I hope this message finds you safe and well as we continue to navigate through a time of great uncertainty, both for our world and for AFS.

We continue to make steady progress on accomplishing the return of the remaining AFS students still in the US, and as of today, we have just over 100 students awaiting travel. We remain focused on supporting these students and their host families, but today I am pleased to share with you a video message focused on a question we all have on our minds; “Where to now for AFS-USA?”.

One of the takeaways from this message should be that AFS-USA plans to host students this fall. While we cannot be certain of the number of students we’ll host or their arrival dates, please continue to talk with potential host families and proceed with your recruitment and placement plans. Since we are not yet able to confirm the number of students we’ll be hosting, we do know that it will be far less than the 1,700+ for whom we had originally planned. Keeping that in mind, I would recommend that plans for in-person activities during the summer and fall be put on hold for now, especially those requiring financial commitments and deposits.

As always, I am grateful for all that you do for AFS and for all of the extraordinary efforts you’ve contributed. The challenges we’ve faced over the last two months are ones that we’ve never encountered on such a large scale. We couldn’t have confronted those challenges without the hard work, flexibility, and generosity of AFS Volunteers, Host Families, and Students.

Be safe and be well,

Tara

PS: To avoid confusion, I wanted to mention that, as noted in an earlier communication, the Congress-Bundestag students will arrive in January 2021.

Click here to view the video message.