Background: Today, the tourism sector is one of the economically fastest growing sectors in the world. Volunteer travel is a type of service that is gaining in popularity and a number of tour operators organize these trips. Few aid agencies engaged in volunteer activities and therefore the interest in volunteer travel is caught by tour operators. These tourists travel in small groups and interact with locals. Today fifty million children in Africa are orphaned and Africans struggling with the care of these children by founding orphanages.

Research questions:

• What does volunteers contribute with during their stay at orpahanges?
• What view does volunteers and orphanages have on volunteer tourism?

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the positive and the negative effects that volunteer tourism contributes to orphanages.

Method: The study is based on a qualitative approach with semi-and unstructured interviews, observations, and email interviews. The study is based on a constructionist approach and is conducted at three orphanages in northern Tanzania.

Conclusions: Volunteer tourism contributes with both positive and negative effects on the orphanage. Exemples of negative effects include the emotions that arise in children and staff when volunteers go home, the independent situation that arises because of the fact that the orphanages live off donations, poor self-esteem that accurs when children see that volunteers have it better comparing to themselves, the volunteers self fulfillment leads to less involvement in the orphanage during their visit and also the volunteers lifestyles can create confusion for the children. Positively with volunteer tourism is such that volunteers contribute to increased communication, the visit will lead to happiness and increased activity, gifts and money that contribute to better living standards and also increased knowledge to the children and staff.