Health and Safety

Enhanced Health and Safety Commitment

AMIGOS is a recognized leader in prioritizing health and safety. We are dedicated to ensuring your well-being during your volunteer journey. Our dedicated staff is extensively trained to address any situation that may arise, providing you with peace of mind throughout your experience.

 

Personalized Emergency Preparedness:

All AMIGOS volunteers benefit from a meticulously tailored emergency plan, designed to address your specific needs. In addition to this, our local staff teams are readily available to offer support. We’ve gone a step further by assembling a dedicated 24-hour On-Call Safety Team, comprised of experienced travel specialists, medical professionals, and mental health specialists. This team is just a call away, ensuring that you’re never alone when facing challenges.

 

Rigorous Risk Monitoring:

We actively collaborate with renowned organizations like the Peace Corps, the CDC, and U.S. Embassies to stay updated on potential risks in the regions where we operate. By leveraging their expertise, we maintain an up-to-date understanding of the local context to keep you safe.

 

Extensive Medical Network:

AMIGOS boasts a well-established network of carefully vetted medical clinics and hospitals throughout the region, ensuring that you have access to the best possible medical care should the need arise.

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TRUSTED

AMIGOS has run international youth volunteer programs since 1965. Our health and safety systems and safeguards are based on knowledge and expertise built over five decades. Our longstanding relationships with local organizations in host countries are built on a foundation of mutual respect and enable us to work with trusted local partners. The trust we have built in the region means that each volunteer’s experience is safer, more meaningful, and more powerful.

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AUTHENTIC

AMIGOS volunteers get to experience daily life in a community they would likely not see as a tourist. The result is a truly immersive cross-cultural experience. AMIGOS gives young people unparalled responsibility and independence, giving them ownership over their community service project and ensuring that every AMIGOS experience is one-of-a-kind. Volunteers do something new and different, getting out of their comfort zone and challenging themselves in a way that develops strength, builds resilience, and allows them to grow.

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TRANSFORMATIVE

Volunteers gain a global perspective by opening themselves to a broader world. Exposure to this new and different landscape at a young age shapes volunteers’ values and impacts the person they will become. They work side by side with people in their community on a service project, gaining leadership skills that will help them in college and their career. They see that the world can be welcoming and exciting — and that they have a place in it. AMIGOS volunteers return home more mature, confident, and motivated. The AMIGOS experience stays with them, its impact still surfacing decades later.

Click through the videos to see what AMIGOS parents have to say!

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TRAVEL SUPPORT

All AMIGOS volunteers are supported in their journey to their project area by our travel team. On their travel day, Amigos have access to our travel hotline with staff members on call 24/7. When volunteers arrive in-country, they are greeted at the airport by their project staff, and, from there, the experience truly begins. Learn more about flights and travel here.

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PROGRAM EXPECTATIONS

At AMIGOS, we’re more than an organization; we’re a community of youth leaders. We believe in personal conduct and the power of a positive, open-minded approach. As a youth leader, your journey means seizing opportunities, taking responsibility, and striving for greatness.

As an AMIGOS volunteer, you’re our ambassador in the communities we serve. Our deep commitment to community development involves working closely with local partner organizations. We set high standards for ourselves, and we expect the same from you. Respect, thoughtfulness, and collaboration are the values we cherish, and we count on you to embody them in every interaction.

To maintain these standards, we’ve established our AMIGOS Standards of Conduct. These standards aren’t just rules; they’re the essence of our philosophy and approach.

In essence, joining AMIGOS isn’t just about volunteering; it’s about becoming a leader who leaves a positive mark on communities while embracing our core values. Together, we’ll create meaningful change.

"I was deeply impressed with the AMIGOS health and safety system. Staff always took my daughter's well-being seriously and I could rest easy knowing they were prepared to handle any situation."
– Ann, Alumni Parent

RESOURCES

 

IMMUNIZATIONS

Required immunizations and medications vary depending on the country in which you’ll be working. Additional immunizations may be recommended but not required. Please see this list for the most up-to-date requirements.

HEALTH CRITERIA

In order to keep volunteers safe and healthy while abroad, they must be able to physically and mentally carry out any duties associated with their role. Please read this document to ensure you meet the general health criteria for participation.

STANDARDS OF CONDUCT

AMIGOS Standards of Conduct are an integral part of building and growing leadership skills. You may review our Summer Program Standards of Conduct here. The Standards of Conduct for the Gap Program are adjusted for an older age group and a different type of program. Gap Program Standards of Conduct may be found here.

FLIGHTS AND TRAVEL

We manage travel so you don’t have to! Learn more about the support AMIGOS provides, what to expect, and how the process works.

TECHNOLOGY POLICY

We know that volunteers who complete the AMIGOS experience without using digital devices report higher satisfaction rates and deeper connections with their communities and peers. Additionally, volunteers who disconnected reported fewer instances of homesickness and mental health challenges. For this reason, Summer Program volunteers are not permitted to use Wi-Fi enabled devices during the program.

Some FAQS

 

If our Technology Policy doesn’t allow volunteers to have their cellphones, how do they contact staff during an emergency?

Each Volunteer will have a CALM (emergency) plan that tells them in detail how to contact project staff as well as numerous other emergency contacts. They are expected to carry this document at all times. Exact contact methods will depend on the project. In some cases, project staff will be located in the community and in other cases Volunteers will call staff using pre-determined phones in the community.

 

Are families required to buy travel insurance for their volunteer?

Families are responsible for fully reimbursing or causing the full reimbursement to AMIGOS for all costs incurred exceeding $300 related to medical care provided during their volunteer’s AMIGOS experience. This includes all of the administrative processes in submitting a claim the primary insurance carrier and subsequently turning over all funds received from all claims. We recommend that families check in on what their primary insurance would cover and then consider supplemental insurance if it feels necessary.  

 

Can AMIGOS accommodate dietary restrictions?

Please just be sure to let us know if you have not already in your application. All food allergies, especially serious ones, should be reported in the Confidential Health Form. Volunteers who have a serious allergy with anaphylaxis are prohibited from placement on certain projects due to the remote nature of the projects. We also ask that vegetarians be flexible if they are willing to, but we can almost always accommodate that preference, if needed. We can almost always accommodate vegetarians.

 

How will you make sure that volunteers get safe water?

Pre-travel, AMIGOS works to educate Volunteers on safe drinking water. We recommend Volunteers bring a Lifestraw water bottle for their routine drinking water. Additionally, host families receive training on hygienic food preparation which include water purification protocols. The exact method of purification depends on the project, country and community. At non-host family lodging sites, AMIGOS staff will work with lodging staff to provide purified water as needed.

Contact Information: in case volunteers and/or families have questions they should be directed to [email protected]