates to Africa or Asia to work in orphanages, schools, hospitals, and other projects. Most of these young adults pay a lot of money for their volunteering work abroad.

Wait, what? Do you pay money to work for free? You might not be understanding this but it is the truth. These volunteers are often paying for their stays in foreign countries where they plan to do the volunteering work.

The concept is rather simple. Many young adults want to do something good in life but don’t have much time or don’t want to invest months of their young life doing unpaid work.

But they want to have that certificate. That certificate for the CV so everyone can see they’ve done something good in the world.

And this is where volunteering companies come in. You can book through these companies your volunteering work just as if you’d be booking a three-week vacation to the Maledives.

And you can choose how long you want to stay. The shortest ones only go for two weeks. The longer ones an entire year. You can even combine them. Two weeks of volunteer work in Senegal and then two weeks of volunteering on the beautiful island of Zanzibar. These are just randomly picked examples. You get the idea.

Don’t get me wrong. I support volunteer work. It’s a great cause. I’ve even been a volunteer myself. On multiple occasions. But there is something I don’t like about it.

And that is the business side of it.

Like everything on our planet, as soon as there is an opportunity in something, someone will start making money out of it. And making money out of volunteers just sounds wrong. But hey, people pay the money. They do the work, for free. And it’s all their own choice.

Volunteer work in an orphanage

While I could go on with this topic forever I would like to get to my point. To the point of why you shouldn’t volunteer in an orphanage. There are many areas where people volunteer abroad such as in schools, in wildlife sanctuaries, and in orphanages.

Let’s talk about orphanages. What is an orphanage? Don’t laugh. I have to go this way to explain it all. Orphanages are places for children who don’t have parents or relatives anymore who can care for them.

“Historically, an orphanage is a residential institution, or group home, devoted to the care of orphans and other children who were separated from their biological families.” — Wikipedia

Children in orphanages don’t necessarily have to have deceased parents but the parents were at least unable or unwilling to raise the child.

That alone is already tough on a person. Let alone be it a young child. Then put the tiny human in a big building where it needs to learn how to thrive and survive among many other children with a similar past.

An orphanage should be like a home. Those children should feel loved, cared for, and be looked after. They need to learn to build up relationships, gain social skills and just develop as young people do.

An orphaned child is a child we easily feel pity for. This is why many western young adults decide to volunteer in an orphanage. It’s obvious, those poor children need help.

But this isn’t based on the needs of the children. This is based on the needs of the volunteers. Or want-to-be-volunteers. Please don’t judge my choice of words. I’ve experienced this all first-hand and was one of these volunteers helping out in an orphanage.

Where does the money go to?

Companies are living off the poor, mainly African and Asian children, and the volunteers of the West who are paying a fortune to work as a volunteer. Associations are taking in most of the money paid by the volunteers. Some of the money goes to the host families who are the place volunteers will live in the foreign country. And a bit of the money goes to the projects themselves.

At first sight, this all makes sense. But when I tell you that my host parents in Ghana didn’t work and were home all day long because of all the money they got from hosting volunteers you’ll see the problem.

Once again, we westerners, the developed countries are making third world countries, their population and future dependent on us.

Most of the projects where volunteers are sent off to could stand alone. Without any foreign help. There are local teachers, mothers, and other workers who care for the children in school, the orphans, or animals in the wild.

But because there is an option of having volunteers on site which means an opportunity of getting extra money in, they will take foreigners. They will take foreigners for the sake of money. Not for the children’s wellbeing.

And of course, a lot of the money does go to the big companies situated in Europe or the States who are transferring all those volunteers.

No business can work without money. And since it is a business you’ll have to pay for your volunteering work.

Why is it bad to work as a volunteer in an orphanage?

While there are many other aspects of this volunteering business abroad we could talk about, I want to focus on this point which is important to me.

As someone with a background in education and a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education and development, I had some knowledge to work with. And I don’t mean I knew how to change nappies, how to feed babies, or get them dressed (while there were surely many others who didn’t know even half of those tasks but wanted to help.)

You can say I should have come up with it before I even went, but rather late than never. After all, I was young. Inexperienced. And probably a bit naive as well.

However, after a few weeks working in the orphanage in Ghana, caring for the very young ones I started to notice something. The children’s behavior. These toddlers, or babies, what some of them still were, all had attachment disorders. All of them.

And slowly but surely the light bulb went on in my head. Of course, they all have behavioral problems.

First thing in life, these children lost their mother, their father and were placed into this home. The person who brought them into this life was taken away from them (out of which reason doesn’t matter).

Then, every two weeks to two months they see different faces. None of them stay. The longest volunteers stayed for maybe six months. And whenever these children began to build trust and a relationship with one of the adults, that person would leave.

Imagine that. After a while of course, you don’t let anyone close to you anymore. Not emotionally at least. You know you’ll get disappointed again. You’ll know you’ll get left alone again. You’ll know you can’t trust them.

And this is why you shouldn’t volunteer in an orphanage. For the children’s sake.

Which doesn’t mean we should leave them alone. Remember, all these projects do run without volunteers (or let’s say most of them at least). And so did the orphanage I worked in.

There are local women from the village who care for the children. Most of them would sleep over and live in the orphanages. So these children do have “mothers” to look up to. And they do have adults to build a relationship with. To trust them. They don’t need us.

But children in orphanages do need some stability in life.

It is okay if you’ll come in once a week to play soccer with those orphans. Or to do a painting project. Or anything else occasionally. But volunteers shouldn’t be the main contact person for orphans being as young as 7 months up to three years.

This is when a child does the biggest emotional developments. And this is where you can damage so much in a child’s upbringing.

So please reconsider your decision if you’re planning to do some volunteering work. In your home country or abroad.

Final words

To sum this up I want to end with some positive words. After my experience of volunteering in an orphanage in Ghana and later on in a school (I left the orphanage because I decided I did more harm than good to these orphans), I learned a lot.

I would never say don’t go volunteering. I would also not say don’t go volunteering in Africa, in Asia, or any other place abroad.

But if you do go volunteering keep the local population in mind. Think, if the project you selected would really be a good choice. Not for you, but for the children (or animals).

If I would decide today to do some volunteering work in Africa, I wouldn’t go through an organization anymore. I would take six months to a year time and first just travel to the selected country. I would travel to the countryside and the poor regions. There I would find plenty of projects where I could help and my help would be appreciated.

I know this is a dangerous kind of approach many would say, but I’ve traveled a bit through several African countries and have seen many projects which I could support if I wanted to (and did support).

I also learned how to travel in those countries and regions. And with the knowledge I have today, this would be my way to go.

If you choose to go through an organization, please do so. But consider a longer stay over a shorter one. And consider a teaching job over a job as a caregiver in an orphanage.

“Volunteering is at the very core of being human. No one has made it through life without someone else’s help.” — Heather French Henry

Read more about my adventures in Ghana:

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