Summary: Despite good intentions, short-term orphanage volunteering can be harmful to vulnerable children. Effective volunteering that benefits vulnerable children and communities prioritizes child protection, supports local caregivers and partners with established NGOs and churches to support ongoing work.
I went on my first mission trip to serve vulnerable children in Mexico when I was 17 years old. The temperatures soared to 112 degrees, and my enthusiasm burned even hotter. I remember playing with a little girl named Josefina, helping with work projects, taking countless photos and feeling fulfilled by the work we had done.
Years later, as I began to learn more about the work of serving vulnerable individuals – understanding a child’s need for attachment and the complexity of poverty and family separation – memories of this experience hit me differently.
While I was eager to make a difference and armed with good intentions, my brief presence was probably not what Josefina needed the most in her life. At times, I even wondered, did that experience cause her more harm than good?
Could there be a better way?
It turns out, I’m not the only orphanage volunteer to have these concerns.
Reflections about orphanage volunteering
A study by the CAFO Research Center gathered reflections from 353 short-term volunteers who had served vulnerable children.
Amidst the positive reflections related to the benefits of supporting local efforts and building relationships, participants shared hesitations:
“I hoped we would be able to help the people, but our trip was just a drop in the bucket. It did nothing. We couldn’t even engage in a meaningful way.”
“A large percentage of our time was spent with abandoned/orphaned children in a children’s home. I regret the time spent bonding with children (who have already suffered trauma from abandonment) only to leave two weeks later and not return. I imagine it did far more harm than good.”
[If given the chance to repeat the trip] “I would not return to an orphanage. I would want to support groups that are providing quality in-home care for children (like foster care or guardianship homes with relatives).”
Many volunteers were beginning to share the same growing conclusion as researchers that short-term international volunteering in residential care centers may be incompatible with promoting the well-being of vulnerable children.
Is there a place for short-term volunteering in an orphanage?
There is no question that short-term volunteering can have benefits, both to the volunteer and to those they are serving. In fact, many leaders of ministries caring for vulnerable children trace their start back to a mission trip.
However, these experiences often have risks and challenges, as well. One common response from participants in the research study on short-term volunteering was that, if given the opportunity to repeat their trip, they would rather donate the money they spent than volunteer.
I had started to feel this way myself after reflecting on my time spent volunteering in an orphanage in Mexico and other trips like it. I’d seen the risks this type of volunteering posed to children – both in terms of child protection and their overall well-being – and I didn’t want children to be put at risk in this way.
However, what if there was a different way to volunteer with orphaned and vulnerable children—a way that emphasized the potential for good in short-term volunteering while minimizing the harm?
This alternative option does exist, but it relies on an accurate understanding of the potential risks and benefits of orphanage volunteering.
3 Myths about volunteering in an orphanage
Myth #1: Most children in orphanages are orphans.
Reality: Research shows that around 80% of children in orphanages globally have at least one living parent.
Most children are placed in orphanages due to poverty, disability, emergencies or lack of access to basic services – not because they’ve lost their parents.
Motivated by compassion and a desire to serve vulnerable children, residential care centers like orphanages and children’s homes developed as a primary way of providing care for these children who are separated from parental care.
Many volunteers are surprised to learn that many of the children they are caring for have living family members. As they learn about the various factors that lead to children being separated from parental care, they often begin to see the need for supporting families to care for their own children, or even better, to prevent separation in the first place.
Myth #2: Children in orphanages benefit from exposure to many different caring adults.
Reality: Children need consistent caregivers to form secure attachments.
When volunteers cycle through orphanages for days or weeks, child protection concerns and the repeated making and breaking of attachments are two of the most worrying risks. Both carry the potential for negative impact.
When volunteering with orphaned and vulnerable children, we must take responsibility for ensuring their well-being first.
Children do best when their physical and emotional needs are met by consistent, reliable caregivers. We must give up our own hopes and desires and focus first on the benefits and risks to the children, even if that means our time serving orphans through volunteering ends up looking significantly different than what we originally envisioned.
Myth #3: Good intentions are good enough when needs are great.
Reality: We must consider the best available knowledge when we seek to care for children and minimize the risk of harm in all circumstances.
It can be tempting to settle for lower-quality care and services for children when they live in low-resource areas. It can seem as though something is better than nothing, or that they will be grateful for whatever it is we can do. However, leaders around the world are beginning to recognize this mindset can lead to harm. In fields such as medicine, we are seeing guidelines developed to ensure individuals in low-resource settings don’t receive low-quality care.
An important question to ask ourselves is whether we would be comfortable if roles were reversed. Would we be okay with a stranger coming into our home to play with our children? Would we be okay with him or her offering gifts or staying in our home? How would we feel if this was repeated multiple times, with groups of people creating a revolving door?
Children everywhere are made in the very image of God, and He is invested in the ways we care for them. We must consider the best available knowledge when we seek to care for children, minimizing risk of harm and maximizing the potential for real, lasting benefit.
3 Truths about effective volunteering to benefit vulnerable children
Truth #1: Volunteering can be a milestone in our journey of following Christ.
Short-term volunteer experiences in response to Christ’s call to “care for the widows and the orphans” often serve as spiritual landmarks that can deepen our faith and expose us to diverse global realities. These experiences can deepen prayer lives, renew spiritual commitment, and broaden our understanding of God’s worldwide work, fostering growth that continues long after returning home.
