The two sides of Ed Sheeran’s development work

“White saviour”, “poverty porn”, “reinforcing negative stereotypes” have been some of the phrases thrown at Ed Sheeran in recent weeks after he ‘won’ the 2017 Rusty Radiator award handed out by Radi-Aid. This annual award, along with the Golden Radiator, highlights the very worst and best fundraising videos in international development. The judges criticise videos […]

Guest post: Living in Africa; what’s it really like?

Rosie Coleman explains what she’s learnt from her travels and living in different part of Africa over the past year. Check out her previous blog on how travelling helped her with her career. I’ve now lived in Rwanda’s capital Kigali for 5 weeks and I’ve been working and travelling in Africa for nearly a year. […]

Guest post: How travelling helped me reflect on my career and decide what to do next

Rosie Coleman explains why she took time off to travel and how it helped her career. Make sure you check out the video about her first three weeks in southern Africa too. I’d never taken a gap year. My travels had been holidays rather than extended periods spent overseas. After graduating from LSE in 2013, […]

Cambodia’s Fake Orphanages: The Dark Side of Voluntourism

This new documentary gives another insight in to the dangers of orphanage volunteering, focusing on Cambodia. The number of orphans in the country has reduced in recent years but the numbers of orphanages, particularly in tourist areas, has shot up. These are often funded by well-meaning international volunteers and have created a commodity of spending time […]

Universities have a duty to stop promoting orphanage volunteering

This post was originally written by myself for the London School of Economics, who have full copyright. See the original post. At LSE we’re incredibly passionate about volunteering and the role that students play in changing the world for the better. Our most recent research shows that almost 50% of our undergraduates volunteer during their time […]

The Orphan Myth: Keeping Families Together

A new documentary from PBS has, once again, highlighted the problem with the institutionalisation of children across the world. The film explores why children, often with living parents, are put in to care centres. It also explains the psychological damage this often does to the children, why orphanages are expensive ways to raise children and how governments […]

Overseas volunteering: what’s the debate about?

This post was originally written by Livi Shaw for the London School of Economics, who have full copyright. See the original post. One of the biggest questions rippling through the voluntary sector currently, is whether or not overseas volunteering is a good thing; is it sustainable, is it needed; is it ethical? Maybe these are questions you’re familiar […]