Is Barbie the savior of African orphans? : the impact of voluntourism on children rights in a

Is Barbie the Savior of African Orphans?

The Impact of Voluntourism on Children Rights in a

Ghanaian Orphanage

Photo 1: Barbie as a voluntourist in Africa (Barbie Savior, 2016)

Master’s Thesis International Development Studies

Graduate School of Social Sciences

University of Amsterdam

June 2016

Author: Andye Sanon

Student ID: 11128127

Supervisor: Dr. Olga Nieuwenhuys

Second Reader: Dr. Enrique Gomez Llata Cazares

Word count: 22329

Dedication

This thesis is dedicated to those residing in the Global South who have ever felt that their voices were stifled by international and national actors in the development process of their communities.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my supervisor, Olga, for her support, guidance, and feedback throughout this process. I thank her for being understanding of my perspectives and encouraging me to explore them in my research. Thank you to my second reader, Enrique, for providing his time to reading and questioning my thesis. I owe my thanks to everyone who made this research possible while I was in the field. Thank you to Professor Yaw Ofosu-Kusi who helped me in my quest to secure a research location. Thank you to my friends in Ghana who helped me secure the logistics for my stay, showed me parts of the country I would have never discovered without their help, and made my time in the field a memorable one. A big thank you to my respondents who welcomed me in their community, and provided the insightful data that made this thesis possible. Medaase! I also owe many thanks to my family and friends who, though miles away, provided their support and encouragement throughout the process of getting my Masters Degree and writing this thesis. Lastly, I would like to thank the owners of Instagram account @barbiesavior for allowing me to use one of their photos as the cover of this thesis. I am very grateful for you all!

Contents

Dedication……….2 Acknowledgements………...3 Table of Contents……….4 Abstract………..….…………..6 Chapter 1. Introduction ……….7 Chapter 2. Literature Review: Voluntourism, Children’s Rights and Living Rights.………..9 2.1 Voluntourism ………...9 2.1.1 Positive Impacts………...10 2.1.2 Negative Impacts ……….11 2.2 Children’s Rights………..14 2.3 Living Rights………15 Chapter 3. Context: Ghana, Children Rights and Orphanages………...17 3.1 Ghana: Facts and Figures ………..17 3.2 Children Rights in Ghana………19 3.3 Ghana’s Orphans and Children Homes……….20 3.4 Case Study……….21 Chapter 4. Methods and Methodology.………..25 4.1 Subject Position……….25 4.2 Study Rationale……….26 4.3 Sampling Strategy………27 4.4 Research Methods.………..28 4.5 Reflections and Limitations………..30 4.6 Ethical Considerations……….33 Chapter 5. Descriptions: Living Rights, Children and Staff Perspectives……….35 5.1 Children’s Perspectives of their Rights………....35 5.1.1 Younger Group (9 to 13 Years Old)……….36 5.1.2 Older Group (14 to 21 Years Old).……….…..36 5.2 Staff Perspectives of Children’s Rights………...………..37 5.3 Findings Summary………..………38 Chapter 6. Positive Impacts of Voluntourism on Children’s Rights………..40 6.1 Positive Impact: Intercultural Exchanges……….……….40 6.2 Positive Impact: Entertainment……….…………41 6.3 Positive Impact: Donations ……….43 6.4 Findings Summary ………...………..45

Chapter 7. Negative Impacts of Voluntourism on Children’s Rights………...…….46 7.1 Power Dynamics……….…..46 7.2 Impingement on the Right to Agency ………47 7.3 Impingement on Right to Participation………49 7.4 Impingement on Right to Education………..51 7.1.1 – Formal Education.………..51 7.4.2 – Informal Education.………..52 7.5 Findings Summary ……….54 Chapter 8. Conclusion………..………55 8.1. Answer to Main Question.……….………55 8.1.1 Overall Findings Summary………55 8.2 Discussion: Voluntourism and Sustainability.……….……56 8.3 Research Agenda………..57 8.4 Recommendations………..58 References ………60 Appendices………67 I. Conceptual Framework ………...………67 II. Operationalization of Main Concepts………69 III. List of Figures/Photos………71

Abstract

This thesis is about the impact of voluntourism on children’s rights in an orphanage in Accra, Ghana. Based on the findings of this exploratory study, I claim that even though the children benefit from the presence of the voluntourists, the negative impacts of voluntourism overpower the positive impacts. Due to the lack of research from the perspectives of host communities, the goal of this thesis is to increase our knowledge on the topic of voluntourism and to illustrate the perspectives of the children and the staff of the orphanage. Their voices, specifically those of the children need to be considered, as they barely are the focus of studies. This research is attentive to breaking the tendency to depict children as dependent beings that are unaware of the fact that they have rights and unaware of what constitutes their rights. It centers the child as an active agent in his/her own development, capable of participating in the decision-making process in events that affect his/her lived experiences. Through a qualitative approach constituted of participant observation, story-telling and in-depth interviews with the children, and only in-depth interviews with the orphanage’s staff, the study was conducted throughout a two-month period. The story telling and interviews were analyzed through coding of the rights that the children and the staff believed children had. With this thesis, it is my hope that orphanages, voluntouring organizations and voluntourists can see children as stakeholders and work with them to find the best methods that contribute to their well-being and the development of their living rights.

Chapter 1. Introduction

Voluntourism, also known as volunteer tourism, a combination of volunteering in a foreign country while simultaneously being a tourist, is a concept that has gained traction within the sphere of international development. Individuals, mostly from the Global North, seek to make an impact on communities in the Global South by giving them their time and resources on a short-term basis. The idea of voluntourism is appealing to many, especially young people who engage in the activity through summer or gap-year programs. They volunteer within many sectors ranging from agriculture, to education, to orphanages. This experience allows voluntourists to immerse themselves in a new culture and gain new experiences that are believed to leave a lasting effect on both voluntourists and those who host them, the voluntoured. However, voluntourism has complex implications and its true goal is debated amongst many: while some feel that it is a great contribution to the host community that receives the voluntourists, others believe that it is has negative connotations that impede the host community’s development and is exploitative in nature. Here, I claim that the negative impacts of voluntourism surpass the positive ones when it comes to children’s rights. Previous research has been conducted on voluntourism while focusing on the voluntourists’ perspectives and on the way that they, or the recruiting organization perceive the impact that voluntourists make on local development. However, little research has been done on the issue of human or children’s rights within voluntourism and little is known from the perspectives of the local who host the voluntourists. This research fills in the aforementioned gap through a case study in an orphanage in Accra, Ghana. As orphanages are one of the most common places where voluntourists spend their time interacting with local communities, their actions dictate the impact they make on the lives of the children. This research explores the impact of voluntourism on children rights and is, most importantly, centered on the children’s and the orphanage staff’s perspectives. It focuses on the children’s living rights, which I pieced together through participant-observation, story telling, and in depth interviews with mostly the children and the staff that take care of them and educate them. Considering that orphans are one of the most vulnerable groups in societies of the Global South, this research is an important step in allowing the children to state their desires and interests in matters that concern them. This way, orphanages as well as voluntouring organizations can determine the best methods that can help “protect, promote and strengthen” children (Thiesbonenkamp, 2008), reinforce their existence as human beings, as they help them fulfill their capacities as mentioned in the child rights approach used by different organizations that focus on child development and well-being. Though not representative, the insights of this study can hopefully serve as a tool to the orphanage and to the organizations that recruit voluntourists as they make decisions that affect the children. I also hope that the insights may go a step further as to enlighten voluntourists on their own impacts on the rights of children as they prepare their trips to orphanages across countries in the Global South.

