Airline Ambassadors International

Escort Story, by Terry Bobbitt

2011-11-15T12:41:00.000-08:00

My two traveling friends...Olivia and Danielle.

No longer destined for a life of deformity, where adjustments must be conquered to make one’s way, Olivia and Danielle are two medical miracles...and what FUN it was to spend my days flying with these precious little ones! I had the privilege of escorting these sweet girls on a journey of healing recently, and am proud to share in their courageous efforts...thrilled I could have just one small part of a day in the life with God’s greatest gifts. A memory that will certainly remain as one most precious to me.

It always amazes me to see the people He brings together to make the medical journey a success as these children come one step closer to healing. A trip in which the children who are in need of life-saving operations, travel half way across the world, in the arms of people they have never met, bravely battling the needed operations and recovery while staying in loving host family homes. This new chapter in the lives of these children all take place while being away from their own families. Such courage it must take in their own little hearts...and yet they soldier on!

I enjoyed my day of fun with Olivia...quite the princess, as we made our way to Paris. She was on her way home to the Ivory Coast after medical treatment in the United States. Olivia eagerly ran my way as I approached her at the gate in Chicago, somehow knowing I was going to be her flying friend for the next few hours! Sitting in the lap of a friend of mine in the Chicago Ohare airport, she flew in after being treated at a Children’s Hospital.

At the age of three, Olivia was discovered by Doctors in Africa and flown into the United States by Airline Ambassador Children’s Medical Escort. She received the medical treatment she needed through Children’s Medical Mission team...was loved on and cared for by her wonderful host family and then ready to head home.
That is when I met this adorable princess!

It seems Olivia knew no strangers...and her favorite thing to say...”Oh Man!”

She quickly captured the hearts of the crew and those in our paths that day as we traveled abroad, one step closer to the reunion with her family in Africa.

What a delightful and brave little girl!

Danielle, also in need of surgical correction on her club feet and webbed hands is just shy of two years old. She was my traveling friend on my return from Paris into the United States, also from the Ivory Coast where she was discovered by the same Doctors to be in need of medical treatment.

Danielle wore a smile that never left her sweet angelic face! And, her need to cuddle on my lap, while she checked out her surroundings on her new venture was just fine with me as it brought me such JOY. Even though I don’t have daughters, God always provides in other ways!

It didn't take me long to figure out that raisins and cheese are two of her favorites, she doesn't care too much for spinach and would prefer sugar in her milk! What a team we became as we got to know each other!
I could only imagine what was going on in Danielle's little mind as she checked things out on this new journey...the flight, the people, her surroundings...and all of this was done in such stride! What a trooper my flying child was on this trip!

Danielle will be in the United States for a few months while she receives the treatment she needs and when she is ready to return...who knows, maybe I can be the one to take her. But if not, I am sure whoever is blessed to be her traveling friend for the day will have the time of their lives with her...if only for that day. And this I know, the memory left in their heart will be forever written as a gift from God!

Living the Life of your Dreams by Marilyn Tam

2011-08-10T12:40:00.000-07:00

“Living the Life of Your Dreams - The Secrets to Turning Your Dreams into Reality”, written by AAI member, Marilyn Tam, is launching on Tuesday, August 16th.

The book is available in ebook format (Ipad, kindle, nook, etc.) as well as in print.

Check it out and pick up your copy today!

South Africa Aid Escort

2011-04-13T12:17:00.000-07:00

Wanted to let you know we arrived safely in Johannesburg last night. Amy (my niece) and I arrived to see Silviya, Gilbert, Sharon & Grant, and all the children from Sinethemba waiting anxiously for us at the airport. It was an incredible welcome and filled our hearts with so much joy! The bags carrying the items I collected for Sinethemba and Mpumelelo arrived safely.

Today we started out by going to the wholesale market. I was able to purchase diapers, baby formula, rice, beans, cooking oil, sugar, fish in tomato paste, and toilet paper for Maria and the children at Mpumelelo. It was utterly amazing to hear the excitement for all the crayons, construction paper, pens, flash cards, and posters we brought from America. All in all, I was told over and over again, the items I brought were "exactly what we needed". Maria kept asking "how did you know that I needed 'that'?" With almost 200 children under her care, I only wished we could have provided more.

Amy and I jumped into action by asking what we could do to bring a little joy and sunshine to the center. Maria did not skip a beat by asking us to paint one of the walls in a classroom. We painted the walls light pink and yellow to make the place look a little lighter and "airy". My hope is they will be able to put up some posters to brighten up the other walls. If I had the resources, I would get them carpet for the flooring, as the concrete is very hard and the carpet that is there is extremely dirty and worn.

The children are so very blessed to have someone like Maria and the other workers looking after them. Truly an amazing woman...and an amazing day!

We will find our way back to Sinethemba ... although I think I am still full from the dinner they made us last night. I will be buying groceries to make homemade pizza, with all of the kids, for a special surprise birthday for Amy (she is turning 19) . What an amazing AAI experience! Thank you!!

Robin Schmidt
Airline Ambassadors member and volunteer

Rotary, Gift of Life Foundation Gala

2011-02-10T10:17:00.000-08:00

It was so special to be honored by the Rotary, Gift of Life Foundation Gala and receive a beautiful airplane in pure crystal that symbolizes to me how we bring light and love around the world. AAI helped Gift of life transport 37 children from El Salvador last June for life saving heart surgeries. Last month we broke all monthly records utilizing AA's Miles for Kids in Need and transported 44 children. One of these was a Haitian girl, Lovely Adjuste, who received surgery in New York. She will return to Haiti next week escorted by our first Airline Ambassadors Rotary mission! George Solomon and team will escort Lovely home, and then travel to La Gonave providing solar panels, clean water and refurbishing the surgical clinic. Like light shining through a crystal, the good just keeps increasing!

Anti-Trafficking Work at the Super Bowl

2011-02-08T14:22:00.000-08:00

The training was a huge success. We trained over 50 attendees, including flight attendants, TSA officers, and hotel personnel. Traffick911 gave a great training, and attendees left feeling they had a better sense for how to recognize and respond to cases of human trafficking they encounter in their everyday lives.

Together we discussed what the airlines could do to prevent human trafficking. An idea that came up several times was to add human trafficking training to the already existing terrorism training, and to develop a standard procedure for flight attendants, pilots, dispatch, and other personnel to follow in cases of suspected human trafficking.

