Health and Safety
U. S. State Department Resources
The Nuts and Bolts of Safety and Health
In 1997, the Council on International Education Exchange, the Association of
International Education Administrators (AIEA), and NAFSA: Association of International
Educators joined twenty colleges, universities, and study-abroad sponsors in
endorsing a set of guidelines to promote student health and safety while studying
abroad. Since then, the guidelines have been approved and offered for other
institutions to incorporate into their study-abroad programs. Below is an excerpt
of those guidelines that were written specifically for students and parents.
Recommendations for Students
In study abroad, as in other settings, participants can have a major impact
on their own health and safety through the decisions they make before and during
the program and by their day-to-day choices and behaviors.
Participants should:
- Read and carefully consider all materials issued by the sponsor that relate
to safety, health, legal, environmental, political, cultural, and religious
conditions in host countries.
- Consider their health and other personal circumstances when applying for
or accepting a place in a program.
- Make available to the sponsor accurate and complete physical and mental
health information and any other personal data that is necessary in planning
for a safe and healthy study-abroad experience.
- Assume responsibility for all the elements necessary for their personal
preparation for the program and participate fully in orientations.
- Obtain and maintain appropriate insurance coverage and abide by any conditions
imposed by the carriers.
- Inform parents/guardians/families and any others who may need to know about
their participation in the study-abroad program, provide them with emergency
contact information, and keep them informed on an ongoing basis.
- Understand and comply with the terms of participation, codes of conduct,
and emergency procedures of the program, and obey host-country laws.
- Be aware of local conditions and customs that may present health or safety
risks when making daily choices and decisions.
- Promptly express any health or safety concerns to the program staff or other
appropriate individuals.
- Behave in a manner that is respectful of the rights and well-being of others
and encourage others to behave in a similar fashion.
- Accept responsibility for their own decisions and actions.
- Become familiar with the procedures for obtaining emergency health and law
enforcement services in the host country.
- Follow the program policies for keeping program staff informed of their
whereabouts and well-being.
Recommendations to Parents, Guardians, and Families
In study abroad, as in other settings, parents, guardians, and families can
play an important role in the health and safety of participants by helping them
make decisions and by influencing their behavior overseas.
When appropriate, parents, guardians, and families should:
- Obtain and carefully evaluate health and safety information related to
the program, as provided by the sponsor and other sources.
- Be involved in the decision of the participant to enroll in a particular
program.
- Engage the participant in a thorough discussion of safety and behavior issues,
insurance needs, and emergency procedures related to living abroad.
- Be responsive to requests from the program sponsor for information regarding
the participant.
- Keep in touch with the participant.
- Be aware that some information may most appropriately be provided by the
participant rather than the program.
Read the full
current text of the Task Force Guidelines.
Study-abroad sponsors and students share the responsibility
by Charlotte Thomas
Look in a drawer of Director of International Education John Perry's desk and
you'll find an emergency plan for State University of New York at Brockport's
study-abroad students. It's not something he pulls out often. In fact, he hopes
he never has to use it, but it's there if he needs it. "Every good study-abroad
director has one," says Perry. Yes, there are risks to studying abroad as there
are in traveling overseas, but quality programs minimize the possible hazards
by having trained professionals at home, resident counselors overseas, and solid
emergency plans at the ready.
Keeping safe while abroad is one of those topics that people don't like to
talk about much, but it's always in the back of their minds--if not in students'
minds, then their parents. With instant news about trouble spots flaring up
around the globe, people are acutely aware that dangerous situations can happen
anywhere, anytime. Yet, in some ways the subject of safety abroad presents a
paradox.
On the one hand, Perry points out that the world is viewed as being more secure
now than it was before the end of the Cold War when America was "the great enemy
in the global geopolitical conflict." As more students want to study abroad
and as travel gets cheaper, the world is perceived as a safer place to get an
education.
On the other hand, William Gertz, Senior Vice President at the American Institute
For Foreign Study, says he's getting more questions about safety than ever before.
As far as he's concerned, that's just fine. Increased awareness about health
and safety issues is positive, though he says the calls are usually from parents
who tend to be more concerned than students about health and safety.
All in all, the world's a safe place to get an education
"Given the world situation today, there's no place that can be considered immune
to danger," reflects Moshe Margolin, Director of the Office of Academic Affairs
at Tel Aviv University and one of five directors of the Israel University Consortium
(IUC), an organization that encourages study in Israel. He and other study-abroad
sponsors note that foreign students coming to the States often regard America
to be a dangerous place.
Although there are no hard and fast statistics that determine attitudes about
studying abroad, the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE) states
that most professionals in the field believe that study in a foreign country
is no more dangerous than in the United States. "Most study-abroad providers
are behaving responsibly," says William Cressey, Vice President and Chief Academic
Officer of the CIEE, referring to the measures almost all programs take to enhance
safety and to prepare students to deal with problematic situations should they
arise.
