This is a guest post from Daniela Papi of PEPY:

Our trips during our first few years at PEPY were all about service. We were enthusiastic about offering travelers a chance to give back to the places they visited, otherwise known as voluntourism. Tour participants taught classes at local schools, visited orphanages, and repaired educational buildings. Often times, the needs the travelers were filling were not the biggest needs for the projects we were partnering with but were instead the things they were able to physically contribute to. When our guests …

The growing popularity of “slum tours” has prompted media coverage and debates.  We did a post, “Poverty Tours: Good or Bad?” exploring some of the questions last July.
Topics about the poor or disadvantaged in relations to the wealthy and advantaged often trigger heated opinions. Debate is good because it brings issues to the forefront and is productive if the underlying desire is for betterment rather than being right.
Critics of slum tours have long argued that tourists visiting the slums exploit and violate the dignity of slum dwellers. While supporters of …

Responsible travel is a term used a lot in travel these days. Many companies label themselves responsible travel providers. How do you know whether a travel company REALLY is committed to responsible travel? We thought a basic primer on responsible travel principles would be helpful.
As a traveler, when you decide on an international travel company to work with, vote with your dollars to make sure that they follow responsible travel principles and support local economies. Here are a few basic responsible travel principles to get you started. …

Voluntourism, the red-hot travel niche, has attracted its share of industry self-regulation in hopes that its good intentions do not get exploited.
Planeterra, the non-profit arm of GAP Adventures dedicated to the development and support of small communities around the globe, recently released a checklist that voluntourist or tour operator may want to consider before putting together a trip or a voluntourism program.
Self-Evaluation
• When is my need to “do good” potentially a selfish act on my part?
• Am I helping or hindering by taking time …

Photo by Gaetan Lee
Travelers who may want to volunteer with a NGO (non-governmental organization), especially those of you who want to plan your own volunteer vacation, Alanna Shaikh at Blood and Milk gives some great guidelines on how to pick a good NGO to work with.

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Those of us who work in international development inevitably work with NGOs. You may be employed by them, donate to them, volunteer with them, join a coalition, or contract them to do something. When you enter into that relationship, you need to know as …