Safety Abroad Print E-mail
At each IFSA-Butler orientation, we provide extensive health and safety tips for living abroad. Some of these tips include how to carry credit cards and cash, how to hold a purse and how to find help in case of an emergency.

Program Safety (Precautions)
During orientation we highlight many of the risks to which you might be exposed abroad, and we explain how you can lower these risks.

We ask you to read the descriptions about and sign waivers for certain activities that we organize during the semester. The activities offered during our activities and excursions are completely optional. We use only licensed and bonded transportation companies for excursions and orientation transportation.

Our in-country offices provide extensive support systems on-site to help you with any personal or academic problems. Our resident staff can be contacted 24 hours a day in case of a medical or other true emergency.

We cannot emphasize enough the importance of adequate health coverage abroad. IFSA-Butler provides comprehensive accident and illness insurance to all program participants, but we strongly recommend that students who have pre-existing or mental health conditions or who may require counseling while overseas should consider obtaining additional insurance.

Security Measures (Evacuation Scenarios)
IFSA-Butler follows certain procedures if and when a specific threat is made against U.S. citizens overseas in a place where we have programs.

If our security measures are activated, IFSA-Butler immediately notifies both you and your parents. During orientation, we collect your passport number so that we can register you with the U.S. Embassy in your host country.

The IFSA-Butler Indianapolis office relies on detailed reports from our overseas directors regarding any developments in their respective countries. We recommend emergency travel or evacuation only as a last resort and only if required by the U.S. State Department or Embassy.

Anti-Americanism abroad
For more information about the challenges of being an American in an overseas culture, see our section on anti-Americanism abroad.