Dignity & Honor in Volunteering // Wise Short-term Missions
PRINCIPLES OF GOOD PRACTICE TO SHOW DIGNITY • Commit to seeing the strength and dignity of each person you meet.
• Images that include vulnerable children should be
taken and shared only with permission from the child and his/her parent or primary caregiver.
• Consider not taking photos at certain times (or at all).
• Consider the lasting impact any photos or stories
could have on the life of the child, and never share an image you would not share in front of the child with their caregiver.
• Gifts should be given only through parents and caregivers, taking care to reinforce their role as primary caregivers.
• Commit to supporting and empowering local
solutions, rather than “rescuing” or trying to fix a problem yourself.
• Share only images and stories that convey dignity.
Cultural Humility // Wise Short-term Missions
PRINCIPLES OF GOOD PRACTICE FOR CULTURAL HUMILITY • Acknowledge that our own expectations and behaviors are different from others.
• Accept your role as learner and the hosts as expert on their culture.
Remember: they have had a lifetime to learn it.
• Even if a host is not necessarily an expert on
children, attachment, or trauma, that does not discredit their immense value. Gaining buy-in and partnership from local leaders is a critical and mandatory part of any short-term trip.
• Listen to those from the culture about their way of
life to develop an even richer and more fruitful a) relationship and b) impact to help vulnerable children and families. With this approach, it is the children who will benefit the most.
Supporting Communities // Wise Short-term Missions
PRINCIPLES OF GOOD PRACTICE TO HONOR COMMUNITIES • Understand that children thrive when surrounded by healthy communities and social systems – including families, schools, churches, businesses, and local government. • Instead of focusing on an orphanage or children’s home, consider activities that benefit the entire community. This could be camps, clinics, teaching English, or other training. Events like these can strengthen families and help children separated from family care to integrate with the community. • Train and resource local leaders and ministries that have the potential to positively impact vulnerable children long-term. When your team is big enough with the right skills, consider offering training in business, children’s ministry, financial literacy, parenting, marriage support, or other skills that strengthen families and communities. • Always consider what effect it would have on the community if the activities and relationships that occur on your trip were repeated by other teams over time.
Honoring Caregivers // Wise Short-term Missions
PRINCIPLES OF GOOD PRACTICE TO HONOR CAREGIVERS • Learn what best supports parents and caregivers by asking them before the team arrives. • Spotlight the parent or primary caregiver as the hero in a child’s life, and be willing to take a supporting role. • Interact with children only with the approval of parents or primary caregivers who have the ability to decline or set limits on child interaction with trip participants. • Honor the role of parents/caregivers in the way you give. Gifts should be given only under the guidance of -and typically through- parents and primary caregivers, taking great care to reinforce their role as providers.
Keeping Children Safe // Wise Short-term Missions
PRINCIPLES OF GOOD CHILD PROTECTION PRACTICE • Volunteer with organizations that have established
– and consistently implement and review – an official child protection policy with all staff, volunteers, and trip participants.
• Seek volunteer opportunities that occur outside the context of orphanages or children’s homes.
• Only volunteer with an organization that thoroughly screens and background checks all staff and volunteers.
• Only interact with a child in public, not in their home space. Make sure you always act under the invitation and supervision of parents and caregivers.
• Report suspected maltreatment of children or
suspicious activity in writing. Submit this to the organization you came with, trip organizers, and relevant authorities.
• Our decisions regarding how we serve vulnerable children need to always be focused on the best interest of the child.
• The risks to children in orphanages far outweigh the benefits. When considering volunteering, alternative models to orphanages have better odds of helping children with less liability.
• Although there may be benefits to volunteers, they
are not the deciding factor. Children are never a means to an end.
Expectations // Wise Short-term Missions
TRANSITION YOUR EXPECTATIONS FROM…
RES C UE
REWARD
LO G IS T IC S
S O LUT IO N S
A F F EC T IO N S
EMP OW E R I NG H ERO ES H UM IL IT Y
F L EX IB IL I T Y
PAT IEN C E
B O UN DA R I E S
Expectations // Wise Short-term Missions
CONCERNS FOR EXPECTATIONS IN SHORT-TERM MISSIONS RESCUE
Volunteers sometimes see vulnerable children as in need of rescue and place themselves in the role of the hero. In reality, the heroes in the child’s life are the families and communities that care for them long-term.
REWA RD
Some volunteers expect reward, admiration, or accolades for the work they do. That can place them in the position of seeing vulnerable children as projects, rather than people.
LOGISTICS
Volunteers may also expect trip logistics and processes to unfold in a way they see as logical or reasonable. However, other cultures often have systems that we’re not used to, and we have to surrender our desire for things to feel comfortable or efficient.
S OLUTIO NS
Volunteers may also expect trip logistics and processes to unfold in a way they see as logical or reasonable. However, other cultures often have systems that we’re not used to, and we have to surrender our desire for things to feel comfortable or efficient.
A F F ECTIO NS
Everything you do has to focus on what’s best for the child’s health and in their best interest. This means that we often don’t get to interact with children in the way we thought we would or want to. Sometimes not holding babies or building super close relationships with kids is what’s best for them. Instead of building a 2-week short and shallow relationship with a child, it’s healthier to support a child’s long-term relationship with their caregivers rather than with you. Letting go of our desire to rock babies, hold children, or build fake close bonds in a short period of time is a Christ-like sacrificial love for the children we want to help.
Attachment and Child Development // Wise Short-term Missions
GOOD PRACTICES FOR ATTACHMENT • Nurture healthy attachment by ensuring that parents and long-term caregivers, not trip participants, are meeting children’s primary needs – especially in daily routines and intimate moments. • Encourage children to seek physical and emotional affection from their parents and primary caregivers instead of trip participants, and teach trip participants how to redirect children to their parents and primary caregivers. • Ensure that children are not exposed to trip participants and other strangers. This is because the repeated making and breaking of bonds with successive trip participants can damage attachment. Interaction should not include children under age three, as attachment is most critical and tenuous at this stage. • Before your trip, make sure you understand boundaries for any interaction with children.
Vulnerable Populations // Wise Short-term Missions
BEST INTEREST OF THE CHILD • What do we mean when we say, the “best interest of a
child”? a) The best interest of the child is knowing what support and resources each child needs to protect them from falling down the spiral of vulnerability both in the present moment and future. It protects them physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.
• Any interaction we have must be in a child’s best
interest, both during the trip and for the long-term. Sometimes what we think might be best for them is not due to cultural factors, their past traumas, and life story. We aren’t going to learn each child’s entire life story in the few weeks we visit, so we have to think about how our behavior is going to have an impact for the rest of their lives.
• This means that our volunteering needs to focus on
the child’s needs instead of what we really want. The innocence of a child is so precious and valuable, and some children may have experienced trauma or loss that took this away. It’s our job as volunteers to first protect them from our own selfish desires and then give them what both they and their communities ask for.
• A trip could be well planned, perfect timing, and
completely funded for a short-term missions team. However, if it isn’t a good fit for the children we serve, we don’t do it. The convenience for a missions team is never more important than what’s best for a vulnerable child and their community.
• When presented with a challenging situation or when
you are unsure of what to do, ask yourself “Whose need is this meeting? Mine or the child’s”.
Short-Term Volunteering // Wise Short-term Missions
THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE BETTER WAY Role of the short-term volunteer:
L IST EN
L EAR N
B U ILD RELAT ION S H IP S
CONT R IBU T E TO T H E LONG-T ER M M IN IS T RY
CONT R IBU T E TO T H E LONG-T ER M W EL L B EIN G O F THE LOCAL COM M UN IT Y