The training was blogged about on Free the Slaves' blog! Check it out: Airlines Should Be on Frontline of Anti-Human Trafficking Efforts

After the training ended, I spent the rest of the week at the Command Center, a building that had been generously provided for our use during our outreach campaign. Unfortunately, the snow prevented us from going out as much as planned, but we kept busy despite that. We spent our days scrubbing the web, looking at the pictures on escort ads, saving the ones that looked underage, and comparing them to pictures of missing children. Through that work, we were able to tip off the police, leading to the rescue of two children. I must admit, it was one of the most disturbing things I’ve ever done, looking at pictures of children, some of them badly beaten and bruised, for sale.

When the weather was clear enough, we took to the streets for our business outreach efforts. We went to hotels, 7-11’s—anywhere the staff was likely to come in contact with potential victims of human trafficking. We showed them pictures of missing kids and asked if they’d seen them. We then encouraged them to keep the posters, and explained that we believed some of these children may have been brought to Dallas by child sex traffickers. We gave them a list of indicators that sex trafficking might be happening in their hotel, and asked them to keep an eye out. Overall, the businesses we approached were very receptive.

This past week was an incredible experience. I have been indirectly involved in fighting human trafficking for ten years. This week, I was part of a direct effort that freed two children. I know it is something I will never forget.

Training flight attendants on Human Trafficking

2011-02-03T14:20:00.001-08:00

Monday, AAI coordinated with Deena Graves of Traffick911 to train over 50 flight attendants on human trafficking. Attendees learned how to recognize and report cases of human trafficking. The trainers also discussed topics like how traffickers control their victims, and the dangers of confronting a potential trafficker.

For those who missed the training, never confront a potential trafficker. If you suspect there may be a trafficking situation in flight, tell the pilot to call dispatch with a detailed description of the situation and the people involved. Dispatch will then contact the appropriate ground authorities, which may be ICE, FBI, and/or local police. Once you've landed, call the national human trafficking hotline: 888-3737-888 and report the situation.

If you see a potential trafficking situation on the ground, again, never confront a potential trafficker. Ask for a TSA Behavior Detection Officer and inform airport police.

Please add your name to our campaign to make human trafficking part of standard training for flight attendants. Sign on to our Change.org petition here.

Keep your eyes peeled for announcements of future trainings!

Orfanato Ninos y Ninas de Cristo, Dominican Republic

2011-01-24T12:42:00.000-08:00

Just returned late last night. The trip was very productive and was nonstop Friday through Sunday. Bottom line is that we really made a difference in the lives of 172 children - ranging from food security (health), holiday gift giving (child welfare), Lisa's acquisition of water heaters (infrastructure), electrical components to install the air conditioners that Lisa bought last summer (infrastructure), stocking their library with purchased Spanish books and encyclopedias (education) and so much more.

Someone in the group said it well in that many go in with an expectation of trying to endure through all the strife they see but in reality meet the most loving group of 172 children anyone would have ever imagined.

Daniel

Please visit the Airline Ambassadors Photo Gallery for more...

Human Trafficking at the Super Bowl

2011-01-12T11:00:00.000-08:00

What do you think of when you think about Super Bowl Sunday? Football, good food, friends, tailgating, funny commercials, and parties all come to mind. Here’s another one for the list: human trafficking. Some groups estimate that thousands of children will be trafficked in Dallas during the week of the Superbowl.

We were horrified to hear that number, and just as determined to do something about it. That’s why we are partnering with Traffick911 to fight human trafficking this football season. On January 31, we will help to train flight attendants and airport personnel to recognize and report cases of trafficking. There will also be a massive awareness campaign entitled "I'm Not Buying It".

You can help by spreading the word. Whether you’re texting, typing, or talking, tell everyone you know that human trafficking is happening on a major scale and we can help to end it.

If you see something suspicious, please call the national human trafficking hotline at: 1-888-3737-888.

Unrest in Haiti

2010-12-14T10:59:00.000-08:00

Dave Rivard writes to us from Haiti, describing the deteriorating situation:

12/08/10

Last night was pretty bad, today is worse. All airlines and borders are shut down. There is a complete (far as I’ve heard, blackout on news, excepting Metropol. A lot of gunfire and bombs et al. and an unsuccessful attempt to burn down several government buildings and the Kinam (right outside my window) last night.

The airport is completely locked down with no flights from ANYONE till further notice. Needless to say, all roads are curfewed, and we saw the police carry away a guy walking down the street. The ones visible to us are all blocked anyway with hundreds of burning tires—that’s just from our little neighborhood. When you think of it, the government won’t budge, MINUSTAH is verboten on the streets, so that only leaves the Haitian police in control. They retreated with their limited resources to their police stations, so you do have in fact an anarchic situation. All UN staffers and I would guess all major NGO’’s are completely locked down. Our neighbors are all sitting on their roofs watching a serious 4^th of July celebration, complete with live ordinance for the fireworks. Recon helicopters are overhead—is this on CNN?

12/13/10

There are still tires burning in the streets and smoke everywhere… even the police seem sympathetic to the protesters--which is worrying, since if the re-tally is not what is wanted, I fear we will have an all out revolution in this country. There is absolutely NO food in the grocery stores except for a few bottles of ketchup. Today I had the last of cereal we had at the apartments. There is no more food or water…. The UN is under complete lockdown. UN employees are ordered to stay in their apartments and commercial flights are not operating....

To see Dave's videos visit our Youtube channel here.

Somnang a Year Later

2010-10-28T22:02:00.000-07:00

Pinch me!!! Pinch me!!! Pinch me!!!

I've dreamt about this day since June - wanting to relive our day together, Somnang and I.

Mr. "Rock'' - our tuk-tuk driver - drove us to Kerry's house, and Somnang was taking a nap. Srey Mau - the house mother - brought her downstairs and just the sight of her "healed" me.

Of course I gave Kerry and her family a photobook of the pictures I had taken on my last visit to the orphanage and it was so interesting to observe Somnang looking at her pics of Oct 2009 when we found her naked, homeless, motherless and nameless under a house.