This thesis is organized into eight chapters. The following chapter, number two, provides a literature review that discusses the different theories surrounding voluntourism, children’s rights and living rights. Chapter three provides a contextual background that elaborates on the social, cultural and political context of Ghana, which I believe is vital for the reader to further engage in the empirical findings. In chapter four, I provide the methodology that constitutes the foundation of the study. It brings the research questions and methods, the subject position, limitations and ethical considerations of this research. Chapter five provides the first layer of the findings from the field. It explains children’s rights from the perspectives of the children and the staff and argues that the children saw their rights through many aspects of their local culture, thus, challenging the monolithic children’s rights phenomenon created by international actors. This chapter sets the tone for chapters six and seven that focus specifically on the positive and negative impacts of voluntourism on children’s rights, respectively. In the final chapter, eight, the answer to the main research question is elaborated with a discussion of the empirical findings and existing literature. Furthermore, I provide suggestions for further research, as well as recommendations for the orphanage, recruiting voluntourism organizations and the Ghanaian government.

Chapter 2. Literature Review: Voluntourism, Children’s

rights

In this chapter, I provide a literature review that will help justify the focus of the research. Section 2.1 explores some of the previous research done on the general concept of voluntourism and research done on the concept within the sphere of orphanages. Due to the findings of this study, this section invokes the White Savior Industrial Complex, a notion that has been discussed in the literature about voluntourism, and surfaced throughout the study. This section also discusses the sustainability of voluntourism in international development, as it was also a point brought up by the study’s participants and by previous research. Section 2.2 gives an overview of children’s rights, the origin of the concept and its application. In Section 2.3 I discuss the concept of living rights, and the importance of including children’s perspectives in matters that impact their development. This literature review justifies why this research was conducted. 2.1 Voluntourism The term “voluntourism”, which derives from a combination of “volunteer tourism”, applies to tourists who volunteer in an organized way to undertake holidays that might involve aiding or alleviating the material poverty of some groups in society, the restoration of certain environments or research into aspects of society or environment. (Wearing, 2001) As the concept of voluntourism becomes a booming business in the travel industry that caters primarily to westerners (Callanan & Thomas, 2005), many countries in the Global South find themselves with an influx of tourists who mostly come with good intentions. “ ‘Volunteer Tourism: A Global Analysis’, a report published by the Association for Tourism and Leisure Education in 2008, surveyed over 300 volunteer tourism organizations worldwide. The report concluded that the market now caters for 1.6 million volunteer tourists a year, with a monetary value of between £832m and £1.3bn (US$ 1.7bn–2.6bn). Growth in the sector has been most marked since 1990…”(Butcher & Smith, 2010) The stories concerning voluntourism are everywhere, in every newspaper, every social media account, every website promoting volunteer tourism with glorious images and stories or testimonies from their participants. The booming of the international volunteering sector started in the 1960’s after the creation of the Volunteer Service Overseas (VSO) in 1958 by Alec and Mora Dickson (Lamoureux, n.d.) and with the Peace Corps program of 1961 in the United States whose model was to transfer “technical skills to developing countries” and reinforce “the education of American youth” (Waldorf, 2001) Since, international volunteer services have been growing exponentially and have taken different shapes whether through governments, churches, non-governmental organizations, travel agencies and even individuals who want to make a difference but do not go through

organized venues. Volunteering and tourism combined “has emerged from this increase in volunteering, as well as a result of a shift in the needs of today’s tourists. New niches such as adventure tourism, ecotourism, volunteer tourism, and humanitarian tourism are examples of consumer demand for more authentic experiences.” (Lamoureux, n.d.) Existing literature has explored the growing phenomenon of volunteer tourism over the years. (See Lyons & Wearing (2008), Wearing (2004), Tomazos & Butler (2008), Brown (2005), Devereux (2008), Ingram (2008)) The glory affiliated with voluntourism exists because organizations that promote the activity, along with the participants of voluntourism believe it “promotes character, confidence [and] decision-making skills.” (Brown, 2003) Brown provides an example of this through the mission statement of an unnamed organization looking to appeal to participants. The statement reads as follows: ‘Are you looking for a travel adventure with a purpose, one that gives you experience beyond tourism and provides practical help to local communities.’ Its slogan was: “Develop people. Share cultures. Build futures.” (Brown, 2003) Ultimately, the glory of volunteer tourism and the ideals associated with the concept continue to blossom because “NGOs encourage ideas of helping and humanitarianism, redistributing transnational accumulation. [These] new forms of accumulation (and humanitarian redistribution) that promise to “shrink the distances between humanity” offer narratives with liberatory potential to unify people across national borders. (Rouse 1995:376)” (see also Bornstein, 2001) Moreover, many believe that the ‘liberatory potential’ is positioned in the hands of people coming from countries in the Global North, the vast majority of whom is white. Even though the pictures and stories that evolve from a volunteer experience abroad may seem perfect in the eyes of onlookers, the concept of voluntourism has become a controversial topic amongst journalists and international development scholars. They have questioned the impacts of voluntourists on their host communities as well as the intentions of the tourists and organizations that send them. (Smith (1977), Krippendorf (1987), Sichel (2006), Butcher and Smith (2010), Zakaria, (2014)), amongst others, have debated its positive and negative impacts on the communities that receive the voluntourists. 2.1.1 Positive Impacts Some authors see the positive impacts voluntourism as two-fold: altruism and economic contribution. The first argument is, with altruism at the basis of the voluntourists’ actions, they can serve as a way to contribute to the development of many ‘undeveloped’ communities (Wearing, 2001). Wearing (2001) contends that voluntourism has a positive effect on the host countries’ economies simply because the concept is “founded on notions of altruism and self-development” of participants. Considering that most volunteer programs require a fee, individuals who partake in such programs enter their host communities with good intentions. Voluntourists benefit from such programs because it does not require specific sets

