The EXCEL office has been keeping its eye on a late September outbreak of Marburg Virus Disease (MVD) in Kigali, Rwanda’s capital, which could potentially affect the March Rwanda trip. MVD is a viral hemorrhagic fever transmitted via contact with bodily fluids. For this reason, despite the disease’s severity, the outbreak has been mostly contained within hospitals and there have been fewer than one hundred confirmed cases.
The US travel advisory for Rwanda had previously been “Level 3: Reconsider Travel” due to the outbreak. However, this notice has since been lifted, and the advisory has dropped back to “Level 2: Exercise Increased Caution.”
One of EXCEL’s most valuable resources in navigating situations such as Marburg is its connections with partner organizations. “On the ground, there’s often a much better sense of how it’s impacting people,” EXCEL Travel Coordinator Hannah Puckett said. These connections serve as a first line of defense. “Putting stakes in the ground at places where we have really good partnerships and relationships really makes a big difference, because we care about our partners and our partners care about us,” Rwanda Trip Leader Alex Gallagher said.
“We would certainly never go into a situation where anybody would be put at risk as a result of Marburg.”
When issues do crop up, the severity is affected by the timeline. The MVD outbreak’s timing early in the year means that EXCEL has plenty of time to wait for the situation to play out. As a result, the trip is currently on track to run as usual. “Right now, the risk appears to be not nonexistent, but infinitesimally small. However, we do have in mind ways in which we could pivot if, unfortunately, the Marburg situation[…]worsened,” Gallagher said.
The EXCEL team keeps many factors in mind when it comes to communicating with students and parents. “We always want to keep a good balance of being communicative and informative, but also not inciting panic and worry,” Puckett said. The MVD outbreak has turned out to mostly likely be a non-issue, so early warnings to students and parents about the outbreak would have been largely unnecessary, causing parents and students to panic and make rash decisions. Going forward, EXCEL will have an increasingly clear view of the circumstances in Rwanda. “If there continue to be increased warnings or advisories, we’ll be fully transparent and open and honest with folks about the situation on the ground,” Gallagher said.
Ultimately, what matters the most to the EXCEL team is the safety of the students and trip members. “We would certainly never go into a situation where anybody would be put at risk as a result of Marburg,” Gallagher said. The EXCEL team works to provide an engaging experience for students while ensuring their safety. “Even if we find out in the final hour that it’s not it’s not safe to go, we’re not going to go, and we can always create another meaningful experience. At the end of the day, the health and safety of all of us, all of you, is priceless,” Director of EXCEL Laura Neubauer said.
“We always want to keep a good balance of being communicative and informative, but also not inciting panic and worry.”
One example of EXCEL’s ability to adapt to unforeseen circumstances is the Guatemala trip that ran last year. A few weeks prior to the March trip, there were reports of gang violence in some of Guatemala’s major cities. “The EXCEL office did a fantastic job of communicating with families, communicating with the kids, and dealing with a changing situation like that on the ground,” Gallagher said. EXCEL monitored the situation and pivoted accordingly, avoiding dangerous areas and finding other locations for students to complete their service and have a memorable trip experience. “Ms. Benjamin-Alcayaga’s familiarity with that region helped make it a very, very successful trip, despite the service portion not going as planned,” Neubauer said.
Trust between EXCEL and Nobles students is crucial for trips to run smoothly and for EXCEL to do its job as best it can. “If anybody has any questions or concerns, [they can] come talk to us. We have open doors, and we want everybody to feel it’s natural to be nervous about traveling,” Neubauer said. With the EXCEL team’s versatility and awareness, students can feel less concerned knowing that EXCEL has systems in place to adjust to situations similar to this one.