Now she's safe & secure, growing, learning, AND PLAYING! Yesterday we brought Somnang and two of her older sisters (now she is the youngest of nine at Kerry's house) to our hotel pool. Ahhhh. Squeals of delight - and that was just me! Then to the ice cream parlor.

Gotta run. We're off to Geraldine Cox's place to have lunch with her 100+ children there!

Deb Quigley
AAI Volunteer

Living on Trash

2010-09-29T12:47:00.000-07:00

I’ve been frustrated for the last seven days that ‘aukun,’ thank you, is one of the only words I know in Khmer. But I’ve found that being equipped with ‘thank-you’ is better than nothing, and I am grateful that the Cambodians we’ve met so far are so forgiving. Today we find ourselves on the outskirts of Siem Reap, a major Cambodian tourist town thanks to the nearby temples of Angkor Wat.

In the small community we have just driven into, our 4wheel-drive truck is the the only vehicle in sight, and the pot holes in the road made the experience closer to ‘off roading’ than driving. There is a small ‘store’ where a woman sells packaged sweets and some rice, although she explains through a translator that even that will be hard soon since her homemade roof is falling in.

This impoverished community’s livelihood is the nearby trash dump, which boasts tourist hotel trash, and most ‘commerce’ revolves around this harsh economic reality.

A visit from outsiders is not often seen and calls for an invitation from the village head. We crawl up a ladder to a one room house set eight feet off the ground on stilts for when the rains come. As always we are accompanied by children we’ve never met and some interested onlookers. The person in charge turns out to be an ancient-looking woman who holds the card to the rice distribution system managed by our guide, Kerry's, NGO called New Hope Cambodia.

Every other week the village head goes to the rice distribution station and gets extra sacks of rice for everyone in her community.

Most of those who have been lucky enough to find employment in this community are men who have been drafted into the Cambodian army. They are absent for long stretches of time and are paid about $50 a month. Their wives stay within the community and raise the children, occasionally collecting usable items or food from the nearby trash dump to live. Almost no one has a roof, let along a steady income.

As we sit with the village head, Kerry tries to explain through her translator (a middle schooler who lives with her at the NGO base) that she is very sorry that they have not been able to fix the village well or sponsor any new families. A humanitarian organization put in a well about 6 months ago, but they did not dig deep enough, even though the villagers tried to explain how to get below the toxic upper layer of dirt, and now they have a new well that does not function so they’re still pulling dirty water from the old well. This is enough to make Kerry cry, since she feels that this community has depended on her and she has let them down.

The village head looks a little confused by this blatant display of emotion in a culture where everyone has PTSD from the Khmer Rouge era, and it seems that only babies are given cultural permission to cry. But she smiles at Kerry and says that they are very grateful for the rice distribution and that it is okay, they are just glad we are here.

After our meeting we donate mosquito nets for the entire village, and when a guy selling frozen pops walks by, we can’t help but buy enough for the local kids. We ask Kerry if next time she comes she’ll bring toothbrushes to combat the sugar. She says, of course.

Emma Blaxter
AAI Program Development

Rebuilding in Cauquenes, Chile

2010-08-28T11:54:00.001-07:00

When an Airline Ambassadors team visited the town of Cauquenes at the epicenter of the huge earthquake that hit Chile on February 27th, we were welcomed by 82 year-old Ilma who was still sweeping the floor of her partially destroyed home to keep it clean, appreciative of what she still had, despite hardly having walls or a roof. She and her husband had lost everything they owned.

The couple had nothing to offer except grapes growing in their backyard, which they gladly picked and shared with us.

In agreement with the local municipal authorities, AAI decided to help rebuild their house and we are pleased to report that their home is now fully rebuilt - a wood construction that is earthquake resistant.

Other people's homes are at last being rebuilt under a government program that was long to get to the devastated community, where residents told us AAI was practically the only NGO that had been able to visit the epicenter so soon after the earthquake.

Corey Aungst
AAI Mission Coordinator

So near, yet so far...

2010-07-31T12:20:00.000-07:00

As soon as we drive over the border, it is very evident we are stepping on foreign soil. Forget clean, sterile, and orderly, say hello to dirt, disorganization and poverty. The road that parallels the city provides instant saddening views of run-down shacks strewn down mountain sides along with their garbage. As we drive father down the coast to Ensenada, still in view is the ever present poverty, but the ocean views are spectacular.

We have been conducting missions here for over two years. These missions provide food and needed supplies to two different orphanages. The orphanages have approximately 40-50 children at any given time, some with special needs. Some of the children have been dropped off at the orphanages doors by parents too poor to feed them and more than likely have experienced some physical or sexual abuse. But they are the fortunate ones, at least they do not survive by living off the garbage dumps.

The downturn of the economy and violence between the warring drug cartels have all but dried up any support these orphanages used to receive. Too many times we have come down to find they were out of propane or the electricity was going to be cut off. Airline Ambassadors has set up a fund called the Mexican Orphans Fund through which we have been able to help out one of the orphanages, Casa de Paz, for the last 20 months with their electricity and propane. They have been trying to be more self-sufficient, but they still desperately need our help.

The other orphanage is called Pequenos Hermanos and we were saddened to find out on our last mission in July that their needs well exceeded what we originally thought. They had been cooking up rice, adding water to it and serving it as "rice soup" to the children. Our goal now is to be able to provide help and needed supplies to both orphanages through our fund.

Most of the volunteers that go on these missions are repeat volunteers. It is easy to bond with the children and each other. Once they see the needs of these children it is easy to get hooked. Besides providing the help, we are also fortunate to stay in a gated beach front privately owned home. We make the time to enjoy the local cuisine and spectacular ocean views. The needs presented to us are overwhelming and never-ending but we do what we can a little bit at a time. After the missions are done, we are exhausted and filled with mixed emotions of fulfillment and sadness.

As we drive back over the border again it is hard to believe such a foreign land is only two hours away.

Becky Gahman
AAI Mexico Mission Coordinator

A Trip to Mirebalais

2010-07-19T18:49:00.000-07:00

The prevailing poverty continues to overwhelm me each time I return to Haiti, and the last trip was no exception despite the few slight improvements made to the country's infrastructure.

There really is no way to prepare those traveling with me what to expect, as full realization of the chaos caused by the earthquake has to be encountered first hand. The poverty is too enormous, too widespread. New groups often get the feeling of: "Where do we begin?" It would be hard not to feel moved, frustrated, even futile.

