MEASURES FOR SAFETY AND SECURITY AT THE INSTITUTE FOR CENTRAL AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT STUDIES (ICADS)
We, at ICADS, have for the past twenty years worked with an established set of rules and regulations that aim to significantly lower the risk of injury or illness to students who participate in our programs.
We have defined possible risks to students under three main categories:
1. Accidents
2. Personal Security Issues
3. The Risk of Illness
We have found that by educating our students as thoroughly as possible regarding all possible risks within each of the above categories, and combining this education with careful monitoring, we have successfully managed to drastically reduce their risk. Much of the credit goes to the students themselves. Our students tend to be serious, intellectually rigorous, goal directed adults who understand that any security plan depends on their willingness to trust our judgement and follow the rules. We, at ICADS, are proud of our exemplary safety record. We are publicizing the details of our safety program here for all who may be interested in knowing more about us and for those who may have suggestions of how our policies might be continually improved.
ACCIDENT PREVENTION
One of the leading causes of injury in any study abroad program is accidents. One of the most common serious accidents in all study abroad programs result from car accidents (car crashes or being hit by a vehicle while walking). Costa Rica has one of the highest per capita death rates from traffic fatalities in the world. This is due to the following factors:
1.Too many badly maintained cars running on poorly maintained roads
2. Too many inexperienced drivers with no formal training in driver's education
3. Too few traffic police to sanction those who violate traffic laws
Our students are expressly forbidden to rent cars, to drive cars, or to ride in cars with people who are not members of our staff or are not home stay families. They are further prohibited from using bicycles or motorbikes. Our students must ride with us or must use public transportation or authorized taxis at all times. ICADS cars are carefully maintained. All extra transportation contracted by ICADS is checked for qualification of drivers, condition of vehicles, and insurance. We occasionally grant special permission to students working on public health projects in the countryside to ride as passengers on motorbikes or in cars while making home visits.. This is how the visits are always carried out in rural areas. Students ride with their supervisors who are trained health care professionals and experienced drivers in rural areas where there is little traffic or risk of collisions. The use of bicycles is permitted under very special circumstances and on a case by case basis.
These transportation rules significantly minimize the odds of involvement in traffic accidents. They also provide the extra benefit of preventing students from getting lost or disoriented, or being alone in a vehicle at anytime during the day or night where a mechanical failure could leave them vulnerable to passers-by. Students are fully informed about the traffic situation and are cautioned, even about the way they must cross streets. We have had only one student involved in a minor traffic incident. He was riding his bike to ICADS and was pushed off the road by a beer truck. His injuries were minor. This event prompted the "no bike" rule to be implemented ten years ago.
**The no driving rule does not apply to non-university students in the Intensive Spanish Program. These students tend to be older and prefer to assess for themselves whether or not to "risk it" on the road.
DROWNINGS
Many Costa Rican beaches have b riptides. Available statistics place the number of drowning deaths at approximately 250 people each year. Most victims are foreigners. Costa Ricans generally understand and heed the risks while many visitors do not. Riptides or b currents can quickly sweep even the best swimmers out to sea. Rips are not visible from the water's surface so cannot be easily detected. The ocean waters are always emerald green, warm and inviting. While it is futile to try to prohibit swimming at beaches that are among some of the most beautiful in the world, we have found that we can drastically reduce the risk of drowning by giving students a list of beaches we know to be safe and asking them to swim only there. We educate students about the riptides themselves and ask students never to swim alone, never to swim after consuming any alcoholic beverages, and to assume that all ocean waters, even in tranquil bays and inlets, can be potentially dangerous. Students are required to sign-out each weekend they are away. They must tell us where they are going. Each Friday we review the sign-out sheet and selectively reinforce specific safety information regarding their particular destination. Students are very likely to get beach warnings at least five times during the course of the term.
OTHER SMALL ACCIDENTS WHICH COULD OCCUR
-Stepping into holes in sidewalks
-Slipping and sliding on algae-covered sidewalks during the rainy season
-Minor falls while hiking. Students are not allowed to hike in wilderness areas without a trained guide. This protects against major falls or getting lost in the wilderness.
These last few things may seem hardly worth mentioning but they are discussed because an injury as minor as a sprain can drastically affect range of movement and limit ones ability to benefit from the study experience.
PERSONAL SECURITY ISSUES
ICADS works with an average of 35 students per month while maintaining a full and part time staff of 23. This staff to student ratio allows us to provide the monitoring, individual attention and follow-up necessary to significantly lower the odds of many types of potential harm.
SERVICES PROVIDED WHICH LOWER RISK FACTORS
1. All students in all programs are provided an identity card which allows them immediate access to ICADS' physical location (there are no street addresses here), their host families' physical location and the home telephone numbers of their host families and at least two ICADS staff members. The cards are designed so that even a student with little Spanish skill can point out to any taxi driver his, or her desired location. This minimizes the risk of students getting lost, should they find themselves in unfamiliar areas. Students can always reach us at any hour of the day or night. Additionally, an ICADS staff member occupies a private apartment within the ICADS building itself. He is routinely available to take calls from students with problems on a 24-hour basis.
