Due to rising concerns about the Ebola virus, Lipscomb students, parents and faculty are making some difficult decisions about international travel.
With Commitment Week just around the corner for Lipscomb Missions, as well as Spring Semester Study Abroad trips coming up in only a couple of months, students and parents are faced with making decisions regarding international travel through Lipscomb-run programs.
Concerns are certainly elevated in regards to travel, and especially travel going to West African countries, such as Ghana.
“It’s definitely something that’s been on my mind and something I’ve been praying about,” Lipscomb junior Trisha Stocker said. “It’s definitely a concern and it’s something that’s scary, but at the same time, if God wants me to go and He opens the doors, how can I say no?”
Stocker has been planning on participating in Lipscomb’s mission efforts in Ghana for two years now; however, due to the unforeseen epidemic, her parents are now understandably cautious about sending her.
“I am being respectful of my parents since I am still dependent on them to a certain degree, so it is hard to feel called to go and then have some doors possibly be closing, but if God wants it, it’ll happen,” Stocker said.
Missions coordinator and Ghana Missions team leader Paul Stevens says he wants parents and students alike to understand the high level of security and safety Ghana has developed as a country over the years.
“The thing about Ghana that makes me feel a little bit more comfortable with it is just knowing that it is the most stable, most advanced country not just in West Africa, but in the entire continent, in terms of the medical personnel and medical facilities as well as just the governmental structure and organization. It’s set up in a way that’s very efficient; it’s well-run,” Stevens said. “It’s kind of a model of democracy for the rest of the continent. Knowing all of that about it is just a little bit of background knowledge that helps us to be hopeful that they won’t have any issues [with Ebola].”
According to Stevens, Lipscomb students going to Ghana will have no connecting flights into or out of any other countries in Africa. Furthermore, flights into and out of Ghana are to and from the U.S. and Europe, and not any other African nations. This, he says, is another level of security that will ensure the safety of the students.
“Since there are no documented cases of Ebola in Ghana currently, and based on the measures that have been taken by all the countries in West Africa – not just the ones that have had cases, but also some other surrounding countries too – to essentially close off borders, there are enough security measures in place and things being done currently that we’re still planning to travel there,” Stevens said.
Stevens also wants to assure students and family members that he and other mission coordinators are receiving reports from reliable contacts stationed in each country daily. Should the situation in Ghana change for the worse closer to the time of departure, Stevens says the trip will be pulled.
Director of Risk Management at Lipscomb University Kathy Hargis said that she and other faculty members monitor the safety and risk levels of every international trip continuously.
“We try to take all things into account and then we try to make a logical decision closer to the date. In the past we have pulled mission trips at the last minute if the conditions were not deemed to be safe,” Hargis said. “We bring our international crisis team together to make that decision. Usually that includes someone from the President’s office, the general counsel and myself, along with someone from our communications and public relations department.”
Both Hargis and Stevens said the safety of Lipscomb’s students is top priority for the university. Hargis wants family members of traveling students to understand and feel completely confident in Lipscomb’s process regarding student safety and international trips.
“One of the things we really try to do is to be very up front with our students and their parents,” Hargis said. “We want them to be very informed about what’s going on and the process that we have, and I think that’s something that we do a really good job of as a university.”