The difficult journey north to Mirebalais gave everyone time to reflect on the severity of the situation. By the time we arrived at the Orphanage for God's Children the members of the group were naturally disposed to be captivated by the warmth of the children, demonstrating the effects of what a little kindness can do.

We set to work with purpose creating a virtual classroom. You can imagine the buzz of excitement and the collective curiosity generated by the forty individual laptops various AAI groups had donated. One of the older children commented that "Airline Ambassadors is taking us out of the stone age".

We spent the next day training Haitian teachers on the use of the computers, and suggesting ideas for a curriculum as well as setting up educational seminars for the children. Sue Hanna gave a stimulating biology lesson to kick off proceedings. The children were like little sponges, soaking in every detail. One child mentioned that he "didn't think my body was like animal bodies".

Education is clearly a crucial agenda for the development and future of Haiti.

Corey Aungst
AAI Mission Coordinator

All Creatures - Great and Small...

2010-07-12T07:58:00.001-07:00

A passionate advocate for animals, Airline Ambassadors volunteer Kathy Casper has five dogs of her own. When she went to Haiti on an AAI humanitarian mission she met "Spy", a young Rottweiller owned by Gael Antoine, AAI's Haiti Logistics Director. Spy had been hit by a car, which had shattered the bone in his hind leg. Fearing the leg would have to be amputated, Kathy took the dog back to the US for treatment, paying the $150 in airline charges...This is her report back:

Just got home. Spy met with two doctors and one of the best orthopedic surgeons and had x-rays. Surprisingly, the advice was that the leg is healing nicely, and that surgery was unnecessary. He will walk with a limp because a pin is not an option as his bone was shattered, but new cartilage and bone is growing back. However, the dog is in no pain at all. They had him on an IV with antibiotics and a list of other things for two days and he is ready to go home to Haiti.

We also did all the vaccines, so he is good to go. He has been a good patient and everyone loves him. Now I have to work on getting him back home. Ideally, it would have been great to have an x-ray machine in Haiti, but we certainly would not have gotten an expert orthopedic dog surgeon to work on Spy, so at the end of the day, Spy is a healthier dog.

Kathy Casper
AAI Volunteer

New Hope: A Life Transformed

2010-06-25T14:17:00.000-07:00

I just spent the morning with Kerry at a place called New Hope in Cambodia. It's a very impoverished community that this year has started to send its children to school for their first time.

Last October, an Airline Ambassadors team identified a little girl in this village who had no name and no hair (the villagers called her "No Hair") - the daughter of a karaoke bar worker (involving sex work) who didn't want or couldn't raise her. She was a little two-year old who waited for her mother every day, just waiting, waiting, waiting.

She is now safe in Kerry's loving home, speaking Australian English (Kerry's from Brisbane) and sooo eager to learn, so funny, so very full of life and hope. And she has HAIR. Her name is now Somnang - meaning "New Hope" or "Lucky" in Khmer.

I got to play with her today trying not to show my happy tears to see with my own eyes such a precious life transformed. I am a witness. Tomorrow we will bring her to our hotel to swim - Kerry said she's a little fish.

Thank you everyone for your efforts, time, passion, and compassion.

Deborah Quigley
AAI Volunteer

Hope (& Tragedy) for Salvadorean Heart Children

2010-06-23T20:32:00.000-07:00

Airline Ambassadors was honored to be a part of the recent Gift of Life project that sent 40 Salvadorean children for heart surgery to 13 different countries.

Each of the children was recognized in a special ceremony before leaving El Salvador. Airline Ambassadors had been able to work with American Airlines' Miles for Kids in Need program to facilitate the departure of 18 of the children to hospitals in the United States.

The most memorable part of the trip was visiting little Gerson's house. The family truly has nothing. His mother's hug for each of us as we departed was especially poignant as she was putting all her faith and trust in us to take care of her little boy.

Glenda and Stephanie Straub joined this effort as a mother and daughter team and participated at the ceremony, aid distribution, and as part of AAI's escort to Dallas Fort Worth.

Pattye and Michelle from American Airline's Miles for Kids in Need met us in Dallas and helped facilitate SIX connections!

Margaret Whitehead worked her usual magic and sent AAI escorts to facilitate the flight to Miami - David Coleman, Isabel Moss and Kathy Gonzalez.

I met Brenda Small of Gift of Life yesterday, as she returned to LA with the last of the kids. Bob Haynes, one of our pilot members, had bought each of the kids teddy bears and upgraded them all to first class!

Most of the children Airline Ambassadors escorted out have already had their surgeries and are doing fine, but nine-month old Brian Zameta (photo), who traveled all the way to Jordan, died of kidney failure shortly after his operation. He joined little Christopher Alexander Aquino Castaneda who had died before even leaving El Salvador.

We are planning an AAI mission back to help the families in August or September.

Nancy Rivard
President, Airline Ambassadors

Music for a Better Life

2010-05-28T13:03:00.000-07:00

Ecuador's Music for Life program that AAI supports by facilitating the donation of musical instruments by the Inter-American Development Bank, was a treat for the ears.

The school provides a musical education to children from families with very limited resources who would otherwise not have the opportunity.

It was fascinating to watch children as young as six working alone or with a mentor (often a musician with the country's Youth Orchestra) in sound-proofed booths. The cacophony I expected before I entered the school turned into the faint sounds of well-played violins, flutes, clarinets and the gorgeously rich sound of cellos reaching me through the doors of the booths.

One child of about eight, meditatively leaning on his cello waiting for a lesson to complete behind a classroom door, illustrated the school's notion of teaching children discipline and patience.

Although the children come from under-privileged homes, studies have shown that by learning to play a musical instrument their chances of reaching university level increase by 10%.

Joseph Mutti
AAI Administration

Compassion in Action

2010-05-26T08:36:00.000-07:00

American Airlines flight attendant Brian McGovern recently escorted Ever, age 13, a triple amputee, and Cynthia, age 9, who received a prosthetic leg, back to Sao Paolo, Brazil. The children were escorted part of the way by F/A Gina Ozuna who flew from her home in California to Atlanta just to escort these children to Miami where Brian took over. The following are his comments.

-------------------

The kids are winners who won my heart.