of skills for them to join, especially on a short-term basis, and the voluntoured also benefit because voluntourists are not paid for their services. (Roberts, 2004) Moreover, the money that voluntourists contribute to their experiences usually goes towards sustaining their livelihoods during their stay and also helping to finance some projects within the host communities. The second argument is that, the presence of voluntourists can foster intercultural understanding that allows everyone involved to adjust to new global perspectives (Raymond and Hall, 2008). Voluntourists learn about new cultures and acquire a number of skills needed for their future career endeavors such as respect for diversity, enhanced conflict management as well as higher interpersonal skills. Voluntourism appears to be an excellent opportunity for those at the beginning of their careers and for those seeking to develop skills that will allow them to mostly participate in international affairs. (Thomas, 2001) Moreover, the cultural exchange between voluntourists and the host community allows members of the host community to also learn about the tourists’ culture and language. 2.1.2 Negative Impacts Just as there are positive impacts, scholars argue that voluntourism has negative impacts that can become a hindrance to development. (Birrell 2011; Cole, 2012; Frean 2006; Hutnyk 1996; Sichel, 2006). Here, I discuss two of the main negative aspects relevant to this study: the White Savior Industrial Complex and the lack of sustainability. One common argument is that voluntourists enter the Global South with the assumption that people in the host communities are waiting to be helped, a mindset that situates the voluntourists as “superior” beings coming to offer their help. As Sichel (2006) indicates “…the very notion of ‘help’ [from voluntourists] can justifiably ruffle some feathers – [such as promote inequality and foster neocolonialist ideals] – among its intended recipients. The tacit assumption built into many volunteer-abroad programs—especially shorter, group service trips—is that it is appropriate and useful for travellers from the North to go to the South and do physical and/or menial work simply because they are wealthy and educated.”(Sichel, 2006). This causes the industry of volunteer tourism to be seen as an “abuse of the Third World, making Africa, in particular, a background for First World hero-worship and a dumping ground for humanitarian ideals and fantasies”, says Kapoor (2013) who mostly speaks on celebrity voluntourists who come from the Global North. The outcome is that the voluntourist is labeled as a ‘hero’, a ‘savior’ who has all the solutions to the perceived problems in countries in the Global South and should be worshipped. Moreover, within this same concept of ‘hero-worshipness’, Simpson (2004) contends that voluntourism also contributes to the positive images that locals in the Global South attribute to the voluntourists and their countries of origin. This was also one of the findings of Voelkl (2012), whose study I refer to throughout this paper. She explored voluntourism throughout a five-week study in an orphanage located in Ho, the capital of the Volta Region in East Ghana. Her findings revealed that voluntourism relayed [sometimes skewed]

positive images of the Global North to the host community [and] “have major implications for the children’s notion of ‘volunteering’ as well as their understanding of the Western world…” (Voelkl, 2012) White Savior Industrial Complex Within Voluntourism The White Savior Industrial Complex, a key notion mentioned in the majority of the work provided on voluntourism, influences greatly the work that voluntourists do and interferes with the lived experiences of local communities. The term, coined by Teju Cole in 2012 as a response to the Kony 2012 campaign, focuses on the idea that many from the Global North suffer from the ‘help the needy because it makes them feel or look good’ disease. As Cole explains, “the white savior supports brutal policies in the morning, founds charities in the afternoon, and receives awards in the evening. It is not about justice. It is about having a big emotional experience that validates privilege. It is a liberated space in which the usual rules do not apply: a nobody from America or Europe can go to Africa and become a godlike savior or, at the very least, have his or her emotional needs satisfied. Many have done it under the banner of ‘making a difference’." (Cole, 2012) Previous notions of the White Savior Industrial Complex, though not explicitly referred to with the term, can be seen in the works of Palacios (2010), Simpson (2003) and Roberts (2004) who believe voluntourism to equate a new form of neo-colonialism. They contend that individuals are attracted to voluntourism because it focuses on “helping”, while oblivious to the fact that it contributes to the fostering of western dominance over ‘developing countries’ and reproduces global inequality. As Simpson (2004) points out, the ‘needs’ of the local communities legitimize the existence of the “non-skilled voluntourists” (Wearing, 2001) because their role is to provide for those in need and ‘help’ them in all areas of living. Throughout Voelkl’s (2012) study, notions of the White Savior Industrial Complex were revealed from the children’s perspectives as they often spoke about their experiences with volunteers through mentions of always being on the receiving end of objects such as gifts. They often saw the voluntourists as people who came from wealthy backgrounds who could give them gifts, and help them, because it is what most voluntourists had previously done. “One boy (11) clearly said: “I like volunteers because if you ask them for something, they give it to you.” (Voelkl, 2012) This became the norm to the point where the children seemed to have developed certain expectations and strategies to convince voluntourists to give them something or take them on a trip. As a result, “this relationship of giving and receiving reflects the distinct categorization and dichotomy between wealthy ‘help-givers’ and ‘needy’ beneficiaries (Vodopivec & Jaffe, 2011).”

The concept of the White Savior Industrial Complex does not only apply to regular volunteers but also to their celebrity counterparts. (Kapoor, 2013) (Fitzpatrick, 2007) Many voluntourists are inspired by the works of celebrities such as Madonna and Angelina Jolie. However, these celebrities’ works are under scrutiny because many believe that they do not act entirely out of altruism. The work they do serves in their interests, whether through the promotion of good public relations, or because it makes them feel good. Their work “promotes institutional aggrandizement and the celebrity ‘brand’, it advances consumerism and corporate capitalism, and rationalizes the very global inequality it seeks to redress.” (Kapoor 2013) Despite its activist nature, voluntourism mostly serves to the success of its participants, rather than that of the local communities as it contributes to a ‘post-democratic’ political landscape, which appears outwardly open and consensual, but is in fact managed by unaccountable elites. This, therefore, challenges Wearing’s (2001) argument that voluntourism benefits that host communities and it also questions the sustainability of the concept. Sustainability of Voluntourism The second negative aspect of voluntourism that many agree on is that the practice is not a sustainable because voluntourists remain in the field for a short time period and lack the necessary skills required to make actual changes. (See Brown (2005), Ingram (2008), Tomazos & Butler (2008) Guttentag, (2009), McGehee & Andereck (2008), Raymond & Hall (2008), Hill, Russell & Brewis, (2009)) Voluntourism requires few skills because the organizations that promote voluntourist packages design them to appeal to the tourists, their parents and future employers and have little concern for and knowledge of the communities the volunteers are “helping” (Brown & Hall, 2008). Brown (2003) contends the negative and unsustainable aspects of voluntourism mostly because “groups of 18-year-olds arrive somewhere with no skills and set about building a bridge or school often without proper consultation with the local community and what they might want or need. They get a level of experience and decision-making which they would not get at home, but also doing things in other people’s hospitals and schools that would be never be allowed at home.” Moreover, when voluntourists return home, their relationships with the host communities come to an end as they to focus more on self-development and the skills acquired throughout the experience rather than on the actual needs of the local community. Brown (2003), focusing particularly on gap-year students who partake in voluntourism, contends that “[voluntourism] has become a requirement for success. It is now part of [the voluntourists’] progression to employability, as necessary as [their] A-levels and as inevitable as [their] degree. As the gap year has been professionalized, it has increasingly been marketed at future professionals, with an assumption that further education and successful employment are to follow…. [It] cannot fail to stand you in good stead in later life.” (Brown, 2003) Both the lack of skills and the lack of investment in host communities render

