Member Article

Ben returns from Haiti as Diversity Travel expands

Ben Slaymaker, a systems integration specialist at Diversity Travel, has recently returned from Haiti where he has been helping to manage a full-time medical clinic service for displaced victims of the 2010 earthquake.

In addition to his role at Diversity Travel, Ben also serves as a board member of OnCall: Medicine with a Mission.

OnCall is an outreach of Times Square Church in New York and is made up of more than 150 volunteer medical professionals recruited to administer free medical assistance to communities worldwide with little or no access to medical care.

Spurred by the devastating impact of the earthquake that struck Haiti in January 2010, OnCall began sending regular volunteer medical and construction teams to help rebuild the lives of those affected.

A vast number of the 1.5 million people reported to be displaced by the earthquake were forced to live in temporary camps known as ‘Tent Cities’ and reports today suggest around 80,000 of those are still living in makeshift shelters in and around the capital city of Port Au Prince.

OnCall has now established a permanent presence close to one of the largest remaining tent cities to serve its communities. As well as a Haitian physician and pharmacist, the project employs a local family to maintain the clinic as well as a youth team of support staff and translators to ensure the smooth running of daily operations.

More than 6,000 patients benefitted from the clinic last year through free access to primary care and medications.

Ben said: “The team is really cautious not to gauge the success of the project on numbers and it is really important that we’re viewed as part of the community and not just an occasional service.

“It is vital for me and the team to return to the camps on a regular basis and I was looking for an employer that understood the importance of this. Diversity Travel has not only supported my responsibilities but my colleagues have helped to contribute towards my trip.

“The company has a deep understanding of the value of the work being done which has been overwhelmingly expressed through compassion, encouragement and continued support for the project.”

Ben joined Diversity Travel, which provides travel and visa services to some of the world’s largest not-for-profit organisations, at the end of last year to support its rapid growth.

In the past 12 months, the company has also opened an office in Melbourne to provide support for clients in different time zones and has recently relocated its London office to a larger site in Holborn after nearly doubling its London team with seven new city hires.

Diversity Travel is continuing to expand its reservations, ticketing, marketing and sales team in both London and Manchester.

Chris Airey, Managing Director of Diversity Travel, said: “Ben is one of our most recent hires and we fully support his work in Haiti.

“As we work with over 2,000 clients in the Not-for-Profit sector, we believe that it is important for staff in all areas of our business to truly understand the sector and its values.”

Diversity Travel’s client list includes ActionAid, the Salvation Army, Marie Stopes International, Tearfund and Save the Children International, and the company develops cost effective travel arrangements to both familiar and more remote parts of the globe.

At the end of last year the company announced that it had seen its revenue climb from £24.7m to £34.4m since 2013 and it had increased its staff members across the whole organisation by 41 per cent.

For more information about employment opportunities at Diversity Travel visit: www.diversitytravel.co.uk/careers-main

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Diversity Travel .