2. There is a safe at ICADS where all students are required to keep their valuables. This eliminates the risk of students walking the streets with large amounts of cash, credit cards, airline tickets, or valuable jewelry. Students are given access to the safe three times each day.
3. Students are always placed in host families within a ten-minute bus ride or a thirty-minute walk to ICADS. Each student is provided with a map that clearly indicates the location of his/her home as well as the location of the houses of all other students in his/her cluster. The fact that students are placed in close proximity to one another increases safety by allowing them to walk together and to share the required taxi ride when returning home at night. Students are more likely to use taxis when they can share the fare.
4. Upon arrival students are given a tour of their area in San Pedro and the San Jose City area. They are taught the bus routes in and out of the city to their neighborhoods and instructed about safe and unsafe areas within the City itself.
5. ICADS staff maintains a list of approved hotels within a student price range where they can safely stay while traveling.
6. All semester students are given two detailed orientations to their internships. The first when the country coordinator arrives at ICADS to counsel students on the selection of internship sites and the second orientation upon arrival in the country.
7. We bly encourage our students to travel in groups when travelling independently on weekends. We help to organize the groups themselves, purchase all bus tickets and make hotel reservations at hotels we know and trust. The help with arrangements is presented as a service, but secondarily, it allows us to have even more control over the safety and quality of students' locations and accommodations while away from ICADS.
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE HOST FAMILY IN THE SECURITY PROCESS
Each student lives with a local host family who, not only feeds and supports the student, but helps us to monitor her/his whereabouts at all times. If a student does not return home on schedule for any reason, we are immediately notified. Families also help us passively monitor the state of the physical health and emotional well being of each student. They inform us of any unusual incident which may have occurred that might have frightened or alarmed a student, as well as any sign of ill health. ICADS' home stay coordinator is a Costa Rican born, US educated, fully bilingual, trained psychologist who is experienced in matching students with the most appropriate family. Furthermore, she has educated our families about the importance of reinforcing low risk patterns of behavior.
While ICADS does have many male headed households, several years ago we decided to give priority to new families who consisted of female-headed households with children. This was done for two reasons; the first is that it is now the most "typical" Costa Rican family and gives our students a more realistic view of Costa Rican life. Secondly, it drastically reduces the risk of any unwanted advances by an adult male household member. We feel that it is absolutely essential that our students always feel safe and comfortable within their homes.
SECURITY WHILE AWAY FROM ICADS
As semester students move into their placement sites outside of San Jose or to our other country sites, they know they must notify their ICADS staff coordinator each time they leave their site and give him/her full information on their destination and when they will return. Each country has at least one full time coordinator who is responsible for every aspect of the student's life. Additionally, each student has an on-site supervisor who reports to the country coordinator at least once a week. Staffers make regular calls and visits. ICADS routinely keeps a fully updated written log and sign out sheet on the travels of each student when he/she is away from his or her site. Again, if the student should fail to sign out, we call the home stay family for the information and discuss the lapse with the student upon his or her return.
During the first week of the term, all semester students are given additional workshops on personal security as well as a workshop on sexual harassment and the prevention of sexual assaults.
Rules are written down, handed out and discussed, first, at the initial orientation meetings at the beginning of the term, and again, after the initial four week period when students are preparing to move to their new families and sites in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Panama. After the first week at the site, each student meets together with her/his country coordinator and the on-site supervisor to develop a learning contract that specifies the number of work hours, structured tasks and projects to be completed. The meeting also serves to clarify the goals and expectations of all parties. This signed contract formalizes the commitment the student makes to the organization.
Students doing internships in Costa Rica are allowed to choose any area within the country with the exception of the Caribbean Coastal areas. No work is allowed in Cahuita, Puerto Viejo, Limon, Manzanillo-Gandoca, or Bri-Bri at the present time. In these particular areas we consider the risk factor currently to be too high. The only exceptions to this are the semester field course program in Resource Management and Sustainable Development which will continue to spend four days there each term. These students travel, stay, and work there in a group with their two course professors and one staff field assistant. Accommodations are in a safe area and students are not allowed to venture out on their own at any time. Secondly, the semester students will be allowed to travel there for one weekend accompanied by ICADS staff members.
It is important to note here that we have never had a student victimized by any type of crime while working in the area. This has not been true for students in other programs.
*** Again, this travel restriction does not apply to non-university students in the Intensive Spanish Program, but they are bly encouraged not to visit these areas.
It is very important to note here that, while we have had several incidents of purse snatchings or muggings (mostly in the San Jose area), only one of our students has ever been a victim of a violent street crime. A male student was hit on the back of the head and his wallet was taken. His ear was cut and required stitches. We have never had a rape or a sexual assault.
We attribute this positive record to a combination of good prevention, a careful monitoring system, the maturity of our students (following rules), and luck.
