Child Safeguarding Policy
Children are not a tourist activity. This page sets out what we recommend, what we will not promote, and what readers should expect from any program that places volunteers near children.
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Our position on orphanage and residential-care volunteering
We do not promote orphanage or residential childcare volunteering, including programs labelled as “children's homes,” “children's centres,” or “care centres.” This aligns with long-standing guidance from UNICEF, Save the Children, Lumos, ReThink Orphanages and other established child-protection bodies.
Three findings are consistent across that research:
- Most children living in orphanages are not orphans. In several well-studied countries (Cambodia, Haiti, Uganda, Nepal), the majority have at least one living parent. They are there because their family is poor, not because they are without family.
- A revolving door of unfamiliar short-term foreign caregivers harms children's attachment, sense of stability, and long-term mental health.
- Demand for orphanage volunteering — and the tourist money that comes with it — has been documented as a driver of orphanage proliferation, family separation and, in serious cases, trafficking.
“We're different” is not a credible answer. Even well-intentioned residential programs operate inside a system whose incentives are bad for children. Family-strengthening, community-based programs are better for the same children.
What we recommend instead
- Family-strengthening programs that keep children with their families through livelihoods support, school fees, food security or social work.
- Community-based education support — supervised teaching support, library work, after-school programs — where the volunteer is not a substitute for a parent.
- Long-term, professional roles for qualified social workers, teachers and child psychologists working under local supervision.
- Funding directed at well-vetted local organisations that work with families.
What every legitimate child-facing program should require
- A recent criminal-record / background check from your country of residence.
- A written child safeguarding policy that you can read in advance.
- Qualified local staff in charge of the day-to-day work.
- No unsupervised one-to-one access between a volunteer and a child.
- A clear way to report concerns, including to someone outside the program.
- A no-photos-without-consent rule, including no social-media posts.
- An onboarding session covering safeguarding and culture before placement.
- A minimum commitment length that reflects the role.
If a program cannot show you these in writing before you pay, walk away.
What volunteers should not do
- Provide hands-on personal care (bathing, feeding, medical) to children you are not qualified to provide it to.
- Post photos of identifiable children to social media — even with first names, school names or location data.
- Promise to return, sponsor or stay in contact in ways the local program does not endorse.
- Take children outside the program setting without explicit written authorisation.
- Make safeguarding decisions on your own; raise concerns through the program's process.
If you see something concerning
Report it. Use the program's safeguarding channel first. If you do not trust that channel, contact the relevant national child-protection authority and, for cross-border cases, ECPAT International and your home-country embassy.