Editorial Report 9a

I am creating a video project, but I held off on doing the actual recording until I was satisfied with my script. Since I'll be in the video I wanted to use a high quality camera and didn't want to check it out twice.

I received commentary on my rough cut that the inclusion of my "End Humanitarian Douchery" video could alienate some viewers. I agree with that sentiment, but I still find the video hilarious and relevant. I decided to cut the proposed one minute segment from the video into a twenty second clip.

Rough Draft Section: 

Before we get into the large issues of the voluntourism industry, we need to examine it on a smaller scale. After all, the whole industry is built on one demand: human experience.

Most voluntourism companies use advertisements like this one, from Projects Abroad, to promote their trips. [play Projects Abroad video.]

Volunteers get to play with, feed, and change the diapers of poor, adoring black children. Best of all, they get to spend their exotic vacation helping to change the world.

But have you ever thought of what the volunteers look like to the people they are helping?

This clip from End Humanitarian Douchery, a Canadian nonprofit that encourages Fair Trade Learning instead of traditional voluntourism, can’t portray this phenomenon perfectly, but it’s worth watching: [play first 1:40 of EHD video]

What I believe to be the most important moment in this video is easy to miss. The man who hopes to teach Crossfit to save Americans from obesity can’t even do a pushup. Volunteers regularly take on roles that they aren’t trained to do, like building schools or teaching English. They work really hard for a few weeks and leave with a sense of satisfaction and moral superiority. The community is left with a building that will crumble by the end of the year or children who just learned “head, shoulders, knees and toes” for the fifth time.

Revised Section:

Before we get into the large issues of the voluntourism industry, we need to examine it on a more personal level. After all, the industry is built on a simple demand: human experience.

Most voluntourism companies and use advertisements like this one from Projects Abroad to promote their trips [play fifteen seconds of Projects Abroad]

Volunteers get to spend their exotic vacation helping to change the world by playing with, feeding, and changing the diapers of poor black children.

But have you ever considered what the volunteers look like to the people they are helping?

This clip from End Humanitarian Douchery is a Canadian nonprofit that encourages Fair Trade Learning as a solution to the current voluntourism industry. This video is satire and can't explain the phenomenon perfectly, but it's worth watching: [play 20 second clip of EHD.]

I chose to include what I believe to be the most important moment in the video. The man who hopes to teach Crossfit to save Americans from obesity can’t even do a pushup. Volunteers regularly take on roles that they aren’t trained to do, like building schools or teaching English. They work really hard for a few weeks and leave with a sense of satisfaction and moral superiority. The community is left with a building that will crumble by the end of the year or children who just learned “head, shoulders, knees and toes” for the fifth time.