PREVENTION OF ILLNESS:
Costa Rica
Costa Rica is a country with high health standards. The most common maladies which students suffer are sunburns, minor skin allergies and infected insect bites. Our host families provide a balanced healthy diet which conforms to the particular dietary needs of each student whether she/he is vegan, vegetarian, or on a health restricted diet. We have never had a student become ill from anything eaten in his or her own home. Students become more at risk for intestinal infections while traveling. They are carefully instructed never to buy food sold on the street or in large outdoor markets where sanitation facilities for keeping food clean are not readily available. They are discouraged from drinking tap water in small towns without good water purifying systems and are encouraged to carry bottled water with them at all times while away from San Jose. Students are taught how to purify their tap water should bottled water not be readily available. They are also given a simple formula to treat their own mild cases of diarrhea, should they occur. If the diarrhea should persist for more than 24 hours, students are taken to a doctor or clinic to be examined for any possible infection. An ICADS staff member always accompanies students who need medical attention (unless the student prefers to go alone). The staff member serves as a support to the student and will serve as translator if necessary. ICADS uses the two best private hospital clinics in Costa Rica. Most, but not all doctors in Costa Rica speak English.
Nicaragua
In Nicaragua where health standards are not as high, our families are trained in basic rules of food handling and nutrition. All water in host families houses' is purified. The diet is somewhat limited but basically healthy. Students do get bored with their steady diet of rice and beans but realize that "when in Nicaragua, one eats what the Nicas eat." Our Nicaragua coordinator helps to supplement the Nica diet with extra fruits and vegetables as often as possible. In Nicaragua, students are bly discouraged from eating out.
Students in Nicaragua are asked to submit fecal specimens for parasite tests at any sign of fatigue, diarrhea or nausea. Within the past thirteen years, we have had only five students diagnosed with parasites, all common and easily cured with medication. Depending on the season and the area where they live, students working in Nicaragua may be required to take malaria medication. Students are instructed on appropriate clothing (light colored long pants and sleeves at dusk) and are encouraged to use repellent frequently to avoid being bitten by mosquitoes. All students who travel to Nicaragua are required to take along a mosquito netting for sleeping. We have had one case of malaria and one case of dengue fever. Both students were diagnosed quickly and treated successfully.
We have never had a student victimized by a violent crime in Nicaragua. The areas where students work and live are restricted to the areas in and around Matagalpa, Esteli and Condega, areas where health facilities are good, and where our coordinators live and work. Occasionally, special permission is given to students to work in Managua. Coordinators can reach any student quickly and handle any problem with dispatch. If students do need medical attention in Nicaragua, their country coordinator always accompanies them.
NATURAL DISASTERS
ICADS has fully ready evacuation plans should students ever need to be evacuated from Nicaragua or Costa Rica for any reason. When hurricane Mitch hit Nicaragua in 1998, our combined staff in Costa Rica and Nicaragua was able to evacuate all eleven students there safely within 48 hours. This was at least two days sooner than the United States Embassy was able to evacuate any other US citizen.
As in all countries in the world, there are many factors and situations in daily life which are out of the control of us all, irrespective of country, but to the extent that we can prevent and foresee potentially dangerous situations, we work very hard to inform, educate and mitigate against risk. ICADS reserves the right to dismiss from its programs any student who willfully violates our rules regarding safety and health. The right has been exercised only once in our twenty-year history.
ICADS lost an alumna to drowning twelve years ago. Over fifty percent of our current staff was there the day we were notified. The semester program had officially ended one week earlier, but she had decided to stay in Costa Rica to explore areas she didn't have the chance to visit during the active term. Throughout the semester she had been given all the standard warnings regarding riptides and non-safe areas for swimming. In this case, the warnings didn't work. She was a charming, intelligent and mature woman who had always followed the rules. She got careless just once. We share our reflections of this tragedy often still among ourselves, and we recount the incident with each new group as part of the orientation process. This tragedy reminds us to try to never lose sight of the fact that each student is connected to a network of family and friends, any one of whom would be irrevocably harmed by the injury or loss of any student.
We realize that it is often difficult to have a loved one travelling far away from home, and we know that it takes a lot of trust in both the student, and in ICADS to support the student in his or her adventures and learning experiences. We continually work to do all we can to deserve your trust. We consider our clients to be, not only our students, but also their families and the universities who have placed their trust in our services.
When we do our jobs well, our students do not tend to feel oppressed or inhibited by the rules we ask them to follow. The idea is to allow our students, irrespective of program, as much freedom of movement and intellectual expression as possible while, at the same time, providing an expansive safety net around them which allows us to catch them if they should fall or allows them to reach out and grab it when needed.
We are available and willing to address any questions and concerns you may have regarding our programs or policies. We remain continually open to feedback about how we might improve any aspect of our programs.
Sandra Neil Kinghorn, Ph.D.
Director-ICADS Programs
Costa Rica/Nicaragua/Panama
