Passage International (PI) has a track record of success – our programs are well established with years of experience and a solid reputation.

Safety of PI Students is our Number One Priority.

We conduct thorough on-site student orientation programs, especially with respect to a student’s mental and physical health, safety, security and other risk issues in the country of travel.

Prior to the start of each program, students receive country-specific health guidelines including required and recommended immunizations as specified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Local health issues are later reviewed with students during initial in-country program orientation and are monitored throughout the program.

PI has crisis management and emergency evacuation plans in place, as well as a regularly drilled and tested system for promptly reaching students and their emergency contacts in a crisis. Our utmost priority is the safety and security of our students. Besides the US Embassy announcements, we follow the local news closely and, since we live and work in the country, we have several reliable sources. The coordinators and at least one of the directors will be available 24 hours a day in the event of a medical or other emergency. In the extremely unlikely event that an evacuation is necessary, we can help make arrangements to ensure it happens as fast as possible.

Total safety cannot, of course, be guaranteed abroad, just as it cannot be guaranteed anywhere else in the world however PI is committed to taking the necessary steps to maximize student safety at each and every program site.

Events may transpire that are reported by the media such that they are perceived by family members in the home country as a threat to the health and safety of program participants, but which may not be a real threat as assessed by PI staff. In many such cases, these events will be treated as a real emergency due to the need to respect the perception of an emergency until this perception can be corrected.

The Passage Risk Management Team consists of all Passage staff members – including staff on salary and contracted Program Coordinators, teachers and faculty, and homestay family members. Each member of the team is assigned responsibilities for emergency response, and for ongoing preparedness for emergencies.

Since all PI staff are Nepali, we are intimately familiar with the area. That makes it easy to know what is safe and what is not. We wish to reiterate that PI operates in areas where we grew up and lived our whole lives. This makes PI different from other programs.

During the initial orientation period — a critical component of each PI program – directors and others – educate students about potential safety risks and how to minimize these risks. Our staff provides further orientation briefings and reminders at key junctures throughout the program, most notably at times of movement to a different program locale.

The home stay component of our programs provides significant additional community perspectives on local issues. Homestay family members can provide precautionary advice to our students about local conditions.

We collect information from government sources, our contacts in non-governmental organizations, and – most importantly – from our own network of local contacts.

Based on this information, decisions may be made to alter our operations. Students are briefed on potential risks and advised as to actions they can take to minimize these risks.