Students warned over 'voluntourism'

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Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) said that the burgeoning gap-year industry was increasingly catering to the needs of students rather than those of the communities they claim to support.

The charity warned that "voluntourism" was often badly planned with spurious projects springing up across the developing world which, instead of benefiting those involved, had a negative impact on young people and the communities they worked with.

Instead gappers would be better off travelling, the charity said.

Judith Brodie, the director of VSO UK, said: "While there are many good gap-year providers, we are increasingly concerned about the number of badly planned and supported schemes that are spurious - ultimately benefiting no one apart from the travel companies that organise them."

VSO is drawing up a code of good practice to help gap-year students find genuine voluntary work abroad.

According to the Year Out Group, an association of gap-year providers, up to 200,000 Britons take time out each year - 130,000 of them school-leavers looking for a change of scenery after months of revising for exams.

Ms Brodie added: "Young people want to make a difference, but they would be better off travelling and experiencing different cultures, rather than wasting time on projects that have no impact and can leave a big hole in their wallet."

Tom Griffiths, founder of gapyear.com, told the Times: "Some companies raise the expectations of students to unrealistic levels and make them think they will change the world.

"When they get there they discover they are only small players in the project and feel disappointed."