However, despite their transformative potential, we must remember that the spiritual benefits we receive should never come at the expense of those we intend to serve – particularly the most vulnerable.
Truth # 2: We don’t use orphaned and vulnerable children as a means to an end.
It can be tempting to ignore the potential risks of our presence as we prioritize all the good that orphanage volunteering can do for us or those we intend to serve. We may believe that the benefits outweigh the risks posed to the children, families and communities we interact with. Yet, there certainly are risks.
When participating in volunteering with vulnerable children, we must take on the responsibility of protecting the individuals we will interact with. We must be willing to let go of our own desires and look out for their benefit, instead. The focus of any short-term volunteering should first be on the benefits and risks to the children and ensuring their well-being. The potential benefits for us must be secondary.
Truth #3: We must proceed humbly and strategically in short-term volunteering, in partnership with local churches and NGOs.
Short-term volunteering can play an important role in the life of the volunteer and in the lives of the people he or she will serve. It can awaken someone to the needs of the world, to the strengths of a marginalized community, and to the role he or she can play in what God is doing around the world to build His Kingdom.
When planned with humility and strategy, short-term volunteering can add energy to the efforts of local Christian NGOs and churches.
And yet, not all short-term volunteering is an unmitigated good. It is immensely powerful, with both the power to do much good and much harm. It must be wielded with wisdom and caution, and volunteers would be wise to follow the leadership of both best practice and local leaders, humbly recognizing they don’t know what they don’t know.
A key risk we must avoid
God’s design is for children to be raised in loving, protective, nurturing families. However, millions of children around the world are separated from parental care and live in residential care centers such as orphanages and children’s homes.
These children often experience multiple interrupted caregiving relationships as center employees come and go, and healthy attachment can be challenging.
The cycle of multiple mission teams visiting the same children throughout the year can create harmful patterns of attachment and abandonment. Adding short-term orphanage volunteering to this revolving door is not in the best interest of children.
However, there are plenty of alternative models for volunteering that can benefit the children in orphanages and children in the local community.
Principles for positive impact when volunteering with orphans
Volunteering to benefit orphaned and vulnerable children can be an immensely powerful experience, but it must be approached with wisdom and caution. True compassion requires us to look beyond momentary interactions and invest in lasting, meaningful impact, following best practices and the guidance of local leaders.
As we seek to support the best for vulnerable children in their own communities, these eight principles can provide a framework for wise, impactful volunteering:
- PROTECTION Safeguarding children from harm is the first priority. Ensure the organization you’ll be partnering with has established and consistently reviews a child protection policy. The policy should include background screenings for all staff and volunteers, along with reporting procedures for suspected harm to a child.
- ATTACHMENT Ensure volunteer activities are supporting the bonds between children and their parent or primary caregiver. Always encourage and direct children to seek physical and emotional affection from their long-term caregivers instead of stepping into that role as a volunteer.
- CAREGIVERS Honor and prioritize the role of parents and primary caregivers. Be willing to take on a supporting role that keeps you behind the scenes and focuses on supporting staff and other supportive tasks that aren’t focused on providing care for children.
- COMMUNITY Look for opportunities that support the communities surrounding vulnerable children. Consider involvement with activities that benefit entire communities, such as camps, clinics or educational / training opportunities.
- EXPECTATIONS Make sure your volunteering role and purpose is clear, with expectations for your involvement thoroughly explained. View listening, learning and building lasting relationships with leaders as more central than any tasks you may accomplish.
- PARTNERSHIPS Approach your volunteer experience with the aim of developing a long-term relationship with a quality organization, church or ministry. Long before applying to volunteer, do the hard work necessary to investigate the potential hosting organizations. Consider also how you could continue to support and invest in their ongoing work after returning home.
- TRAINING Commit to learning before doing. Training from a volunteer-hosting organization should repeatedly emphasize the primary role of parents and caregivers, the priority of local leadership and that the long-term needs of each child must always take priority over the desires of visitors. Personal training for short-term volunteering can prepare you for long-term impact while minimizing risks.
- MEDIA Images that include vulnerable children should only be taken and shared with permission from the child and their primary caregiver. Share stories and images with care, honoring each child’s dignity and guarding them from voyeurism and exploitation.
Moving beyond good intentions in volunteering
The most meaningful way to help orphaned and vulnerable children isn’t through orphanage volunteering, which often looks like brief encounters that primarily satisfy our own desires to contribute. Instead, it’s through thoughtful support of organizations and ministries that prioritize the long-term well-being of the children, families and communities they serve.
After years of making our own mistakes through volunteering and short-term mission trips, my husband and I were hesitant to welcome short-term volunteers to Peru, where we now serve as long-term missionaries. When we first moved here, we erred on the side of preferring to have no volunteers over contributing to potentially harmful situations.
However, over the years, we have developed relationships with select groups and individuals wanting to work to benefit existing ministries here. They have engaged in alternative models of involvement – supporting family camps, serving in schools, teaching English to adults, assisting with evangelism and outreach in remote areas and more – always under the guidance of local ministry leaders. With clear objectives and boundaries, they have added energy and creativity to work that is ongoing.
We’ve seen firsthand that short-term volunteering – when done wisely and with humility – can play an important role in building the Kingdom.
-Nicole Wilke is the Director of the Center on Applied Research for Vulnerable Children and Families at CAFO.
