Do You Need A Safe Volunteer Travel Checklist?

Volunteer organizations and trip leaders can help their participants prepare for a safe volunteer trip by going over this checklist with them. Make sure to check off each of these items before departure to help ensure the safest possible trip for your team.

Questions to Ask:

1. Did you ask each member of your group to sign a Risk Acknowledgment and Release Form? (Here’s a short-term mission trip release form from Brotherhood Mutual you can view and download.)

2. Did each member of your group provide a list of emergency contacts?

3. Did each member of your group purchase travel insurance?

4. Are all of the members of your group physically capable of the demands of volunteer travel?

5. Did each of your travelers leave photocopies of all of their important documents (passports, credit cards, driver’s licenses, vaccination records, airline tickets, and traveler’s checks) with someone they trust, in case they get lost or stolen?

6. Do your travelers have all of the vaccinations required for the country to which they are traveling?

7. Will each member of your group travel with a small first aid kit?

8. Did your travelers use an address other than a home address on their luggage tags?

9. Will members of your group travel with healthy snacks like power bars, apples, and other handy foods, in case transportation is delayed?

10. Have members of your group been instructed to carry valuables in concealed pockets or in a sturdy bag with the strap across their chest to avoid theft?

11. Did you inform all of your travelers of your organizational Emergency Response Guidelines?

If you follow this list, you should be sitting well for your next overseas volunteer trip.

Did you find this list helpful? Would you add any questions to our travel checklist? Let us know on Facebook and Twitter.