We traveled on AA 995 on the 26 of April from Miami to Sao Paulo. The first officer, George, offered his help right away after I explained what I was doing. He waited in Sao Paulo outside customs and immigrations for us to make sure everything went OK. He also waited in Sao Paulo on the other side of immigration to make sure I made my return flight and walked me to the gate.

On board the entire crew were incredible. Marina, Bridget and Walter kept the children's dinners warm while they slept, offered cookies and other treats, and even helped me brush Cynthia's hair to make her pretty for arrival in Sao Paulo. Walter waited at the exit of customs to ensure we cleared without any complications.

I was overwhelmed by their help and sincere warmth. They truly cared.

When I arrived at the airport in Sao Paulo for my return flight to Miami, lead agent Eduardo was so on top of things he had me ready for a fast efficient check in. He walked me to the immigration line and since I was in uniform assisted me to the front. I was treated like a celebrity.

The help from, the doctors, the host family, Candice from Childsping, Merrily from Airline Ambassadors, was the most important part for Ever and
Cynthia's trip. My part was, which was my honor, was to get them home, and what a
nice trip it was because of the everyone's kindness.

Brian V. McGovern
American Eagle MIA Emp# 614563

A Haitian Dream

2010-05-01T09:31:00.000-07:00

The first person I spoke to, as I left the airport to enter the cacophony of Port-au-Prince, was a woman seeking to offer me taxi service. While we were driving I asked her the natural questions about "l'événement" (the event) as Haitians discretely refer to the earthquake, seeking to put it behind them by using a non-specific word.

She told me she had lost her husband and that her dream was to own a tent where she and her new-born could live. A simple enough dream, but a huge challenge amidst the desperation of two million homeless seeking shelter.

As the car negotiated the mountain of rubble that is today's Port-au-Prince I found myself wondering what her dreams had been before the earthquake when her husband, alive and hopeful, cradled their new daughter in his warm arms.

Joseph Mutti
AAI Administration

People who never miss an opportunity to show affection for others

2010-04-10T15:50:00.000-07:00

On my way to one of the orphanages I met Michael Brewer. He lost three homes and two kids in the earthquake. Here he is pictured with Richard, a very loving child who lost a leg under a collapsed wall. Michael has already arranged a prosthetic replacement for him.

Mike's a quiet man with few words who has been living in Haiti the last 10 years helping abandoned street kids with his organization "Haiti Street Kids Inc". He took us to Solino, a section of Port-au-Prince that houses the poorest of the poor. What immediately surprised me was that amidst the dirt and wretchedness people seemed genuinely happy. I guess when you have nothing, you have nothing to worry about. The search for material things in life seems to bring nothing but stress and unsought responsibility.

It was in Solino that I met Benjy Salomon. Mike had found him begging in the streets as a 6 year old and took him in. Benjy is now 21 and is always there to help me and watch my back whenever I'm Haiti. On my last visit he picked me up at the airport and gave me a big hug just resting his head on my chest for about 2 mins. He lives in a tent that is pristine and clean with twigs shaped into shelves to accommodate the little stuffed animals I have given him. He is one of the many street kids that Michael has given a chance to build a future for themselves.

Michael has done wonderful things in Haiti. He has been the victim of vicious slurs because he doesn't insert himself into the norm, simply getting down to the work at hand ignoring the pettiness and jealousies of some of the international community in Port-au-Prince.

It is thanks to Mike and his deep humanity that I have come to love the people of Haiti who, like him, never miss an opportunity to show affection for another human being.

Ruth Matranga
AAI Volunteer

Learning to make better judgements...

2010-04-07T16:08:00.001-07:00

The Belinda Stronach Foundation continues to provide Airline Ambassadors with a weekly flight of 70,000lbs of aid on aircraft from Toronto to Port-au-Prince.

On two occasions, as I've opened the newly arrived cargo, I've wondered: "What on earth am I going to do with 1,000 dolls in this post-earthquake devastation that demands so much higher priorities?" or "Good to get flashlights, but so many thousands of them?"

Well, out of the unlikeliest gift comes salvation.

The dolls, it turns out, are very good physio-therapeutic devices for children who have lost limbs or been otherwise injured. They've been a godsend for hospitals, clinics and orphanages tending to such kids.

And I'm told by grassroots women's organizations that flooding the tent encampments with flashlights has made it very difficult for prowlers to grab women in the dark and rape them.

So, I now reserve judgment on what comes in on these flights from the wonderful folks at Belinda Stronach Foundation and thank them from the bottom of my heart for what they continue to do for the people of Haiti in the unlikeliest of ways.

Dave Rivard
AAI Board Member

Further to the unfounded rumors of violence against foreigners in Haiti

2010-03-09T12:23:00.000-08:00

We tell all of our relief workers to come to Haiti first as trusting humanitarians and secondly as a volunteers seeking to put that humanitarianism into practice.

Engage the people on the street and spend your money lavishly. Haiti’s future economic condition will determine if this whole effort is a success or not.

According to the US Southern Command, the countryside of Haiti has hardly ever had an incident in which a visitor has been harmed. Port-au-Prince is obviously different, but has now changed as everyone seeks to help each other. Now is the time to wholly experience a unique culture that is possibly the most spiritual, and poorest, on earth.

Dave Rivard
AAI Board Member

What made me cry today...

2010-03-08T08:54:00.000-08:00

Every day here in Haiti I see utterly destitute people looking the best they can under the circumstances

Today I met a young man by the name of Nixon pulling himself up the broken streets past the rubble of his school which collapsed and killed 4 of the teachers and 150 of his school-mates. Using a broken old walker and dragging his legs behind, he had a triumphant smile on his face.

I also saw graffitI on a wall downtown amid the ruins of everything: "MICHELLE OBAMA!"

Daniel Susott

AAI Medical Director

A Response to Issues of Safety

2010-03-06T08:17:00.000-08:00

I would like to address the stories coming out of Haiti regarding safety concerns.

Three weeks ago I made the trek from Haiti to the Dominican Republic. I felt much safer in the Haitian countryside on the journey than I did when I got into the DR.

Some of it was fear, but much of it is because I believe all people are inherently good and it is only their inner strength that will prevent the soul from being corrupted or made evil by the outside world. In Haiti, because of the greater rate of poverty and a class system where people are perceived and treated as lower caste in comparison to those in the DR, often their soul is much stronger because at that point even if they don't have money - and now often not their homes - they have their dignity.

