Risk Management Protocols

While a certain level of risk in inevitable when traveling to conflict-affected regions, CIEL is committed to ensuring health, safety and security of all program participants. Building on over a decade of experience, together CIEL staff have a proven track record of safely leading more than 700 students, faculty, and community participants on immersive educational travel to conflict-affected regions. Building on this expertise, we have developed extensive security protocols and partnerships with established logistics companies, local risk assessment firms and regional security experts to assist us with mitigating risk during all international travel programming in the regions where we work. As part of these protocols, CIEL staff review and monitor daily the safety and security of each location we are visiting with our partners and can alter out programming in real-time if any concerns arise in an area or region we are traveling to. Furthermore, we are committed to providing comprehensive security briefings and training to all program participants and CIEL program staff prior to engaging in international travel.

In addition to these specific safety and security protocols, we ensure all travel participants acquire comprehensive travel insurance prior to travel. We also maintain a high staff-to-participant ratio to help ensure safety and security during all of our educational travel experiences and carefully select staff who are well versed in the local language, culture and security concerns. During our time in conflict-afflicted regions, we also closely monitor U.S. Department of State Travel Warnings and CDC Travel Health Notices to ensure all relevant health and safety policies are followed (including those related to COVID-19) and maintain a local network of medical facilities and consular contacts available to participants should the need arise.