Safety and Support

All form of overseas travel has risks attached to it, its a strange environment you are entering into and a culture that you are perhaps unfamiliar with too. There are many countries in the world that we wouldn't dream of sending students to as some countries are safer than others. Each of our 4 destinations are popular tourist destinations and countries that ultimately offer a warm welcome to foreign visitors. We deliberately dont place our programs in larger cities and are very meticulous when it comes to choosing both a destination and a town to be based in. Before every program is established our head office staff make extensive visits to each country until we are 100% satisfied that it meets our high safety expectations. We monitor daily, government travel advice from the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office, The US State Department and The Australian Department for Foreign Affairs and Trade to ensure we are armed with the latest travel information for each country. 

All our towns that we are based in are chosen for three main reasons. Firstly the quality of the hospitals nearby that our students work in, secondly for the travel opportunities nearby and thirdly for the safety and security of the town. Managing our programs in smaller, more manageable towns ensures that we can keep a closer check on things than if we were based in larger cities. This way all the local people, restaurants and shops are used to seeing our students on a daily basis and it goes someway in ensuring our students feel welcome in the local area.

We never use homestays or place students with local host families. These may be billed by other gap year and volunteer companies as adding to the "cultural experience" a student will get but its our stance that these pose not only a security risk but also a differing experience for each student. We have our very own Gap Medics houses in each location, all either owned by us or privately rented on long term leases. We ensure all the houses are finished to a high standard of security in each destination. The basic set up is that we have large shared bedrooms, a large socialable living and kitchen area, extensive outdoor spaces and a large wall surrounding the property. All houses are manned with 24/7 security, again not that this is particularly needed but its a great reassurance for us in the head office and for our students and their parents. We have secure entry systems into each property and enforce a strict rule that only Gap Medics staff members and our students are allowed in the properties. All students have security boxes for their travel documents, currency and valuables too. 

We know exactly what is going on in our houses and are in constant contact with our staff teams overseas. Our programme managers update each student's file on our secure database daily, so we know exactly which departments each student is in, what they have planned for weekends and even whats on the menu for dinner! All in all it means we are involved constantly with the safe running of the programmes. Members of our head office team make visits regularly to each destination so we may even see you over there! Asside from head office contact with our programmes we are here for parents 24/7 too. We have an emergency contact number that is answered 24/7 meaning if you need to reach us you always know you can.

The staff teams that we employ in each country usually consist of country directors, programme managers, programme assistants, caterers, housekeepers and security staff. They are all extensively trained and briefed by our UK team and know exactly why our students are on placement with them, what their needs are and they are there to provide the safe and friendly face of Gap Medics. We do not work through local agents or outsource any of our services in-country, all our staff are full time employees of Gap Medics all year round. We are extremely proud of our staff teams and we know that they ultimately see the students the most and play a large role in the reasons why our students have such an enjoyable time when away with us.