About ISL

ISL Operational Statement
As a socially responsible international educational NGO, ISL enlists medical and educational volunteer teams for the provision of services to under-served populations in Central and South America, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Africa.

ISL provides educational opportunities for students from over a hundred universities in several countries, primarily from the United States.  It is the goal of ISL to partner student and professional teams from developed countries with service opportunities in developing countries.   This is accomplished by offering educational opportunities on a contractual basis to both educational institutions and individual students. The resulting financial resources are used to fund teams serving in various countries.  In so doing, ISL  provides annual employment for over a hundred individuals in developing countries.  These jobs range from full-time employment to part-time contracts.  We employ medical professionals and providers of services such as transportation, translation, guides and logistics (food, housing, etc.).

Social Justice and Financial Accountability
ISL operates as a non-profit organization in the countries in which we serve. We feel strongly that organizations only registered as a non-profit in the United States are not being accountable to the people they purport to serve. As an example, ISL is the only NGO authorized by the government of Nicaragua to provide healthcare experiences for pre-health and health students from the United States.

ISL has a parent 501c3 organization, Good Samaritan Missions and maintains an LLC for liability and intellectual property protection. Financial statements from GSM and proof of industry standard salary disbursements are available upon request. ISL requires in-country licensing of all personnel, either by virtue of their in-country professional standing or through a legal process of temporary licensing for non-local
professionals—again, as an NGO, ISL is one of the few to require these high standards. ISL combines the above financial accountability with a record as one of the oldest and largest providers of service learning to health professions and education students to lead the way for NGOs seeking to serve the underserved.

A Bit of History
In 1993 International Service Learning had its genesis from an incident in a banana field in Eastern Costa Rica.  Rev. Michael Birnbaum, founder of ISL, was working as a missionary with the banana workers in that area.  Most were Nicaraguan refugees living in tents of plastic sheeting and bamboo poles. After a political conflict with plantation owners over safety issues (another story), a group of worker’s tents were bulldozed and set on fire as a “lesson” from some of the more aggressive landowners. Workers began putting up temporary shelter (more plastic sheeting and bamboo poles) to shield the women and children from the torrential rains, when a bus load of touring American college students drove up on a road nearby. They came out of the bus and began taking photos, pointing and talking about the scene in front of them. After being approached about the possibility of lending a hand for an hour or two, they abruptly declined and left.

How many women and children would not have had to sleep in the rain that night if the strong and youthful arms and hands of a couple dozen college students could have been put to work putting up additional shelter?

Later, the decision was made to organize student study tours with a meaningful and challenging service component–to combine adventure, service and learning. It was also decided to raise funds for these projects so that students of lower income families would have an opportunity to experience this unique and exciting approach to student travel as well.

The first groups from the U.S. were brought over from smaller private schools in 1995. The number of students and universities grew yearly to the point that ISL now serves students from over a hundred colleges and universities across the nation–from small private schools to the largest university systems in the nation.  ISL maintains professional program staff in all areas served.  ISL began serving schools with general program options for service learning but has since added specific programs in the areas of health, education, environmental sciences, and community service.

ISL has gained a reputation for safety, as all teams travel with professional local staff and medical personnel.   Students should be wary of the dangerous practice of professors simply arranging a tourist trip with an unknown commercial operator in an unfamiliar foreign country.  This practice has, in the past, been responsible for countless problems, some even tragic.  ISL provides the solution to this problem by providing as much safety as possible in combination with dynamic and exciting in-the-field programming.

Since 9-11, it has become more important than ever to provide opportunities for students to meaningfully and  safely engage the world.  ISL provides the opportunities for students to not just travel and learn, but to become involved in critical service to people around the world.

In 2010 International Service Learning:

• Provided a service-oriented academic experience for 1,200 participants, representing 225 colleges and universities.
• Created a Riverboat Program to bring medical services to remote areas in Nicaragua.
• Created a 4 Week Rotation Program to offer an extended learning experience for medical students, combining village triage with hospital rotation at the Masaya General Hospital in Nicaragua
• Launched project Well Child International to bring pediatric and OBGYN care to several special needs areas identified by local governments in Belize, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua.
• Launched High School Program
• Responded to the disaster in Haiti by sending teams into Haiti and the Dominican Republic to provide relief for Haitians displaced by the earthquake.
• Provided medical service for tens of thousands and dental services for 50,000+ people with little or no access to medical services.
• Provided eye exams for 25,000 and prescription and/or reading glasses for 14,000 people in remote areas.
• Distributed over $700,000+ in prescription medications to under- or non-served populations.
• Developed a new computer training center in Panama and numerous housing projects in Central America, primarily in hurricane-hit areas.
• Provided medical, dental and financial support for the Ometepe Island Orphanage in Nicaragua, the Faraja Centre for Handicapped Children in Tanzania, The Lord’s Home Orphanage and Waite Centre for the Elderly in Belize, and many other care centers in our partner countries.
• Began expansion planning and programming in Bolivia, Guyana, India, Vietnam, and Trinidad. rovided direct assistance and supplies for numerous churches and schools in under-served areas.
• Raised $685,000 in financial support for mission and service projects, including student sponsorships.
• Created or continued funding twenty full time jobs and over a hundred part-time jobs in seven foreign countries.
• Initiated implementation for a CEU/CME program for medical professional.

A Closing Note on ISL’s Health Care Program Standards

In a perfect world everyone in the world would have access to professional health care and medication. Unfortunately, hundreds of millions of people have either no health care or limited access to such care.  It would be unethical, and even immoral, if we had a system for delivering responsible care to these people and withheld it.  The delivery system ISL has devised is a legitimate partnership:  our students receive field experience, and the poor, with their permission, receive health care.  ISL maintains the following standards of care delivery: 1) We work under the direction of the local government health ministry—our students are only involved to the extent that these officials approve (and even request!). 2) Those receiving health care are made aware that a student will be assisting our health professionals. 3) No student is involved without the direct supervision of licensed health care providers. 4) We maintain contact with and, in most cases, re-visit work sites to insure follow-up.

ISL provides health care that would otherwise be unavailable to tens of thousands of the underserved each year.  We receive a constant flow of thanks from patients, local government health officials, and university advisors.  We also hear regularly from students who were inspired to become health professionals and humanitarian workers after working on our teams.