Quality Index
Knock-outs
In the quality index there are three things we weigh so heavily that they decide the whole assessment. If an organisation offers one of these three, it gets a knock-out. On this page you can read which they are and why.
1. Volunteering in children's homes
A knock-out applies when an organisation offers volunteering in an orphanage, children’s home, shelter or any other facility where children live.
Children in residential care have often already had to say goodbye to important adults in their lives. Volunteers who stay for a few weeks and then leave make that loss bigger every time. On top of that, most children in orphanages still have a parent or family, and volunteers and their money sometimes keep homes running that would be better off not existing.
Activities at a school or day care centre for children who live at home do not fall under this. Read more about our view on the page No Orphanage Tourism.
2. Contact with wild animals as an attraction
A knock-out applies when volunteers are allowed to cuddle, hand feed, wash, ride or walk with wild animals, or when photos with wild animals are used to attract volunteers. Think of elephants, lions, tigers and monkeys.
Wild animals that get used to people can often no longer return to the wild. For this kind of contact, animals are regularly bred, taken from the wild or trained by force. The contact then exists for the volunteer, not for the animal.
What is fine: working in a recognised sanctuary with a hands off policy, nature conservation and scientific field research in which animals are observed from a distance.
3. Medical procedures without training
A knock-out applies when volunteers without medical training carry out medical procedures, such as vaccinating, treating wounds, giving injections, doing consultations or assisting with treatments.
Medical work requires training, at home and just as much abroad. Patients are put at risk when someone without the knowledge treats them, and a clinic that relies on volunteers invests less in its own staff.
What is fine: an internship for students of medicine, nursing or physiotherapy, supervised by qualified professionals and matching the level of their studies.
On the results page
A maximum of 40 percent
A knock-out does not mean everything about an organisation is bad. But an organisation that offers one of these three cannot score higher than 40 percent on the quality index. On the results page these organisations are shown in a separate group, with a warning and the reason for the knock-out.
We assess what an organisation offers on its own website. Has that offer changed since? Let us know via For Organisations and we will assess it again.
All criteria of the quality index can be found on the page Quality Index. The scores per organisation are on Results.