[Applause]
everyone so sometime last year I was
applying for the student award one
section of the application form was
titled community service so I wrote
about my work in helping to organize
this you summit that gathers young
people passionate about the environment
and empowers them to take on
environmental projects in their local
community three days later after I
handed in this application form I got a
call from the organization that
coordinates the award the lady on the
line told me that her organization was
looking for real community service
experiences I was confused it wasn’t
that what I wrote on my application form
so I asked for a clarification and she
told me we are looking for real
instances of helping people things like
tutoring children building houses or
visiting elderly homes have you done any
of these things I realized after this
phone call that some people believe
charity work means visiting a remote
orphanage halfway across the world and
handing out brand-new stationery in fact
that was what a few of my friends try to
do so a few weeks back a few months back
actually some of my friends signed up
for the service trip to Nepal to work in
a local school when they came back I
asked him how are they went and they
told me the most constructive thing they
did in Nepal was actually shopping in
their words it was stimulating the
Nepalese economy apparently there seven
days service trip was actually a six day
scenic tour across Nepal accompanied by
half a day of actually visiting a school
so for the first six days of their trip
they dined on buffalo meat and splurge
on expensive coffee on the last day of
the trip when they actually went to
visit a local school they discovered
that the school they were sent to was
actually frequently visited by
volunteers and as a result the children
in that school were doing quite well and
they didn’t need any help
not all trips end up like this and
sometimes volunteers think they can
actually bring on a positive change a
group of boarding school girls went to
Tanzania to help build a library now
they did their best at putting bricks
and cement together and two weeks later
voila the children had a new library
sounds great right well that’s only part
of the story you see every night after
these girls went to bed the local men
would sneak out and they would demolish
whatever structure the girls had built
during the day because it was about to
collapse they would rebuild it and in
the morning the girls would get up and
believe what was in front of them was
actually their work so what did these
people contribute during this two weeks
not much they effectively failed a
single task they were doing they were
there to do sometimes volunteering
doesn’t just fail to bring much good it
actually brings more harm than good
overwhelming international volunteering
has spurred whole new industries in
certain countries in Cambodia the number
of volunteering are the number of
orphanages increased by 75% over a five
year period these orphanages are there
to cater for the number of tourists who
are just so enthusiastically trying to
vine a ball up to find an orphanage to
village to visit and the problem is
there actually aren’t that many orphans
in Cambodia to fodeez orphanages so what
the operators of these orphanages do is
that they go visit parents and lure them
to send their own children into an
orphanage by promising that they’ll be
better educated better house better fed
a study by Columbia University showed
that three out of four children in
Cambodian orphanages actually have one
or more living parent and if you think
about it the operators of these
orphanages have no incentive to treat
these kids well they are a profit-making
firm and how old forests donate money to
orphanages if they see how these
children
living happily so they manufacture
appalling living conditions for these
children just to evoke sympathy in
tourists this is not to say that any act
of altruism would end up in a disaster
but these experiences invite the
question why why does it sometimes go
wrong when people simply try to help
other people the problem isn’t with the
work these people were doing the work
these volunteers and millions across the
world are doing was great a lot of you
in the audience can probably teach
English better than someone qualified
teachers in rural China libraries if
they are well built give kids a refuge
and a source for knowledge orphanages
are often short staffed and having
volunteers to visit making these field
children making these children feel
cared for it does do good for them
it wasn’t the work that was bad it
wasn’t the volunteering that was bad it
was a people being there look at me I am
not half a doctor or engineer a teacher
or any other profession that would allow
me to design and implement long-term
sustainable solutions tailored to
communities in developing countries I am
a person who isn’t really good at
teaching English to a kid who doesn’t
speak any of my languages I am not very
good at singing songs that are four
times as old as I am to people in
retirement homes I can’t really build a
brick water doesn’t collapse and neither
can I paint the wall of a school neatly
imagine if you could spend the money you
used on that five day English teaching
trip to hire local qualified teachers
whose monthly salary is a third of the
cost of your trip these teachers could
actually implement structured
curriculums that allow these students to
develop language abilities as opposed to
having them learn how to count to ten
again every time a new volunteering
group arrives
imagine that these kind-hearted people
use the money they spent the flattest
Hanson area to hire experienced local
contractors to build that library they
would do it so much faster safer better
and of course the income of these
workers would as my friend said
stimulate the economy imagine if you
gave monetary support to organizations
that supported struggling families in in
Cambodia who are contemplating whether
or not to send their children to an
orphanage the parents of these children
could take care of their own kids so
much more better than a group of
volunteers who only come for three days
ever could people are qualified at
different things I a 16 year old girl
I’m gonna have many things I can
persuade an audience how a story maybe
even start a social media sensation
I am insightful about my own community
as a student I understand how some
students in Hong Kong face the problem
that of a lack in educational tools I
would see that when they face a
schoolwork problem they wouldn’t seek
out help from the internet but they
might just give up instead I also see
that whenever I taught these people how
a particular online tool could help them
clarify a math concept they would use it
the next time they had a problem these
experiences made me realize that the
problem with educational inequality
isn’t that there is a lack of resources
because there are so many of them free
and existing and high-quality online it
is that there is a lack of awareness and
sometimes even the ability to access
these resources which is why I a few
friends a few friends and I started this
organization called educate that helps
young people learn about how they can
use these free educational resources
online serving the community and
contributing to a better world comes in
many forms there are people who work at
the forefront but there are also people
who
behind-the-scenes service doesn’t mean
that everyone needs to kid at teach a
kid English or build a library do what
you’re good at
because that is exactly when you will be
able to make the biggest and best impact
you can on your community thank you
you
everyone so sometime last year I was
