What if that trip inspired that first world kid to solve third world problems?
Don't get me wrong, I agree with you. If I could predict which kid would be inspired and use that experience to make the world better, I would.
There is no price tag on becoming a better human being.
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I anticipated this argument. Playing odds and probability you are FAR FAR FAR more likely to help a native child that will solve his OWN communities problems later in the future by providing him with access to medical care, education, and livelihood.
Because of how many more people are reached and affected by NGO work as opposed to how many kids can go on a missions trip, statistically it's much more likely for change to be enacted from within.
And, like 92 pointed out, there is a HUGE issue of NGO's and mission trip groups actually taking away money from the local community by providing free labor instead of local labor getting the cash. Often these groups are hurting more than they are helping. I'll take the tangible widespread difference being made over the probability that maybe 1 or 2 kids from a group will gain a heart for the hurting.
NGO's are adapting to this crisis as well. For example, we recently built a HUGE water tower in the western Kenya, near the border with Tanzania as the base of Kilimanjaro. The tower pumps safe water to over 15,000 people in the county - just from this one point. It's huge. Taps run to the center of each community so people just go to their "city center" to get safe water instead of walking like 5 miles to a river that they share with wild animals.
However, there were water vendors who would cart in water and disinfecting pills from across the border in Tanzania to these villages and make their trade that way. They weren't consistent and they were overpriced but it was their trade and it was how they fed their families. One flip of the switch and we'd put them clean out of business. Instead, we trained them how to operate the tower, repair and replace the components on the faucets, piping and borehole and now, each resident pays a fraction of the cost they were paying to them to us, and we pay them to maintain the system. Because of it's reach, they make the same amount but the residents pay far far less and have access at any and all times to water - not just when the cart comes round once a week.
To HTTR's point, yes, people WOULD spend it that way, I'm saying if it were raised and donated instead. In some cases it would actually be better for the trip to never happen in the first place. Sometimes some good comes out of it. But always that same amount of money in the hand of a good NGO is 50x more powerful. To your last point about it encouraging further donations- our data has not reflected that. We work very closely with churches and the ones that travel vs the ones that don't have no difference in average donation size relative to their size, and socio-economic location within the country, state, and city.
By and large, going on a trip like this does little. I was raised in the church with a majority of my friends and family taking trips like these. I never went on a missions trip. None of my friends give to charity, and I ended up working for an NGO. I think it's more about the principles your family raises you with rather than a one off experience.