voluntourists incapable of improving the conditions of the people with whom they interact. With accounts of the White Savior Industrial Complex and Sustainability, Voelkl (2012) carefully explored the positive and negative aspects of voluntourism. However, one gap in her study is that even though her fieldwork focused on the children’s participation and rights, her conclusions and findings did not go into depth about children rights. With regards to children rights, she found that the children’s emotional development (right to protection) was not a concern because they were aware of the constant turnover of voluntourists. As a result, they developed a mechanism where they only got genuinely attached to long-tem voluntourists who participated in their daily lives and routines while only superficially getting attached to short-term voluntourists. Since Voelkl’s (2012) study does not discuss other children’s rights in depth, I explore them further in mine. 2.2 Children’s Rights As voluntourists are not often briefed on the host communities and the challenges they may or may not face, it is important to question the voluntourists’ impact in orphanages, specifically on the rights of the children with whom they interact. Since my research explores voluntourists’ impact on children rights, this section of the literature review focuses on one aspect of those rights most relevant for children living in orphanages: the rights accorded to children by international and governmental organizations through the ‘child rights approach’. The “child rights approach” has become an acceptable practice when working with children in countries in the Global South. It is based on the concept deriving from the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child that was adopted on November 20th 1989 and entered into force on September 2nd _{of 1990. (Convention on the Rights of} the Child, n.d.) It is currently the most ratified international human rights convention in history. The Convention has 54 articles that express the basic rights that every child possesses; they guarantee the rights of children in many aspects of their lives and divides those rights into three groups: protection rights, provision rights, and participation rights. Children have the right to: 1) protection (from maltreatment, neglect and all forms of exploitation)- as seen in Art. 6, 8, 19, 32, 33, 34, etc; 2) provision (of food, health care, education, social security) – e.g. Art. 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, etc.; and 3) participation (in all matters concerning children) e.g. Art. 12, 13. . An important aspect of the Convention is that it is child-centered and places the child’s needs and rights first—ahead of parents or others (Reading, Richard et al, 2009) Article 12 reiterates that children should be considered as active participants in their lives and the decisions that affect them. They have the right to say what they think should happen and have their opinions taken into account. Additionally, Article 36 of the convention states that children should be protected from any activity that takes advantage of them or could harm their welfare and development.

(Fact Sheet: A summary of the rights under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, n.d.) In this thesis, these rights are further explored from the point of view of the children themselves as a way to see how they are personally impacted, as well as the point of view of members the orphanage staff who interact with the children on a daily and long-term basis, contrary to the short-term interactions of the voluntourists. To this end I find the notion of living rights particularly relevant. 2.3 Living Rights Living rights are the rights that children believe they have. Considering that this research explores the manners in which voluntourism impact the rights of children from the children’s own perspectives, I see it fitting to introduce the notion of living rights as a part of this literature review. Living Rights, a concept developed at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands and the University of Fribourg in Switzerland seek to expose the rights of children from their own perspectives. Instead of only looking at the rights ‘given’ to children [whether by international or national stakeholders], the notion of living rights emphasizes that children and adults already consider their possession of rights without the help of organizations and governments. These rights were “already alive in the minds and lived realities of children throughout the globe” (Hanson & Nieuwenhuys, 2013) before the organizations and governments codified them. This means that children do not simply discover their rights after exposure to several metropolitan rights discourses, but “become aware of their rights as they struggle with their families and communities to give meaning to their daily existence.” (Hanson & Nieuwenhuys, 2013) Ozero (2010) acknowledges the importance of living rights in her research conducted through an NGO in Malawi that caters to a group of vulnerable street children. She asserts that “living rights acknowledges the importance of the perceptions of people that are affected by the different situations in which they are involved. It is an important area of study especially for children, who are often perceived as being dependent and without choice or the ability to exercise freedom because of the constraints of ‘age’ or being ‘underdeveloped’.” Drawing from Ozero (2010), my research takes into account the children’s perspectives on the visits of the volountourists. The living rights of the children in the orphanage provide a perspective that fills in the gap that exists in research on the most vulnerable children in countries in the Global South. The intersections created by voluntourism, children rights and living rights provide the background to this paper and allow me to adopt a perspective that sees the children as active participants in the planning, implementation and evaluation of any activities concerning them and their interactions with voluntourists. As solutions are continuously developed to alleviate poverty in the Global South, voluntourism’s contributions can have severe impacts on children both positive and

negative. Therefore, through this case study, the voices of the children along with the staff hold importance in the international debate of children rights. They hold as much importance in the local context of Accra, Ghana where this study took place.

