Kidnap, Ransom or Extortion Policy

Team Broken Earth places highest priority on the safety and welfare of its volunteers, its employees and its Directors and Officers. While TBE will provide best practice advice to its volunteers as to safety and security practices that volunteers in Haiti (or any other country), should follow, it is the individual volunteer’s ultimate responsibility to adhere to such advice to the fullest possible extent and to protect his or her individual security while travelling abroad with TBE.

Incidents of kidnapping and ransom are defined as the abduction of a person (or persons) with the intention of detaining them at an unknown location until a demand for cash or concessions is met. Incidents of extortion are defined as threats to harm a person or persons unless a demand is met.

Any incident of kidnapping, ransom or extortion must be immediately escalated to any member of the TBE Board and is to be managed by the Board, operating out of Canada, with access to support from Canadian officials.

The designated Team Leader for any mission to Haiti, is responsible for:

  1. familiarizing him or herself with this policy and TBE’s procedures regarding kidnapping, ransom or extortion;
  2. maintaining a high level of awareness around this policy while leading the team in Haiti, and evaluating risk during the mission in Haiti;
  3. understanding escalation procedures to be followed for any incident of kidnapping, ransom or extortion;
  4. communicating immediately with Canadian-based Board members to ensure that procedural plans are followed in the event of any incident; and
  5. providing feedback and input on the effectiveness of this policy.

The Canadian-based Board is responsible for the assessment of notified potential kidnapping, ransom or extortion cases for confirmation of legitimacy, and the management of the incident.

Having regard to risk, effectiveness, cost and availability, TBE will endeavour to provide awareness training as may be reasonable for Board members and Team Leaders in respect of kidnapping, ransom and extortion.