Me To We Persuasive Speech

It is a common modern-day phenomenon, almost a rite of passage for young people today; travelling to an impoverished nation to help with the construction of a well or a classroom, and returning with a plethora of photos with local children, and a newfound sense of gratitude and security in their good fortune relative to the underdeveloped region they visited. Me to We is one of the leading enterprises that offers these volunteer trips; For $5,000, the organization provides brief 3-week voluntour adventures to Ecuador, India, China, Kenya or Nicaragua that claim to offer the opportunity to “be part of the solution” by supporting “celebrated sustainable development projects” (footnote). For the young teenaged westerner that has grown up in a

However, this narrative is flawed because the benefits derived by the participant are solely due to the apparent misfortune of the people they are trying to help. Anushesh, a trip participant who travelled to India with the organization claims that “taking a water walk in India and spending a day in the life with a woman made [her] realize how fortunate [she is]. What amazed [her] was how content these people were.” (footnote). This is a common statement from Me to We trip participants; community members are viewed simply as devices to further bolster the individual’s sense of security regarding their socioeconomic position. This perfectly exemplifies the “consumer-capitalist culture that focuses on the needs and interests of the most privileged” (footnote), a centrality of voluntourism practices. Me to We claims that trip participants and community members are “empowered, equal partners” (footnote), but this is untrue because there exists an unequal power dynamic that is remnant of colonial and capitalist discourses that prevents a comparable exchange. Therefore, the narrative the benefits are equally reciprocal is faulty. Another discourse