Insurance

Hello UW SOS Volunteers,

I am writing to address some of your questions about using SOS's insurance coverage for your trip to Peru and whether you can opt out of it in favour of UW's travel insurance policy.

To clear things up on SOS's policy, we require all participants traveling on one of our volunteer trips to utilize our insurance coverage. The following points explain our position on this in more detail:

1. Having encountered situations of severe illness and natural disasters in the past, we take the safety of all volunteers very seriously. Therefore, we have spent a considerable amount of time analyzing insurance plans to ensure proper coverage of the unique experiences volunteers have on our trips. I encourage you to read over the attached insurance package to see how comprehensive SOS's plan is.
2. Building on that point, utilizing a group insurance plan ensures that administration of insurance runs smoothly through one source point and avoids any risks of juggling individual insurance plans or situations where individual plans may not cover necessary procedures.
3. We have also gone to great lengths to offer volunteers as affordable an experience as possible -- including fighting for low insurance rates. I acknowledge that your trip has been more expensive due to the flight cost, but appreciate your patience and commitment in the matter. I can assure you that, despite the cost, this will still be an incredible volunteer experience!

On behalf of SOS's national team, I apologize for any confusion that has happened over this. However, I hope this clarifies the reasons for our position. Should you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to send them directly to me at mmclean@studentsofferingsupport.ca as I am more than happy to answer them.

In the meantime, I hope you are getting excited for your trip and look forward to meeting with you at some point to discuss some of what you can expect and gain from your experience in Peru!


Please check out the insurance policy here.

Mark McLean
National Outreach Director
Students Offering Support