applying for the student award one
section of the application form was
titled community service so I wrote
about my work in helping to organize
this you summit that gathers young
people passionate about the environment
and empowers them to take on
environmental projects in their local
community three days later after I
handed in this application form I got a
call from the organization that
coordinates the award the lady on the
line told me that her organization was
looking for real community service
experiences I was confused it wasn’t
that what I wrote on my application form
so I asked for a clarification and she
told me we are looking for real
instances of helping people things like
tutoring children building houses or
visiting elderly homes have you done any
of these things I realized after this
phone call that some people believe
charity work means visiting a remote
orphanage halfway across the world and
handing out brand-new stationery in fact
that was what a few of my friends try to
do so a few weeks back a few months back
actually some of my friends signed up
for the service trip to Nepal to work in
a local school when they came back I
asked him how are they went and they
told me the most constructive thing they
did in Nepal was actually shopping in
their words it was stimulating the
Nepalese economy apparently there seven
days service trip was actually a six day
scenic tour across Nepal accompanied by
half a day of actually visiting a school
so for the first six days of their trip
they dined on buffalo meat and splurge
on expensive coffee on the last day of
the trip when they actually went to
visit a local school they discovered
that the school they were sent to was
actually frequently visited by
volunteers and as a result the children
in that school were doing quite well and
they didn’t need any help
not all trips end up like this and
sometimes volunteers think they can
actually bring on a positive change a
group of boarding school girls went to
Tanzania to help build a library now
they did their best at putting bricks
and cement together and two weeks later
voila the children had a new library
sounds great right well that’s only part
of the story you see every night after
these girls went to bed the local men
would sneak out and they would demolish
whatever structure the girls had built
during the day because it was about to
collapse they would rebuild it and in
the morning the girls would get up and
believe what was in front of them was
actually their work so what did these
people contribute during this two weeks
not much they effectively failed a
single task they were doing they were
there to do sometimes volunteering
doesn’t just fail to bring much good it
actually brings more harm than good
overwhelming international volunteering
has spurred whole new industries in
certain countries in Cambodia the number
of volunteering are the number of
orphanages increased by 75% over a five
year period these orphanages are there
to cater for the number of tourists who
are just so enthusiastically trying to
vine a ball up to find an orphanage to
village to visit and the problem is
there actually aren’t that many orphans
in Cambodia to fodeez orphanages so what
the operators of these orphanages do is
that they go visit parents and lure them
to send their own children into an
orphanage by promising that they’ll be
better educated better house better fed
a study by Columbia University showed
that three out of four children in
Cambodian orphanages actually have one
or more living parent and if you think
about it the operators of these
orphanages have no incentive to treat
these kids well they are a profit-making
firm and how old forests donate money to
orphanages if they see how these
children
living happily so they manufacture
appalling living conditions for these
children just to evoke sympathy in
tourists this is not to say that any act
of altruism would end up in a disaster
but these experiences invite the
question why why does it sometimes go
wrong when people simply try to help
other people the problem isn’t with the
work these people were doing the work
these volunteers and millions across the
world are doing was great a lot of you
in the audience can probably teach
English better than someone qualified
teachers in rural China libraries if
they are well built give kids a refuge
and a source for knowledge orphanages
are often short staffed and having
volunteers to visit making these field
children making these children feel
cared for it does do good for them
it wasn’t the work that was bad it
wasn’t the volunteering that was bad it
was a people being there look at me I am
not half a doctor or engineer a teacher
or any other profession that would allow
me to design and implement long-term
sustainable solutions tailored to
communities in developing countries I am
a person who isn’t really good at
teaching English to a kid who doesn’t
speak any of my languages I am not very
good at singing songs that are four
times as old as I am to people in
retirement homes I can’t really build a
brick water doesn’t collapse and neither
can I paint the wall of a school neatly
imagine if you could spend the money you
used on that five day English teaching
trip to hire local qualified teachers
whose monthly salary is a third of the
cost of your trip these teachers could
actually implement structured
curriculums that allow these students to
develop language abilities as opposed to
having them learn how to count to ten
again every time a new volunteering
group arrives
imagine that these kind-hearted people
use the money they spent the flattest
Hanson area to hire experienced local
contractors to build that library they
would do it so much faster safer better
and of course the income of these
workers would as my friend said
stimulate the economy imagine if you
gave monetary support to organizations
that supported struggling families in in
Cambodia who are contemplating whether
or not to send their children to an
orphanage the parents of these children
could take care of their own kids so
much more better than a group of
volunteers who only come for three days
ever could people are qualified at
different things I a 16 year old girl
I’m gonna have many things I can
persuade an audience how a story maybe
even start a social media sensation
I am insightful about my own community
as a student I understand how some
students in Hong Kong face the problem
that of a lack in educational tools I
would see that when they face a
schoolwork problem they wouldn’t seek
out help from the internet but they
might just give up instead I also see
that whenever I taught these people how
a particular online tool could help them
clarify a math concept they would use it
the next time they had a problem these
experiences made me realize that the
problem with educational inequality
isn’t that there is a lack of resources
because there are so many of them free
and existing and high-quality online it
is that there is a lack of awareness and
sometimes even the ability to access
these resources which is why I a few
friends a few friends and I started this
organization called educate that helps
young people learn about how they can
use these free educational resources
online serving the community and
contributing to a better world comes in
many forms there are people who work at
the forefront but there are also people
who
behind-the-scenes service doesn’t mean
that everyone needs to kid at teach a
kid English or build a library do what
you’re good at
because that is exactly when you will be
able to make the biggest and best impact
you can on your community thank you
you
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