MEDI TRIP
Medi Trip Ethical Manifesto
A Standard of Integrity for Global Skills Exchange & Volunteering in Africa
At Medi Trip, we operate with one truth at our core: the local people are the leaders of their own systems. We do not displace, override, or undermine that leadership; we honour it, partner with it, and follow its lead.
Ours is not a charity. We are an ethical business, with structure, purpose, and measurable social return. We do not pretend to be saviors. We are collaborators. We are facilitators. And we are deeply committed to raising the standard of what ethical international engagement in Africa should be.
OUR ETHICS
1. Volunteering & Interning: We Name the Line
2. We Do Not Perform Poverty or Exploit Pain
3. Our Framework is Intersectional; Africa Is Not a Monolith
4. We Are Limited Company with Real Community Impact
5. We Prepare Interns to Integrate, Not Interrupt
6. Each Nation Has Its Own System; And It Comes First
7. We Build With, Not For
We differentiate between:
- Volunteering – cultural immersion and skills exchange, in an assisting capacity or service-based.
- Interning – academic, structured, skills-based, and regulated by local institutions.
We do not allow anyone to engage in roles beyond their scope, education, or legal permission. Our placements are built in collaboration with registered facilities and overseen by local professionals. We follow their protocols; not our own.
We do not stage outreach.
We do not parade suffering for content.
We do not glorify hardship.
Our outreach is real, our partnerships long-term, and our approach built around dignity, not dramatics. If the experience isn’t meaningful for the host community, it is not ethical; no matter how “moving” it feels on optics. Our focus is on dignity. Every activity must have meaning; for the community. Anything less is exploitation; and we don’t allow it.
We reject the idea of a single 'African experience' or a flat image of local life.
Medi Trip is built through an intersectional lens; acknowledging that culture, class, gender, colonial legacy, and power intersect in every placement, every interaction, every decision.
We prepare our volunteers & interns to understand:
- They are not stepping into a homogenous culture.
- Power dynamics exist; and must be navigated with humility.
- Their presence here must never be extractive.
We do not hide behind nonprofit language.
We are a limited company; and proud of it. Why?
Because we:
- Create dignified employment for staff, drivers, hosts, coordinators, and professionals, not just hand out donations to locals.
- Pay our supervisors and partners fairly; we do not ask locals to volunteer for unpaid labour. We pay them a liveable wage.
- Donate thousands of dollars each year to grassroots community projects, women’s groups, schools, clinics, and outreach programs.
- Circulate money into the local economy, every single day.
Our success directly fuels local growth. That’s how ethical business should function.
Every participant receives:
- Cultural training grounded in cultural values and norms.
- A code of conduct that reinforces professionalism, sensitivity, and accountability.
- Ongoing mentorship and support from local African supervisors.
Interns are expected to adapt to the system, not the other way around.
Every industry we work with; medical, engineering, law, education; has its own internal system or even trainee program. These trainees are enrolled through local universities and government bodies and are rightfully prioritised for placements before any foreign intern.
We do not interfere with the system and processes which empower local professionals. We wait to be offered spaces. We do not compete with locals for opportunity. We support, not supersede, national systems.
This is not just respect; it is policy.
We do not 'help' Africans. We're not saviours nor are you.
We do not 'give back' to people who owe us nothing.
We do not 'speak for the voiceless'; because Africans are not voiceless.
We co-create, co-learn, and co-exist in spaces that are never ours to dominate.