Chapter 3. Context: Ghana, Children Rights and

Orphanages

This chapter elaborates on fragments of the historical, economic and political conditions that can help understand the situation of orphans and children’s rights within voluntourism in Ghana. Section 3.1 presents some facts about the country’s history, geography and cultural norms. Section 3.2 discusses children’s rights in the country as seen by the international community and the Ghanaian government. In section 3.3, I present the facts on orphans and children homes. The last section of this chapter, 3.4, focuses on information about my specific research location. The orphanage, though anonymous in this study, is considered one of the best orphanages in Accra. 3.1 Ghana: Facts and Figures Map 3.1.1: Source: Google Maps (2016)

As a former colony of Britain, Ghana is the first sub-Saharan country to gain its independence, on March 6th _{of 1957. The West African country has a population} of approximately 26.6 million in 2013 based on the Sixth Round of the Ghana Living Standards Survey (GLSS 6), (GSS, 2014). Females account for approximately 52 percent of the population while males make up approximately 48 percent. Life expectancy is estimated at about 61 years and the adult literacy rate (age 15 and above) at 56.3 percent. (“Ghana Millennium Development Goals 2015 Report”, 2015) The population comprises several ethnic groups with the most important in size being the Akan (45.3%), the Mole-Dagbon (15.2%), the Ewe (11.7%) and the Ga-Dangme (7.3%) Ghanaians speak various languages besides English, the official language of the country. Christianity is the most common religion in Ghana (68.8%) followed by Islam (15.9%) and traditional religions (8.5%). (CIA World Factbook, 2015). Geographically, the tropical country is bordered by other former colonies: Burkina Faso in the north, Côte d’Ivoire in the west and Togo in the east. There are 10 administrative regions and 216 districts. Politically and economically, Ghana is considered a model state in its region. It is administered by a democratically elected executive President with an elected Parliament and independent judiciary. According to the 2015 Millennium Development Goals Ghana report, the country’s economy was dominated by the agricultural sector up until 2016. The economy is now led by services (49.5 percent), followed by industry (28.5 percent) and agriculture (22.0 percent). Gold and cocoa were the leading export earners until 2011 with the commencement of substantial oil exports. (Ghana Millennium Development Goals 2015 Report, 2015) Map 3.1.2: Source: Google Maps (2016)

Children play an important aspect in Ghanaian society both culturally and economically. About 38.38% of the Ghanaian population is between the ages of 0 and 14 while 18.69 percent of the population is between 15 and 24 years old. The median age is estimated at 19.1 years (CIA World Factbook, 2015), showing that children constitute the majority of the Ghanaian population. The importance placed on children in the country is reflected in concepts of childhood and child-rearing that are practiced across all ethnic groups. Childhood is seen by most as a time of innocence when individuals need protection from the world around them. The goal of parenting is to bring up children to adhere to the moral and ethical practices of the group. Children receive informal training from a very early age to assume responsibilities in the community as adults. Social norms and values are transmitted to the younger generation by not only their parents but by all the adults in a community. Indeed, extended families play a major role in the care and socialization of all children, and they are obligated to provide material support until children are old enough to fend for themselves. (UNICEF and Ministry of Women & Children’s Affairs, Ghana (2011). As elsewhere in Africa, the fostering of children by extended-family members is quite common in Ghana, although little reliable data exist on the numbers or reasons for fostering. It is estimated that 19% of Ghana households include fostered children under 18 years of age. There is sometimes a fine line between fosterage and child labor, whereby girls, particularly, are taken into extended-family households for the purpose of performing domestic work. Whereas in some situations across Africa, particularly in countries racked by conflict or critically affected by the AIDS pandemic, “crisis fostering” can be harmful to the welfare of the child, in Ghana most cases of fostering, particularly of orphans, appear to be traditional and kinship or community based, and are generally regarded to be healthful and in the interests of the fostered child. (UNICEF and Ministry of Women & Children’s Affairs, Ghana, 2011). As one of the most vulnerable group in the community, some fostered children are raised in orphanages where their development are catered to until they can make their way through society on their own. With such emphasis placed on the significance of children and their development within Ghanaian society, I invoke the notion of children’s rights in the next section. 3.2 Children Rights in Ghana As the “model country” in Sub-Saharan Africa, Ghana was the first country to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child in February 1990. Since, the government has launched a number of social protection programs that can benefit marginalized families and in turn, benefit the welfare of children in those families. Programs such as “the NHIS, the school feeding program, capitation grant and the LEAP all of which are part of a broader National Social Protection Strategy [were implemented] to tackle extreme poverty in Ghana. The Livelihood Empowerment against Poverty (LEAP) cash transfer program, administered by the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, aims to provide a safety net for the poorest and most marginalized groups.... Cash transfers are provided on a bimonthly basis

with the dual purpose of reducing poverty in the short term and focusing on long term human development with a focus on health and education linking beneficiaries to complementary services in their communities.” (Ghana Millennium Development Goals 2015 Report, 2015) These programs not only promote the rights of the individuals but they are also intended to protect the rights of children. Being a country that has a large number of street children in its big cities and that is also often criticized for child labor laws, specifically in cacao fields, children’s rights is often a topic of discussion amongst the government and multi-lateral stakeholders. As a result, Ghana continues to take strides to cater to the children of the community. Following the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990 that calls for non-discrimination against children, Ghana has taken actions on the national level to convey its ethical obligation towards the survival, development and protection of Ghanaian children. In 1998, the Ghanaian Parliament enacted The Children’s Act, as a way to “reform and consolidate the law relating to children, to provide for the rights of the child, maintenance and adoption, regulate child labour and apprenticeship, for ancillary matters concerning children generally and to provide for related matters.” (“The Children’s Act, 1998 Act 560,” n.d.) This document, which focuses on the rights of children to care, protection and freedom of expression, also discuses the care of orphaned children. It mentions the word “orphan” twice. The first mention is within the context of rights to care and protection stating that “ a child is in need of care and protection if the child – (a) is an orphan or is deserted by his relatives”. The second mention of the word “orphan” is in regards to children homes, stating the different conditions that would constitute a case where a child should be admitted to a home, as it is a last resort. Some of the cases that determine whether a child should be placed in a children home include: “on the recommendation of a probation officer or social welfare officer who has determined that the approved home is the most suitable place for the child: or If the child is an orphan and family care and fosterage are not available.” (“The Children’s Act, 1998 Act 560,” n.d.) Ghana’s Children’s Act recognizes the vulnerability of orphans in the society, and the fact that they need proper care. To this end, it brings the discussion to the situation of orphans and the children homes in the following section. 3.3 Ghana’s Orphans and Children Homes Ghana has a high number of children that are reported as ‘orphans’, as the number is estimated at approximately 1.3 million (about 12 percent of all children). Of that number, about 127,000 are considered as double orphans (both parents passed away). All orphans do not live in children homes. Only 13.3% of orphans and 25% of vulnerable children actually live in orphanages. (Voelkl, 2012) However, the number of orphans in the country is inconsistent as the definition of what constitutes an “orphan” or a “child” varies as the idea of childhood in Ghana surpasses age. “Most of the figures are based on child population estimates from sample surveys where the percentage of orphans in the survey is small and not reliable when disaggregated by age or sex. Similarly not all surveys use the UNCRC definition of a child as a person below 18 years of age.” (Ministry of Employment

