Go Overseas, a company helping thousands of volunteers around the world travel abroad, has just implemented a new system on their site to flag the harms of volunteering in orphanages and the risks of orphanage trafficking as direct result of sustained action from the Freedom United community.
Tens of thousands of us in the Freedom United community have been calling on volunteer tour operators to take a stand against orphanage trafficking by no longer offering volunteer placements in orphanages. We’re proud of Go Overseas for taking this important step and playing their role in disrupting traffickers’ business model, joining Global Vision International and African Impact.
Now when a potential volunteer is browsing through opportunities tagged under “childcare” and “orphan care” on their site, they’ll see a warning linked to a detailed blog post I wrote on the harms of orphanage volunteering and the associated trafficking risks.