I remember stopping for gas with my motorcycle and getting a soda pop - the Haitians were all so nice, children and adults so engaging that my friend and I couldn't help but to give them money and my last Power Bar.

Daniel Sheth
AAI Board Member

Petionville, Haiti

2010-03-05T16:57:00.000-08:00

Today the maid came home. She lost her left leg and broke her right arm in the earthquake. Her eldest son and husband are dead. We loaded her up with stuff including Marian Edey's back pillow (left at a meeting in Sausalito), a blanket borrowed from an airline, and lots of food. She may be moving to an "orphanage" with her sons (twins David and Daniel - pictured with their mother) to recover.

One of our friends known for his work with street youth has been given a large hunk of land for 75 kids, supported by UNICEF, where we hope to set up a dome factory. Both Pacific Domes (www.pacificdomes.com) and Ashoka fellow Helen Samuels (www.greendomeprojects.org) are looking to set up dome-production facilities here in Haiti and we are working with both.

Pacific Domes has been making domes for 40 years (go Asha Deliverance!) and has already donated 30 domes for various sites around Haiti.

I am sponsoring one 60-foot dome to house the government (30 people and desks) while they get back on their feet. I am doing this out of my home-equity loan, and am grateful for whatever assistance people can provide by donating to Airline Ambassadors at www.airlineamb.org.

We have established a volunteer base here where Ashoka fellows from around the globe can come and donate their expertise.

Daniel Susott
AAI Medical Director

Grandma Taylor Lends a Hand

2010-02-23T15:21:00.000-08:00

82-year-old Grandma Taylor called me from Maryland to say that she collected 90 boxes of workman's gloves to protect the hands of those clearing rubble and debris in Haiti. She was concerned that those laboring in the ruins may suffer cuts and infections from the wreckage. Andy Walton arranged for the transport of the goods to Florida, and by Saturday, she assures us, the gifts from Grandma will be protecting the hands of disaster relief workers clearing the rubble in Haiti.

Daniel Susott

AAI Medical Director

The Belinda Stronach Foundation's Precious Weekly Cargo

2010-02-16T11:34:00.000-08:00

Tonight we are more or less in emergency mode with people at the door vying for a little food or water. The Belinda Stronach Foundation cannot underestimate how valuable their food shipments to Airline Ambassadors have been.

When even the police consider themselves lucky to shake you down for a case of water (they’ll take less if you tell them to come by the next week) things are indeed bleak in the whole city.

When I see armies staging and building giant new compounds everywhere around the airport, it only means one thing to me. It’s a shame the global community can’t put ALL its efforts into building an economy rather than building a fortress.

We are a minority of small NGO’s not living in the fortress and not engaging in the 16 cattle call food distribution points (80 lb. bags of rice that safely slide down a hill where they are gathered by fighting and desperate people). Do the math: just 16 food distribution points in a two million person area the size of the San Francisco peninsula with almost no economy...

We thank the Foundation profusely for its precious deliveries.

Dave Rivard
AAI Board Member

Filling in the Gaps...

2010-02-12T23:14:00.000-08:00

The smell of death is strong here tonight after a day of national prayer marking the first month after the January 12 earthquake. The hot, humid weather ensures the rapid decomposition of the thousands of bodies still buried under the rubble. It pervades the air everywhere hanging over the hundreds of thousands of living, praying, gently singing citizens of Port-au-Prince.

It is 2am now and in a few hours we will be distributing almost 80,000 pounds of food and water to our 70,000 desperate neighbors. Luckily we have help: the 82nd Airborne, which will help to ensure crowd control, has been BEYOND AWESOME, giving us hope that we may yet have a peace-keeping force we can all be proud of....

We are in 3 days of prayer after the tragedy and before the rains make it an even greater tragedy. As a small non-government organization we are filling in gaps and supporting programs of all kinds in very significant ways to the best of our very stretched resources.

With tomorrow's distribution, Airline Ambassadors' aid delivered to date will reach 2 million pounds of food, water, medicine, tents, etc, combined with facilitating the transport of over 600 medical personnel on 15 flights from the United States. We are also supporting as best we can the highest-rated public-private hospital in Haiti: CDTI (formerly Sacred Heart Hospital), which promises to be the best teaching hospital in the country for orthopedic after care (amputations and RE-amputations because of infection, breaks, etc). It's amazing what the volunteers have accomplished so far.

Daniel Susott
AAI Medical Director

Return to Solino

2010-02-10T09:36:00.000-08:00

Nancy Rivard, President of Airline Ambassadors International, traveled with Sean Penn in Port-au-Prince yesterday. She took him to a very poor city neighborhood called Solino (where this photo was taken), where there is an orphanage for Restavek children - orphans who have been hired out as essentially slaves to survive - for the past 11 years.

When we were setting up our initial Airline Ambassadors medical outreach effort right after the quake Solino was the very first place we sent a team, which was the first medical team that had reached them. The news that Sean Penn has promised to build a clinic there is very exciting.

In other news the Airline Ambassadors has been working with USAID (the lead agency in directing all U.S. aid to Haiti) to keep the doors of the irreplaceable CDTI Hospital open. Dr Savain, the principle owner of CDTI (a true saint) is laboring to keep it operational with his own funds, and with no help monetarily so far. Just a lot of promises, hopes, ideas. Dave Rivard (Nancy's husband) is working with USAID officials so as not to lose this most precious resource, with AAI Haiti president Dr Roger Jean-Charles coordinating the efforts with the Haitian government. Keep this project in your prayers.

Jim

Back Home...Mixed Emotions

2010-02-05T18:22:00.000-08:00

Back home, I can't describe my appreciation for the "simple joys" that before I had always taken for granted: food, running water, clean drinking water, toilets, and a WARM shower! My last day in Haiti, as I gathered my clothes and supplies to donate to some new friends, I realized just why my hair had never really felt clean, even after a good garden hose shower: the "conditioner" that I had been using all week actually turned out to be body lotion. Woops!! Yet another draw-back to showering in the dark by flashlight.

Leaving Haiti and all those still suffering has been more difficult than I had imagined. I have so many mixed emotions right now. I'm so grateful to be back home with my wonderful family whom I have missed so much. Yet, I can't help but feel an enormous amount of guilt for those that I have left behind. My time there feels too short, with so much left unresolved and unfinished.