and Social Welfare & Unicef, 2010) Despite the differences, most surveys strives to use the accepted international definitions which states that an orphan is a child below the age of 18 who has lost one or both parents. In order to care for the orphans in the country, there are several orphanages that have opened their doors, both state-owned and private. The Department of Social Welfare currently estimates that the number of children homes operating is at 148, although at present, only ten of them are registered. With the rising number of orphanages, concerns are raised with the Ghanaian government. According to Ghana’s Orphans and Vulnerable Children Care Reform Initiative (2015) the rise of childcare institutions has become a huge problem that contributes to the children not receiving ideal care. The reasons for this are as follows: i. Tendency to house children in residential homes without exploring alternatives within the extended family and community; ii. Poor management of the establishments as they operate without annual budgets or financial planning; iii. Poor ‘carer’ to child ratio; iv. They are unable to engage the services of qualified child care personnel; v. Lack of adequate bedding and space, food, medication, academic and training facilities for the children; vi. Failure to comply with the minimum standards for the operation of children’s homes; vii. Arbitrary expulsion of children when the homes experience financial stress.” Despite the concerns that the Department of Social Welfare has, many homes continue to operate, as the number of orphans is undetectable. There are several homes that face ethical and legal issues, as I experienced during my quest to secure authorization for my research from the Department of Social Welfare. (See Chapter 4, Section 4.3) 3.4 Case Study The orphanage where the research was conducted is situated in Accra, the capital of Ghana. It was set up in the year 2000 for 15 unprivileged children, who were either orphans or came from difficult family backgrounds. The home currently houses between 60 and 75 children, ranging from 2 years old to 23 years old. The majority of the children are Ghanaian, with a couple arriving from neighboring countries such as Nigeria and Ivory Coast. Even though each child’s situation varies, there are two main circumstances under which the children end up at the home: the children are either sent to the home by the Department of Social Welfare in Ghana or they are brought in by parents who do not have the means to take care of them. (Staff 1, Interview) Relevant to this case study is the fact that young adults, older than 18 years, are considered as “children”. This is done for several reasons. First, after they turn 18, some youngster younger than 25, are still under the care of the orphanage no

differently than their younger counterparts. However, while living in the orphanage, they simultaneously help out either by teaching or doing housework. Secondly, Freeman (n.d.) building on Ncube’s work recognizes that "the normative universality achieved in the definition and formulation of children’s rights has to contend with diverse and varied cultural and traditional conceptions of childhood, its role, its rights and obligations". They go on to explain that in the African cultural context childhood is not perceived and conceptualized in terms of age but in terms of inter-generational obligations of support and reciprocity. In this sense an African "child" is often always a "child" in relation to his or her parents who expect and are traditionally entitled to all forms of support in times of need and in old age’. These “children”, just as their younger counterparts, are often seen on the premises on the home, described below. As you enter through the gates, you can notice a building in construction, which will house the growing number of children at the orphanage. This construction was offset by an incident that left some of the children without a proper place to sleep. In the fall of 2015, the boys’ dormitory was set on fire, resulting in the majority of the boys living at a house that is not on the orphanage site. Thus, this new building will house both girls and boys after construction. After you have passed this construction site, you will enter through another gate that leads to a yard. There, you can see that the orphanage is comprised of two separate one-story buildings: to your left, the boys’ dormitory that caught on fire (See photo 3.4.1) and the girls’ dormitory facing you (see photo 3.4.2). On most days, when the children are in class, the orphanage’s staff can be found in the yard. The staff is comprised of the director, whom the kids refer to as “daddy”, three women who are the caretakers or housemothers and often seen as bathing the children, cooking or washing around the house and one young woman who grew up in the home and now helps with administrative tasks. Photo 3.4.1: Boys dormitory destroyed by a fire.

Photo 3.4.2: Girls dormitory and director’s living space One distinguishing aspect about the orphanage is that it also has a school component. (See photo 3.4.3) The school, located across the street from the main gate, has been running since October of 2013. According to the director of the home, the school was founded as a means to provide a safe learning environment for the children as they were getting bullied in “regular” schools. The goal was for all the children from the orphanage to find a safe place that would help build their confidence level as a collective before they branch out into the real world. However, the school is also open to the other children living in the neighborhood. The three– story building houses the classes where the children attend kindergarten through junior high school before heading to the local high school to continue their studies. By this age, the children are said to be more comfortable with who they are and are capable of well integrating in the Ghanaian public school system. The school also provides the space for recreational activities considering it is surrounded by a big yard where the children usually play games and sports such as soccer or follow their tae-kwon-do lessons provided by a Ghanaian student on Tuesday afternoons.

Photo 3.4.3: School of the orphanage As the focus of this research, the orphanage will serve as the location that has allowed for a better understanding of the relationship between voluntourists and the children that inhabit the home. It provides the findings that are discussed in this paper concerning the impact that voluntourists have on children’s rights, from the perspectives of the children and the adults who accompany them throughout their daily activities in the home and at school.

Chapter 4: Methods and Methodology

This chapter is about the methodological approaches that were used throughout this study. In section 4.1 I introduce the concept of “subject position” linked to a personal experience during my childhood. This section is vital to this thesis as it introduces the reasoning behind my decision to focus this study on the perspectives of the local population, hence the children and the staff of the orphanage. In section 4.2, I discuss the rationale behind the use of qualitative data for this study and how it allowed me to formulate the research claims. Section 4.3 is about the methods and events that determined who the participants of the study are. Section 4.4 discusses the methods and data collected through the use of participant observations, story-telling, and semi-structured individual interviews. Section 4.5 provides a reflection on the methods pertaining to their limitations and challenges. Lastly, in section 4.6, I contemplate the ethical issues encountered during the research process. The study seeks to answer the following questions:

Research question: How do voluntourists impact on children’s rights in orphanages, as seen by the children and the orphanage staff? - What are the children’s perceptions of their living rights? - What do the children and the staff understand of the motives of voluntourists? - How do the children in the orphanage perceive and negotiate their interactions with volunteers? - How does the orphanage staff define their interactions with volunteers? - What are the immediate and long-term effects of voluntourism on the children and the local community as seen by the locals? 4.1 Subject Position Growing up in Haiti, a country in the Global South often referred to as "the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere", I often saw the influx of foreigners from the Global North coming in the country to "help". Whether they came on church or volunteering missions, I often felt that they regarded Haitians as helpless. One specific memory that comes to mind when I think of my first interactions with foreigners in Haiti dates back to when I was around 7-8 years old. I remember being in the yard of our house with the neighbors' kids, playing games, when a couple of trucks drove by. The trucks stopped and the obvious foreigners with their cameras came. Before I knew it, some people in the neighborhood walked towards the foreigners and so did the kids with whom I was playing. One foreigner, entered the yard, touched my hair and handed me an apple. As my parents taught me not to take food from strangers, I refused to take the apple. The foreigner, who continued to touch my head, insisted on giving me the apple. Not only was I questioning why this stranger wanted to give me an apple, as a 7 year old, I was more concerned that a stranger came through the half open gate to hand me a fruit. It wasn't until I took my first international development course in college that I started to put more thoughts and analysis into this first encounter. I asked myself several questions: ‘Did I look

