Your concerns are completely valid. Please know that AFS has more than 70 years of experience worldwide in operation study abroad programmes, as well as a network of experienced professionals in risk management who have successfully guided our participants through various challenges (including evacuation of participants from Japan following the 2011 earthquake, from Venezuela and Egypt during political crises and managing epidemics like H1N1 and SARS, to name a few examples).
During the current pandemic, we safely and rapidly evacuated almost 7,000 AFSers from 90+ countries. We cannot guarantee your safety at any time, but we take your safety as our top priority and have a robust system to monitor and support our participants. Every young person who goes abroad with AFS has access to a robust support network, able to help young people, including:
- Carefully screened host families who take care of our participants as if they were their own children
- A network of volunteers in destination countries who provide local support during the stay of AFS participants
- A global team of trained and prepared risk management professionals who constantly monitors student well-being and safety
The AFS New Zealand Board will, if necessary, cancel any programmes where the risk of travel is deemed too risky for the participant.