Regardless, I am thankful for the time I was able to spend there and humbled by all that I experienced in such a short time. I will try very hard to remember it every day. It's a good reminder to stay grounded and appreciative of ALL that we have to be thankful. I hope this experience can be the first of many more.

Emily

Two Births and a Death

2010-02-03T13:48:00.000-08:00

Another long, busy day in surgery full of fracture repairs and wound debridement. The smell of the 3 week old wounds is overwhelming. Poor sanitization conditions combined with long hot days spent in crowded tents with little to no ventilation. Thank heavens for Vicks Vapo rub!

I left the hospital around 8pm to return to camp. We now have running water! Immediately headed straight for a shower, which really consists of bathtub and garden hose pulled through the bathroom window. It's freezing cold, but I can't wait to "come clean" of today. I yell for someone outside to "turn on the hose!" and not more than 2 minutes later hear a voice outside running down the alley & coming toward the clinic. A nurse from the hospital pounds on the door for me to "come quick" to the hospital..."a stat c-section". Still soaking wet, I throw on scrubs, call for Sandra (the other anesthetist & native Haitian), and we follow her back to the hospital.

We quickly gather whatever supplies we can find through all of the mess of medical equipment just shipped in (thank you to all who donated!). Turns out there are in fact two c-sections, but only one surgeon. The most critical goes first: umbilical cord wrapped around the baby's neck. Spinal block and within 4 minutes the baby is pulled out, blue, completely limp, and almost lifeless. It was then that we realized that there was no one available to take care of the baby, who is cyanotic and silent. Sandra takes over care of mom, while I attempt to stimulate and suction the baby screaming for help the entire time. A Canadian ER doctor hears me and comes to the rescue. Together we stimulate and suction large amounts of aspirated meconium, and soon....crying. The most beautiful sound in the world!

Sandra and I must quickly get ready for the second c/sec. I wheel the last newborn into the room with us. Again, there are so many things wrong about the conditions we must work under, but we must just adapt and adjust to what we have. There is no NICU. New babies and moms get sent back outside to the yard (literally) just after delivering. This baby was nowhere near stable enough to be left unattended so came in to witness a birth after just being born.

Sandra & I were getting ready to do a spinal block on the next mom when a code was called on a baby that had been rushed into the hospital from the "tent village". She just cried and pleaded (in Creole) to help her baby. The infant was intubated and coded for over 20 minutes before time of death was called. I tried to hide behind my glasses and mask as I cried right there in front of everyone. It was unbearable. And still, after experiencing such heartache, I had to return to the OR to finish the last c-section.

I'm thankful I stayed. As difficult and cold as it felt at the time, I needed a "happy ending". I got just that. One loud, crying, healthy baby. As two new lives were brought into the world tonight, one was taken away...

The hardest part about tonight was wondering and questioning myself, "what if?" ; "what if this baby had been in the US?". ...same baby, same illness, only with better medical access. Would the outcome have been the same?". I heavily doubt it. That's what makes it so hard...wondering why some are so fortunate and privileged, just by the geographical location in which we have been born; while others are born into nothing. It's just seems so harsh and unjust.

Emily

CDTI Hospital & AAI Cement Agreement

2010-02-03T11:19:00.000-08:00

Blogging from the OR lounge at St. Mary-Corwin Hospital back in Pueblo in between cases. I talked to Dr Jean-Charles (Airline Ambassadors Haiti President) this morning. He's at CDTI Hospital formalizing a memorandum of understanding between CDTI and Airline Ambassadors to continue keeping them supplied with medical professionals. That cements the process Dr Roger started when he dropped me off at CDTI on the day I arrived 5 days after the disaster.

He says the surgery volume is tapering down now. Time to get the non-surgical medical pipeline open at full throttle.

That's all for today.

Jim Smith

Infections, long-term immobilization, severe malnutrition & dehydration

2010-02-02T13:31:00.000-08:00

Sorry no update yesterday. It was one of my longest, most challenging days so far. The public health clinic was closed because it was Sunday, so I spent the entire day in the OR doing anesthesia.

It still amazes me that nearly 3 weeks after "the event" many with broken bones and large wounds are just now getting to the hospital for treatment. At this late timing, outlooks are poor and infection is rampant. I've never seen so many gangrenous limbs.

Anesthesia is difficult because no one will allow general anesthesia. No one wants to go to sleep. They are all afraid that we might amputate their legs while they are "asleep". Their fears are understandable (during the early response after the earthquake, out of desparation and lack of resources, many doctors had to resort to amputation to save the patient) and so, my skills in spinal blocks have gotten lots of practice.

I feel like I am working at the United Nations. In one case, I might have a surgeon from France, one from China, a circulating nurse from Thialand....oh, and an anesthetist from Illinois. It has really been remarkable to see so many people of such different backgrounds come together for the same united cause.

The hospital, though it has suffered severe damage, is one of the few hospitals in Haiti left standing. There are many great big cracks in the concrete and foundation and some parts of it have fallen, but just the fact that some of it remains "serviceable" is more than most other buildings surrounding the epicentre of the earthquake.

Aftershocks are still occurring, though I haven't felt any since I've been here, which makes working in the hospital a bit scary at times.

With so many hundreds injured and so much damage to the hospital, there is no room for patients. Instead, they have created "tent villages" to which patients have been assigned. Rows of tents fill the entire yard within the confines of the hospital gates. Tents are so close they are touching. There are so many sick people, it's often hard for us to locate patients within the tent village to be able to bring them to surgery. Patients have become identified by their tent number.

Pre-op and inital ER is outside too. There are even tents still set up as operating rooms outside from the first days when limbs were being amputated outside. Tonight I even ran a code on a women rushed in from the "village", her family yelling 15! 15! 15! (her tent #). She was carried to the outdoor OR tent, which consists of 2 large blue tarps and one dimly-lit ancient floor lamp. The OR table is nothing more than a slab of metal on blocks. It was really a disturbing scene; as if I was back in the Civil War era..,only this is 2010. Like nothing I could have imagined I would ever witness in my entire life.

