Ethiopian Guest House a great place to stayand put your dollars

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Poverty Tourism

Shepost posted a piece on poverty tourism, It was very thought provoking and really makes you think about your vision when doing missions trips. I suggest linking over and reading the whole article but here is a glimpse.

"Heather Armstrong traveled to Bangladesh on a media trip to bring awareness to Every Mother Counts, a charity dedicated to child and maternal health. Shortly after her first post about the trip, UK news outlet The Guardian posted a critical article about the trip, with the provocative title Blogging from Bangladesh – more poverty tourism? In the article, the author suggests that such trips are lacking in sustainable solutions, and takes jabs at blogger/charity partnerships as being merely vehicles for high-profile bloggers to go slum-touring in third world conditions:"

Very thought provoking. I am hoping to organize a missions trip to Costa Rica near where we have been staying. I can tell you what inspired me and also what gave me that ugly feeling that has just labeled for me as poverty tourism. This little church that we have been going to literally gives 90% of all incoming money to outreach programs, that are only benefiting the communities and not their church except for the benefit of giving. Because of where I am located they often get visitors, and after learning about the outreaches I overheard one of the visitors not asking what can we do to help but please take me and my kids out with you. Now I have to admit I want my kids to go with me and be involved in these trips to appreciate what they have an eventually advocate for those who need help especially those of their heritage countries. However the number one issue is how are we helping the people we are there to serve. Next admission; As I was thinking about what type of missions trip we could do I was thinking a VBS would be great. I am a teacher and this would be easy for me. However as I was talking to one of the ladies who is involved to going to the poorest of areas she said what they really need is a way to provide for themselves. So now my goal is to check into those Micro loans and help to figure out what skill we could teach these families to make a life changing difference. If anyone has ideas please share.

No comments: