Anonymous’ Aspiro Adventure Wilderness Testimony

2022

My time at Aspiro Adventure therapy was nothing short of traumatic. Even before I got there, I was verbally abused by my transport staff saying I will not last out there and this place will break me. When I arrived at the warehouse after a 4 hour plane ride I was immediately strip searched with multiple men in the room, I was a minor at the time. I was then driven and thrown into a group of girls. My first night there a girl had a parasite from the water and was unable to keep food down and had to take a pair of my underwear because she had none left from being extremely sick and was refused proper medical attention. On my 3rd week there I spilled boiling on my legs and had gotten deep thickness burns. I then had to backpack with all my gear at least an hour to get to the van, it was an hour drive to the closest ER. I was seen and the doctor was concerned about me being outside 24/4 without accesses to proper medical attention. I then was required to go back everyday for the next few days to receive treatment for the burns. I was denied pain medication even though the doctors highly recommended it. Through those few days the guides made it very clear they were upset that I had interrupted the itinerary and they had to keep driving me to receive attention. I then no longer was able to receive medical attention and I cared for them myself. I ended up getting an infection where my skin turned green and they didn’t take me to a doctor until my legs were swollen and visibly something was wrong. Again no pain medications and the annoyance of having to take someone to receive medical attention. I also watched a girl in my group attempt to take her life to get away from the program. The rest of us had to sit in a circle in front of the van while a guide explained to people that were biking the situation. We were exposed to the real world for the first time in weeks. We then were all shuffled into the hot van for about 4 hours with a very limited amount of water. We were able to see the restraint and her banging her head against the ground and trying to strangle herself. None of us were allowed to talk about the situation after the fact. We had men watch us use the restroom to make sure we didn’t run away and if someone didn’t pick up either their vomit or fecal matter and wouldn’t own up to it we were forced to look at it and were not allowed to speak until someone picked it up. The guides had no regard for feelings or if a student was having a problem they would ignore until it escalated to a serious situation. That’s not the extent of everything that happened the rest is not my story to tell.