famished at the time? Did the foreigner think I did not eat for the day? What would happen if the situation were reversed? What if people from countries of the Global South decided to go into neighborhoods of developed countries, pat the children’s head and hand them food?’ These were the thoughts that crossed my mind. On account of my experiences growing up in a ‘developing’ country, and of my experience with the foreigners who come in the name of ‘help’, I often found myself relating to the children who were the subjects of my research. This is described as ‘subject positioning’ by Davies and Harre (1990) who explain the concept as “the discursive process whereby selves are located in conversations as observably and subjectively coherent participants in jointly produced story lines. There can be interactive positioning in which one person positions another. And there can be reflexive positioning in which one positions oneself.” (Davies and Harre, 1990) As I positioned myself with the individuals in Ghana, I conducted this study from the local perspective because I find that their voices are often stifled when it comes to projects intended to ‘develop’ their communities. When they do get to express their opinions on those projects and policies their voices do not hold as much power as those implementing the projects/policies who are often people from countries deemed ‘developed.’ Moreover, in regards to voluntourism, it is common to hear to perspectives of either voluntourists or the (western) international development workers who feel that volunteers do not completely understand the impacts they are making (See Birrell 2011; Cole, 2012; Frean 2006; Hutnyk 1996; Sichel, 2006). As a result, I gave a lot of importance to the voices of the locals involved in the functioning of the orphanage who, too, are impacted by voluntourists. 4.2 Study Rationale In order to delve into the impact of voluntourism on the rights of children in orphanages, the study was qualitative in nature. This was done as a way to allow a deeper understanding, not only of the relations between the voluntourists, the children and the local staff, but also to understand the structure of voluntourism in and of itself. In hopes that the research would allow to understand the structure behind the interactions from a new angle, data collection focused mainly on the opinions that gave this study its exploratory nature. My aim was to use an exploratory research because that type of research “provide(s) rich quality information that help(s) identify the main issues that should be addressed…and significantly reduce(s) a research project’s level of bias.” (Team, 2014) Because of the exploratory nature, the first phase in gathering data was to establish rapport with the children and the staff. First, the director of the orphanage introduced me to the children and the staff. I, then, started going to the orphanage frequently. This time was used for my participant observations where I would often take notes as I interacted with everyone (children, staff and voluntourists), or as I watched their interactions with the voluntourists and the staff of the orphanage. Through direct observation and participation in the life of the group, I became acquainted with the children mostly because their views mattered to me the most.

4.3 Sampling Strategy Upon my arrival in Ghana, I was unable to reach the contact person at my first-choice orphanage. To not waste time, I then decided I would conduct my research at the second-choice location that I had as a backup plan (Osu Children Home). With this change in my research, I headed to the Osu Children Home, a state-run orphanage considered one of Ghana’s biggest orphanage. When I expressed interest in conducting my research there and asked to set an appointment to meet the director to present my research proposal, the secretary told me the director was absent and gave me her contact information. I proceeded to calling the director who referred me to the Department of Social Welfare where I needed to first obtain permission to conduct research in any orphanage in Ghana. The following day, I went to the Department of Social Welfare where its director was not present. As I returned to the Department of Social Welfare again, I was given conflicted information: some workers told me she was present, while others consistently mentioned she was not there. I followed the procedure of leaving my research proposal and consent forms, in hopes to get a call back. After several attempts to reach the director for 2.5 weeks, she, while refusing to provide further explanations, did not grant me authorization to do my research at the Osu Children Home. She asked her secretary to find another orphanage where I could conduct my research. As a result, I was granted authorization to conduct my research at the orphanage of their choice (previously described in chapter 3). I later found out that the Osu Children Home was currently under scrutiny after someone carried a secret investigation which revealed that the orphanage was mistreating the children and misusing the donations they received from the community. (The New Crusading Gu, 2010) The Department of Social Welfare’s selection of my study location was the first factor that influenced the sampling of my participants. At the assigned orphanage, during the first month of observations, I noticed that all the children did not interact with the voluntourists. I therefore used purposeful sampling to select the children that would participate in the story telling activities. Drawing from Voelkl’s 2012 study, where she found it hard to get useful information from younger children, I decided that my participants should be at least 9 years old. After receiving a list containing the names of the children in the orphanage, the director of the orphanage explained that all the children were present at the home on the weekends, which would make it a better time to have access to all participants. Therefore, I went to the home on a Saturday and went through the list with the help of the older children in order to identify everyone. Afterward, the children were stratified in two groups: 9-13 years old and 14-21 years old for two main reasons. First, this was done based on my observations that the majority of the children that were 14 and above had fewer interactions with the voluntourists than the younger ones did. Secondly, the older children often served as discipliners for the younger ones, therefore, I felt that separating them would produce a pressure-free environment where the younger children could easily express their thoughts. I

decided to conduct the story telling activity with the 14-21 year olds first because most of them were not available during the weekdays. I informed them that we could meet in the schoolyard at 3 PM and those who were interested were free to join. When the time came, the children went looking for each other and 6 participants arrived. The same method was used for the group of participants, aged 9 to 13. With 13 participants present, the group was divided into two smaller groups and remained in the same room to do the story telling activity. In regards to the interviews, the children who participated in the story telling were made aware of the possibilities of interviews and were each asked separately whether they wanted to participate in this phase. All those who agreed to interview were chosen. When it came to the staff, I interviewed all five staff members of the orphanage, including the director. Considering that the orphanage’s school was an integral part of the lives of the children and also a place where voluntourists spent their time, I decided to interview the school director. From there, an unexpected snowballing sampling occurred when the school director mentioned that some of the teachers who worked under his supervision grew up in the home as orphans. He subsequently referred the three teachers to me. 4.4 Research Methods The following methods were used in the data-gathering process and were deemed most suitable for answering the target research questions. For the story telling and the semi-structured interviews, participants were all allowed to pick a time and place where they felt most comfortable to freely express themselves. a) Participant observation: Participant observation allows researchers to pay careful attention to their surroundings. This method provides different ways to notice “non-verbal expressions” in interactions, communications and activities or simply observe events that participants may feel uncomfortable discussing. It also provides a way to refer to definitions of terms that participants may bring up in other activities such as interviews. (Kawulich, 2005) I spent the first month of the research going to the orphanage four times per week when the children and voluntourists would interact after school. During that time, I spoke to the children, the orphanage staff and some voluntourists, allowed them to get to know me and to ask me questions. I also explained my research and its purpose as many times as the children asked. In a diary, I recorded the children’s interactions with the orphanage staff but I mostly recorded their interactions with the voluntourists. b) Story telling: According to Bruner (1990), our stories can reveal our perceptions of the society in which we live as well as our attitudes towards our experiences. Story telling was used to get the children to speak about their experiences with the voluntourists. Moreover, because this method allows the children to somewhat distance themselves from the fictional characters, they were able to reveal experiences that they otherwise would

