I love travelling. I especially love travelling with my kids. There are, of course, a great many challenges associated with travelling with young children, but I think that it’s worth it: there is nothing in this world that is so amazing that it couldn’t be made more amazing by the interpretive lens of a child. So whatever travelling I do, I try to involve my kids, and I hope that as the years go by we end up doing a lot of it.

But as much as I want my children to appreciate the wonder of travel, I also want more than this: I want them to appreciate them what a tremendous privilege it is to travel, and I want them to be humble in the presence of other cultures. I want them to regard travel as a way to learn, and a way to contribute some good to the world. So when I saw that one of the nominated projects in the Changemakers competition proposed leveraging the goodwill of travelers to advance the cause of maternal and infant health – by encouraging travelers to raise funds for, assemble and deliver/donate birth kits to needy communities in or near areas that they will be traveling in - I was immediately intrigued. It’s easy, effective – and it actively promotes the idea that travel can accomplish some good, and not just yield a great collection of postcards.  

It did, however, raise a concern for me, one that applies more broadly to the idea of volunteer-tourism and socially responsible travel, especially if we understand such travel as something that can be done with kids (of any age): is the good that is accomplished by such travel undermined, in any measure, by teaching kids (or, in the absence of kids, teaching ourselves) that we – Western travelers – can or should play a kind of savior role in the world, that it is our place and our duty to dispense goodwill and assistance to all those poor, unfortunate communities that are so distant from our own? Does that not impart a kind of superiority complex, in the manner of a kind of latter-day noblesse oblige? The lesson that we can and should help when and where we can is, of course, a good one – a necessary one, even – but isn’t there something of a complicated problem in teaching our kids – or ourselves – that cultures and communities other than our own are lacking and that we – on our holidays! – can fill that lack?

I don’t know – I know that I’m not the first to raise these questions about volunteer-tourism, and I’m not even sure that they’re fair questions. But they are questions, and if I’m asking them, mightn’t my children also ask them? Children do, after all, possess keen – and sometimes inconvenient – radar for these kinds of complicated and uncomfortable nuances. It’s one reason why they make such excellent travel companions. But it’s also why we need to think carefully about the kinds of adventures we pursue on our travels. End of the day, I think that the idea of tackling maternal mortality through volunteer-tourism is a good one, and one that has the added benefit of raising awareness of a global problem that is often overlooked. And perhaps anxieties about privilege and the impact of privilege as these pertain to travel need to be exposed to exactly these sorts of questions – in which case, this kind of project probably provides more opportunity for so-called ‘teachable moments’ than appears at first glance.

Catherine Connors blogs at Her Bad Mother and Their Bad Mother and The Bad Moms Club and everywhere in between.

Discuss Mommy Movement at the forum or click here to learn more about this idea for socially responsible travel.