The Harwood Unified Union School District (HUUSD) has canceled the Harwood Union High School annual student trip to Rwanda due to concerns about safety and the Marburg virus.
Harwood’s annual Rwanda trip generally takes place in February and has been an annual event since 2004 with some breaks for the pandemic, other safety issues and an Ebola outbreak.
The trip, usually three weeks with over two dozen students and a handful of staff, requires extensive fundraising and preparations.
Per Harwood principal Meg McDonough the school has been closely following the reported outbreak of the Marburg virus in Africa which is now impacting Rwanda. On Monday, October 7, the U.S. Department of State and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) raised the travel advisory for Rwanda to Level Three which indicates that all nonessential travel is strongly discouraged, McDonough wrote in an email to the school community.
“After careful review of the travel advisory and the current outlook in Rwanda, we regret to inform you that we have decided to cancel the travel study trip to Rwanda this year due to the safety and health concerns related to the Marburg virus. We will reopen applications for this trip next fall, and we understand that this decision is particularly hard for members of the class of 2025,” the principal wrote.
She reported that some factors that contributed to this decision are:
- Marburg is an extremely dangerous virus with up to an 88% fatality rate.
- This is one of the world’s largest Marburg outbreaks, with 56 cases and 12 deaths so far.
- The CDC has started rerouting passengers returning from Rwanda to three major airports for screening. This would present major logistical challenges for our group.
“Let's hold the people of Rwanda in our hearts during this time,” McDonough added.