not discuss. Before beginning the activities, participants were all briefed about the purpose of the study and were given consent forms. In the first round, they were given a blank sheet of paper, and asked to describe the rights, interactions, and daily activities of “Marie”, the fictional child at the orphanage. In the second round, they were asked to do the same exercise for “Susie”, the fictional voluntourist who came to the orphanage from Europe. c) Semi-structured Interviews: Semi-structured interviews are centered on a pre-written interview guide. Since this method encourages two-way communication, it relieves some pressure that the interviewees may have as they too can ask questions. (“Semi-Structured interviews,” 2011) 1) Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the children who participated in the story telling activity. The children were all made aware of the possibilities of interviews before partaking in the storytelling activities. Afterwards, each participant was asked separately whether s/he wanted to partake in the interview phase. Those who agreed to interview were chosen. 2) Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the staff of the orphanage and the school. Participants were briefed on the purpose of the study and given consent forms. In total, the empirical findings of the study draw conclusions from the 29 participants who took part in the story-telling activities and the in-depth interviews. Story telling was conducted with 7 participants between the ages 14-21, 4 of whom agreed to do in-depth interviews. Story telling was also conducted with 13 participants between the ages 9 and 13 and 5 of them agreed to partake in the in-depth interviews. In-depth interviews were conducted with 8 staff members: 4 staff members worked at the home, 3 staff members worked at the school and 1 staff member worked at the home and at the school. An in depth interview was also conducted with a voluntourist that served as the coordinator for the other voluntourists within the recruiting organization to get a general idea on the organization, the type of people that are recruited to volunteer, their skills and the work that they must undertake during their time in Ghana. Data analysis The data was analyzed using open coding methods. This method is concerned with identifying, naming, categorizing and describing phenomena found in the text. (Strauss & Corbin, 1990) Using this method, I developed a category of “rights” where the transcribed interviews and story telling were coded based on the right the children and the staff believed the children had. These rights were then coded based on whether voluntourists had a positive impact or negative impact based on the participants’ perspectives. This was then crosschecked with my observations.

4.5 Reflections and Limitations Reflections According to Guba and Lincoln (1994), qualitative research should have terms to assess the quality of the research similarly to the reliability and validity that help assess quantitative research. Two primary criteria for doing so in qualitative research are trustworthiness and authenticity. Trustworthiness is made up of four criteria (credibility, transferability, dependability, confirmability), each of which has an equivalent criterion in quantitative research. It is through the lens of trustworthiness and authenticity that I hope to reflect upon my research. a) Credibility Bryman (2001) affirms “the establishment of the credibility of findings entails both ensuring that research is carried out according to the canons of good practice and submitting research findings to the members of the social world who were studied for confirmation that the investigator has correctly understood that social world.” Credibility of research allows the claims of the researcher to hold value. One way to bolster credibility is through triangulation of the methods. Throughout my research, I used a triangulation of observations, story telling and in-depth interviews in order to understand the lived experiences of my participants. Considering that rapport was built with my participants before engaging in the storytelling and interview phases of my research, I believe that my exploratory report is a close account of reality. The children appeared comfortable with me, especially after assuring them that their responses would not be shared with anyone unless anonymously. Moreover, due to the fact that respect for elders and authority figures is extremely engrained in Ghanaian society, it was important that my activities took place without the presence of authority figures. Therefore, the children were allowed to collectively pick a place where they felt more comfortable to do the activities and speak freely. For the story telling activity, all the groups picked the school as their “safe” zone. The older kids decided they wanted to stay in the schoolyard, and the younger ones chose a kindergarten classroom. No authority figures where present during those sessions. The children and the staff were also allowed to pick a comfortable place for the interviews to occur. b) Transferability Lincoln and Guba (1995) explain that testing whether the findings can hold in a different context, whether different time or place, is a necessary aspect in assessing the quality of qualitative research. In retrospect, my decision to interviews four teachers who formerly grew up in the home can also relate to the transferability of my study. The accounts of their lived experiences with the voluntourists during their time growing up at the orphanage unveiled various similarities to those of the current children at the orphanage. This

can prove that my findings can hold true in the same context during other times. Moreover, considering the fact the voluntourism industry continues to grow and is prevalent in the Global South, I believe that some of the findings of this research can be transferable to different children homes. (See Voelkl, 2012) c) Dependability The practice of dependability relies on the consistency maintained throughout the research and whether the research and the methods used are repeatable. (Bryman, 2001) I believe that the research is repeatable considering that the combination of purposeful sampling and snowball sampling were the best methods to select my participants in the context of this exploratory study, particularly because of the timeframe of the research. Purposeful sampling became obvious after observing my participants. My observations made it easier to determine that the children whom I wanted to participate in the study were either the ones who interacted the most with the volunteers or the ones who did not, as they were on opposite sides of the spectrum and could provide rich information that would enable me to answer the research question. Snowball sampling also had a positive impact on my research as it provided a different perspective. Were it not for snowball sampling, it would have been difficult to figure out which teachers were former children, or to even know that there were teachers who grew up in the orphanage. Given the fact that the number of “current teacher-former children” was small, this method worked without bias from the referrer who referred all of them. d) Confirmability Confirmability focuses on the level of the researcher’s bias and whether others can corroborate the research. (Bryman, 2001) To minimize bias, I used triangulation of methods (observations, story-telling, interviews) to crosscheck the data. Throughout the course of this study, I tried to remain as objective as possible, even though this led to many ethical issues that will be discussed in the Ethical Considerations section below. (See section 4.6) e) Authenticity Authenticity refers to the extent to which researchers, fairly and faithfully, show a range of realities (Bryman, 2001) The authenticity of this study can be corroborated by the wide variety of points of views provided by the participants across ages (younger children vs. older children) and status (child vs. adult) within the orphanage. Moreover, crosschecking through the triangulation of data allows outsiders to gain a different understanding of the participants’ social milieu. Limitations Even though the methods I utilized in this study may have been the best to give