Exploitative tourism
Hello again from Yangon - I’m just finishing up a relaxing weekend, having taken some time to wander around downtown yesterday, enjoy the sunset by the river and then try out a social enterprise restaurant. This restaurant, LinkAge, is part gallery/part restaurant, and provides job training and placement for young people. I’ve been able to visit several of these social enterprise businesses in Myanmar, and appreciate knowing that I’m directly supporting local people.
There was a notice on all the tables, next to the napkins, about how orphanages are not tourist locations, and listed dangers of visiting these places including that some are exploiting children to get money from tourists, that many of the children have parents, that visits by tourists can be traumatizing for the children, and that tangible assistance like volunteering should be left to professionals. I was reminded of a deeply disturbing experience I had my first weekend here, when I took the ferry across the river to Dala and we hired a taxi to drive us to the snake temple. I didn’t discuss this in my initial post because I was trying to keep it light, but I think it’s important to mention so I’m doing it now. Basically we asked him to take us to a few places- the temple, a pottery place, etc.
Halfway through he asked us if we wanted to see the “bamboo house”, we said sure, and he drove us to an impoverished stilt house village and stopped outside of what he said was an orphanage and school, stopped the car and got out, and told us to go inside and visit with his friend who runs the school. He was very insistent and we were very confused and slightly alarmed, but, both of us being new to Myanmar, we were wary of being rude privileged Westerners and went inside. Now that I have my footing I would say no and insist he keep driving, but at the time everything was so new, it was 105 degrees, and I thought it was just going to be his friend there (there wasn't anyone outside).
The friend told us about the school, then called a few kids in the room to line up and tell us where they are from etc, and tried to get us to take pictures with/of the kids but we refused. He said the other kids were off on a trip. He wanted us to go in to the sleeping area (a cement block with a man sleeping on the end) and the living area (filled with ceiling-high piles of clothes and other donations) and talked extensively about how they needed supplies and the government gives them no money etc.
At one point he picked up a little kitten and tried to give it to us. Then he took us outside to a tent area and we all sat there. He called a little girl over to put thanaka on us (a ground up tree root that people wear on their faces) but we refused. They never directly asked for money, but clearly wanted money, and the taxi driver gave no indication of letting us leave. I had no idea what the situation actually was and it didn’t feel right- it felt like poverty tourism, if it actually was an orphanage, which felt deeply unethical. On the other hand, it might not have been an orphanage, but a racket between the guy and the taxi driver, exploiting the kids for money from tourists, or a mixture of both. In retrospect it seems likely that the driver would get a kickback from donations, as he kept stopping at his friends’ businesses to get us to buy stuff and this was yet another unexpected stop to visit a friend- but at the time I was on overload and it didn’t even occur to me. Eventually (we were there for about 30 mins) I just stood up and said it was time for us to go.
I was deeply conflicted about that experience for days, unsure about whether I did the right thing by not donating, and very upset with myself for getting of the tuk tuk and going in in the first place, instead of being firm with the driver. After seeing the pamphlet last night I was reminded of that episode, did some research and came across some interesting articles:
https://www.mmtimes.com/lifestyle/13222-when-children-become-tourist-attractions.html
The MM Times article mentions the dangers of this practice, including orphanages keeping children in poor living conditions as donations from tourists can be quite lucrative: “Orphanage tourism creates more orphanages … By building orphanages and keeping the conditions quite basic, keeping the children in not the best conditions, you’re more likely to pull at people’s heartstrings and you’re more likely to get more donations”.
The reporters in the Guardian article seem to have visited the same place that I did- it sounds very familiar by the description. I still don’t know if it was a real orphanage but I do know that those were real kids being paraded around to get money from us- I hope another traveler might come across this post and decline to go inside.
-KLP