<p>Hi,</p>
<p>Does anyone know how safe the above mentioned programs are? I was looking at reviews for AFS and some pretty nasty crimes including rape and assault seem to have happened to their students. Anyone know anything else for the other programs?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>I can’t speak to other programs but I had IMMENSE trouble with AFS.</p>
<p>I ended up having to come home after being in the hospital for a week… It’s a long story-</p>
<p>But anyways, there was an earthquake in my area of Italy and they called my parents and said “hi we’ve talked to your daughters host family and they say she’s fine after the earthquake and wasn’t harmed!” … Mind you this was AFTER I’d returned home from Italy. They hadn’t called my host family, so who is to say they cared about anyone’s, were they just calling parents without talking to host families?</p>
<p>Also, they clearly didn’t screen my family well. I was sleeping on a couch, and I was an adamant vegetarian. My host family didn’t know, and she refused to alter meals so I mostly ate bread and cheese. I ended up getting kicked out and having to live on the couch of a girl who was in one of my classes</p>
<p>My recommendation - stay as far away from AFS as possible.</p>
<p>thanks. yes, I have heard many horror stories about AFS. apparently, in Brazil, they placed a girl in a bad part of time and the girl was rapped. Afterwards, the company tried to protect their reputation and tried to keep it quiet. I have talked to AFS, and in my opinion, they do not seem to take safety very seriously. I guess a large part of it comes down to luck of which host family you get.</p>
<p>Yeah it seems so; they really don’t give jack squat about safety. When I got sick, they wanted to delay taking me to the hospital because of the fees THEY would have to pay. It took me passing out at school for them to finally take me seriously when I said I needed to go.</p>
<p>i’m sorry. thats terrible. AFS has really good adverts/ website, but then you look at the reviews and they are SO bad. has anyone heard anything about CIEE by the way? I am most likely going to go through them.</p>
<p>Ciee has an excellent reputation for their programs in Europe. Don’t know for elsewhere. check out nacel they have a network of high schools throughout the world and those are safe.</p>
<p>I know CIEE has really popular/good programs for colleges. I almost went through them for my uni study abroad</p>