Thank-you for your comment. I did quite a bit of research before I selected an organization to partner with and one of the reasons that I chose CCS is because of the ways that the seek to make a positive impact in the communities they travel to offer aid too. Please feel free to check out the following links:

How CCS places volunteers:
http://www.crossculturalsolutions.org/volunteer-work/placement-process.aspx

Why should someone consider volunteering abroad?:
http://www.crossculturalsolutions.org/volunteering-abroad/why-volunteer-abroad.aspx

A large part of what insures CCS will make a positive impact is their partnership with local community initiatives. They seek to properly prepare volunteers by setting appropriate expectations and providing cultural education before they even reach their country of interest. Also, they seek to maintain a steady and continuous flow of volunteers. The volunteers themselves become the sustainable resource. The services they provide are on-going. They will send another volunteer to pick up the work they have already begun.

Furthermore, I spoke with the Program Manager for South Africa and he let me know that someone wrote an article about the very same thing specifically in South Africa. The in-country director in South Africa met with the author and she confirmed that the article wasn’t actually directed at CCS. The author of the article actually felt the way CCS performed their programs was more to lend a hand to already sustainable organizations, so they would avoid creating the types of damaging relationships you hear about in other volunteer programs. The partner organizations CCS works with have staff that are continuously there to provide for the children they work with. CCS provides volunteer help to make sure those organizations and staff can keep up and provide the necessary care the children need in the long term.