Cressey was one of the movers behind an Inter-Organization Task Force on Safety
and Responsibility in Study Abroad that was formed in May 1997 by the CIEE,
the Association of International Education Administrators (AIEA), and NAFSA:
Association of International Educators. Their intent was to consolidate efforts
by their organizations as well as other study-abroad providers to set guidelines
that would make study abroad as risk-free as possible. The guidelines were finalized
and made available for study-abroad providers across the U.S. in July 1998.
Someone to watch over me
Not only are study-abroad directors intensely aware of safety issues, the overseas
institutions that they partner with make every effort to watch out for American
students while abroad. Students don't just show up to be left on their own without
assistance, says Dimitri Lazo, Chairperson of the Committee on International
Study and Student Exchange at Alverno College, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In most
cases the receiving institution has an orientation program for incoming students,
and it provides students with ongoing support.
In countries such as Russia and other locations where monitoring the local
environment is more critical, both university and non-university sponsored-programs
have American staff overseas that are not dependent on a host institution, says
Carl A. Herrin, Director of Government Relations at the American Councils For
International Education. This gives programs the enhanced capacity to keep track
of what's going on from the United States and to advise the overseas students
on how to adjust their behavior as needed.
The people directly involved with study-abroad students also feel a personal
responsibility for the safety of participants. Lazo echoes the feelings of other
directors who deal with students and parents on a daily basis. "I want to be
able to look a mother or father in the eye and say that the study-abroad program
their son or daughter is going with is as safe as it can be," he reveals. Margolin,
too, feels it's critical for parents and students to be able to put their trust
in the people who sponsor overseas study. "I represent the integrity of the
program," he states.
www.danger.call home
But no matter how trustworthy the study-abroad program and no matter how prepared
the students, incidents happen. Dangerous situations break out unexpectedly.
Communication is the key to dealing with the problems. "The best thing in past
years has been the rise of the Internet," says Gertz. It allows directors to
maintain constant contact with students and institutions around the world so
they can receive information about conditions abroad and to alert students as
to how to handle threatening circumstances.
"We keep our ears to the ground," says Lewis Fortner, Associate Dean of Students
in the College, University of Chicago. He, like others, constantly checks the
State Department advisories that are regularly updated regarding safety and
health. The information is so specific that even a rash of robberies hitting
people in taxis in a particular location is noted by study-abroad personnel
and immediately passed on to students.
"It's part of our standard procedure," says Lazo. In many cases, parents learn
of a breaking situation before hearing about it on the news because students
are warned and are told to call home immediately to alleviate any fears their
families might have. There are few places where Americans are warned not to
go, and even then there may be study-abroad programs located there. Consequently,
it's up to students and parents to assess the risk and get the most timely information
about safety and health by asking precise questions of study-abroad sponsors.
If it's stupid in Cincinnati, it's stupid in Singapore
Students abroad also bear a major portion of the responsibility for their safety
and health by thinking about the daily choices they make. "The reality is that
sometimes people will do things overseas they would never think of doing at
home," Lazo observes. Students can't have the attitude "I'm a student. Time
out. No need to worry about consequences," and proceed to act in ways that are
dangerous, regardless of whether they're in Youngstown, Ohio, or South Yemen,
adds Perry. In many cases, it's the students traveling alone and not under the
auspices of a study-abroad program who get into trouble or who are victims of
injuries or crimes. Lazo gets the impression that some participants look at
Europe as a vast theme park, not realizing it has all the problems that America
has. Margolin, too, runs into the same carefree mindset from students who take
advantage of Israel's public transportation system without checking first to
see where it's safe to travel.
In addition to making wise choices, there are abundant resources students can
read before going abroad. Study-abroad offices hand out reams of materials and
bibliographies. The State Department posts current travel advisories on the
Internet as does the Center for Disease Control. Individual countries and embassies
have Web sites and brochures. Tourist boards and study-abroad associations offer
a wealth of information about conditions overseas. Study-abroad sponsors also
utilize the experiences of returning students who talk to students going abroad
so they can glean all those important up-to-the-minute details.
The more sophisticated a student is about the local culture and the more fluent
in the language, the more he or she can act responsibly, notes Herrin. Thus
they can intuit what's happening and are better able to look after themselves.
In the final analysis, the most powerful safety net for students going abroad
is their own common sense and cultural sensitivity. Says Margolin, "If they
use the same kind of appreciation of the environment that a professional traveler
uses, they'll be able to take advantage of what the world has to offer. Learning
about new people and cultures far outweighs whatever risk is involved."
|
