The slogan of a prominent social enterprise, Friend International, declares, Your

donations dont help orphans they create them (Murdoch, 2015). This signals a paradox
in the context of orphanage tourism in Cambodia. Orphanage tourism, a subset of volunteer
tourism, is a unique phenomenon in developing nations like Cambodia where tourists pay
to volunteer at its orphanages for a short period of time, around 1 to 3 months, due to
intrinsic motivations. Due to its popularity, the number of orphanages in Cambodia has
skyrocketed to accommodate the colossal inflow of tourists (Pitrelli, 2012). While some like
Pitrelli are convinced that orphans will benefit immensely from the boom of orphanage
tourism because of its promises of better education and quality of living, others are
concerned about its negative impact on the social and mental development of these
orphans. Despite the implementation of licensing frameworks to regulate the number of
rogue orphanages, its number continues to spike, thus calling out for alternative measures.
The lucrative market for orphanage tourism has led to an increase in profit making
orphanages, which exploit children from poor families without heed for their social and
mental development. Rogue orphanages often use false promises of better education,
shelter, food and care to dupe poor families into sending their children to the orphanages
(Hruby, 2014). According to UNICEF, about 75% of the orphans have one or both parents
still living (Kapur, 2016) and 44% were estimated to have been brought to orphanages
directly by their parents (Davidson, 2014). This permanent detachment from their families
is highly detrimental to the childrens mental health as it was found that kids who grow up
in such institutionalized environments, without a maternal figure, are more prone to
developing various personality disorders (UNICEF, 2011). Results of a long-term study
have revealed that the institutionalised showed higher rates of personality disorders and
marital issues than those who grew up in normal households (UNICEF, 2011). As the main
priority of these profit-making orphanages is to make money, they tend to allow volunteers
to work with the orphanages with no minimum commitment period, thus resulting in
frequent rotation of batches of volunteer tourists (Murdoch, 2015). With a high staff
turnover and a low ratio of staff to children, it is evident that the essential need of children
for a maternal figure cannot be fulfilled, resulting in mental issues in the long run (UNICEF,
2011). This exemplifies the negative impact of volunteer tourism on the mental
development of orphans, which will be further aggravated as more rogue orphanages open
to capitalize on such a form of tourism.
To reduce the number of rogue orphanages, the Cambodian government has
inaugurated a new licensing framework requiring all orphanages to be approved and
registered after satisfying a list of criteria (Kapur, 2016). Since 2011, they have assessed
228 residential care units and closed down 11 orphanages that failed to satisfy minimum
care standards (Kapur, 2016). However, despite their efforts in imposing minimum
standards, the number of new orphanages that do not satisfy the requirements has

continued to soar (Pitrelli, 2012). This is due to the nature of corruption in the country,
where orphanages directors bribe government officials and police into registering their
orphanages (Hartley and Walker, 2013). Therefore, enforcement issues are of paramount
concern. Potential volunteers who do not read up on these orphanages beforehand further
aggravate this problem. They continue to sign up for placement programmes, unaware of
their contribution to the exploitation of these children as money-making tools. Due to these
limitations, the effectiveness of the current approach is reduced significantly, further
exacerbating the problem.
One possible approach is to target the aforementioned ignorance of volunteer
tourists by ensuring that they choose to volunteer only at orphanages which run
operations ethically. Volunteer tourists should conduct research beforehand and make
sound decisions, such as boycotting orphanages that assiduously solicit tourists, and
choosing to volunteer at non-profit orphanages which provide proper documentation of
their orphans status. Orphanages which are run ethically also tend to conduct background
checks on the volunteer tourists prior to accepting them into their placement programmes
(Murdoch, 2015). The rationale is that when there is more scrutiny and documentation
involved, the likelihood of children being protected also increases, especially since there
have been cases of illicit sexual conduct by volunteers (Hruby, 2014). Another way to
distinguish between rogue and genuine orphanages is through reading reviews or recounts
written by past volunteer tourists, which can be found in forums or websites like Trip
Advisor.
Another plausible approach is to reduce volunteer tourists interactions with the
children as much as possible. One reason is that the volunteers might not be aware of the
learning progress of the children, so they might have the tendency to reteach content that
has already been learnt, undermining the effectiveness of lessons conducted (Pitrelli,
2012). Also, interactions with the children can cause attachment issues when the
volunteers leave (Davidson, 2014). Thus, volunteer tourists should be looking at lending
assistance to the permanent staff by aiding them in preparing lesson plans instead. Afterall,
the aim of these volunteers should be to contribute sustainably, and only by working
directly with permanent staff can the effects of their work be reverberated even after they
leave.
Besides shutting down the operations of rogue orphanages, the Cambodian
government can perhaps look into foster care programmes for the orphans residing in
genuine orphanages, and also focus on reintegrating children from rogue orphanages back
to their families through community-based support. Under the foster care programme, true
orphans will undergo adoption and live with foster families. Needless to say, stringent
background checks on foster families have to be conducted before allocating the orphans to

the families. Also, children with living parents can be sent back to their families. The basis
is that living in a family unit is pivotal to the development of these orphans research
studies conducted by numerous international organisations such as UNICEF (2011) and
Save the Children UK (2009) have repeatedly stressed the critical role of an emotional
attachment to a mother figure in contributing to a healthy and normal development. In
both cases, follow-ups should be conducted to ensure that the welfare of these children is
well taken care of. These administration works can be done by accredited international
organisations like UNICEF or Friends International, and aided by volunteers who are
trained and able to commit long-term. Throughout the arduous journey of reintegration
and adaptation, community-based development support must be present as a safety net,
which can come from overseas donors. Volunteer tourists who are not able to commit longterm can contribute by setting up charity drives or donations in their own country to raise
money for this cause. These funds will then be channeled towards building infrastructures
like installation of water pumps, building schools and houses for the community. In this
manner, it ensures that the community will not be in a position of vulnerability, preventing
parents from having to resort to sending their children off to orphanages.
As the saying goes, The root of happiness is altruismthe wish to be of service to
others. Even though altruistic inclinations should be supported, ironically in the case of
Cambodia, orphanage tourism seems to be hindering the development of the children
instead of providing better futures for them due to the spike in the number of rogue
orphanages riding along the wave of orphanage tourism. Thus, there is a need to modify the
current volunteer tourism structure instead of focusing on surface symptoms of poverty,
volunteers should be investing in sustainable and cost-effective solutions that will benefit
the community as a whole. The government is also instrumental when it comes to
enforcing rules and ensuring that orphanages comply with licensing frameworks. The onus
is on the volunteers to make informed decisions, be it conducting thorough research and
exercise caution in selecting where they want to do their placement programmes or
participating in sustainable reintegration programmes. After all, it is always better for
children to live with their families than in an orphanage.

(1332 words) inclusive of in-text citations max allowed: 1350 words

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