This is Haiti right now. The scariest part is that this is not temporary and not going away any time soon. In fact, I'm afraid for the weeks ahead. I'm afraid of infections, effects of long-term immobilization, severe malnutrition & dehydration. While Haitian people are very peaceful and appreciative, in the face of hunger and starvation, people become desperate. I don't ever feel unsafe, though. People recognize the need for doctors & nurses and are extremely grateful for help.

I randomly ran into my Haitian friend, Frandy, at my clinic the other day! The world (& Haiti) is so small.

Emily

Landstuhl Bound Once More...

2010-01-31T18:39:00.000-08:00

It is difficult for me to put my thoughts into words (which is so unlike me) from our Airline Ambassador mission to visit the wounded soldiers at Landstuhl, Germany again - this time from 24 to 31Jan. We were unable to visit the wounded in the hospital wards, but are hoping to be able to get approval for that at some point in the future. However, just as important as any visit to a troop (which I was told can describe one person, or many) in the hospital .. is to spend quality time with those who are at the USO "Wounded Warrior" center. This is where we made dinner for anywhere from 50 to 80 troops the night we served Mexican food.

It was so wonderful to have all the Valentine's messages from complete strangers to hand out and I really want to extend my gratitude to those who took the time to write and send them to me. As you can see from the photo, there were plenty of Valentine's goodies to share.

There were many stories shared, each as vitally important as the other. Please keep in mind that Landstuhl is the place the troops go from the battlefield. From there, they either go back "down range" or to the States for further treatment. Often they are only at Landstuhl for a maximum of 2 weeks. This means it is a place of transition ... Some of the guys and gals we spoke with did not feel their injuries (whether mental or physical) were that "bad". To have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder because of your experiences can be so hard.

The volunteers who were with me on this trip, are new to Airline Ambassadors. Amy and Debra were phenomenal in the way they interacted with the troops, and you would have thought they had been doing this for years. There really is so much more I could say about the trip .. but just know that I am thankful I was able to "show up" and make a difference for our wounded soldiers and from learning more and more what they sacrifice .. and how much they have to cope with upon their return.

Robin

On the Way Out...

2010-01-31T11:03:00.000-08:00

Lots of things happened the morning I left:

Saw fellow Health4haiti volunteer/co-organizer Karla Prentiss at the airport as she was leaving with Medishare team on the same plane that had just delivered me 20,000 pounds of surgical supplies from a list I submitted on my deployment 2 weeks ago. She worked in the command center of the University of Miami's large field hospital at the airport this past week and sounds like was as indispensable to them as she is to our organization in Pueblo. She introduced me to a neurosurgeon going out with her whom she had had to 'pull out of the operating room where he was doing brain surgery this morning' to get him to the plane. (I think she let him finish his surgery...).

I walked the airforce forklifts with the pallets of stuff over to our trucks myself prior to getting on my own flight out.

May have found a new doc to take my place as medical director/organizer for our rapidly developing and robust supply and distribution network of medical personnel and equipment on the ground in Haiti (Airline Ambassadors International), now just two weeks old. This will help Dave Rivard of Airline Ambassadors and AAI's Haiti representative on the ground Dr Roger Jean-Charles immensely.

Made link with medical director for LDS Charities. Offered them assistance with our knowledge of pockets of need for medical team deployment. Dave offered our trucks to bring in the load of relief supplies brought in yesterday on our Airline Ambassadors partnering with United charter flight to our house/command center to get them off the airport and keep them from going into the black hole of 'unclaimed supplies'. Found out that they are also adopting CDTI hospital to help them keep U.S. medical personnel and supplies coming (my principal project since I arrived in Haiti).

What a relief to hear that such a large (we're talking MEGA-large) NGO is recognizing this state-of-the-art hospital for the resource it is. I have great faith in LDS charities for the mammoth work that they do in the world of humanitarian aid. They are probably the most highly respected NGO for their reliability from what I have heard from others and from Dave.

Dr Jim

The "Event"

2010-01-30T11:45:00.000-08:00

My medical group has now teamed up with groups that provides all various needs. One group cooks and serves food, one group of contractors and engineers covers construction and rebuilding, and my team provides a medical care and public health clinic. Together, we are trying to serve the Haitian people and enable them to rebuild from the earthquake (or, as they refer to it, "the event"...no one wants any reminder of the earthquake).

Now that the initial help is filtering out. We are now left fighting old fractures, infection, and severe malnutrition...the worst cases imaginable.

Right now, my time is divided between the clinic and anesthesia at the hospital at night. The public health clinic I worked at today saw over 400 people between
about 7 doctors. Many of these people have never received medical care in their life,
so they are so very appreciate of anything. I started an IV on a 2 month old that was terribly dehydrated and took her over to the hospital.

Gotta go. Internet is running out.

Emily

Last Day in Haiti

2010-01-30T08:55:00.000-08:00

Today we got to see Jacque Edouard Alexis, the former Prime Minister. His university, Quisqueya, the best in Haiti, was completely flattened by the quake. 22 people were killed, including the vice-chancellor. Mr. Alexis said that it was lucky that it was at a time when most people were gone. There was a group of educators in front of his house this morning sitting on chairs having a meeting about getting schools started again.

We then went to he and his wife Frederika's old residence, which is where she has moved her woman's center, which was also flattened. She was in the building at the time, but survived. We introduced her to Dr. Bob Hilgers, a gynecological oncologist from Louisville, KY. He was planning to come here with me before the quake hit to meet her and discuss starting a cervical cancer screening pilot project in her woman's center there. Bob is so keen on getting this going in Haiti that he came down anyway to join me here. He presented his recommendations to she and Michelle, who runs the center for her.

The program in Gonaives will be a trial. If it goes well, Bob thinks in about a year it can be started in other cities in Haiti. Bob will come down personally with others of our team to help train the midwives and nurses. He suggests starting with three. He said "this needs to be a woman's project, carried out by women for women in order for it to be successful".

From Kentucky, Dr Hilgers can read the digital camera pictures of the cervixes to advise who to treat and who not to. The women were very excited. I think it gave them hope today to have him paint such a positive picture of something in the future for Haiti to get their minds off the despair at hand for a minute.

Another 16 folks came in from Chicago today, one Orthopedic surgeon, 11 fire-fighters from Denver, 2 providers from Ohio and 2 from Pennsylvania. We organized them into 4 outreach teams and they spent the afternoon at our 'command house' going through the supplies we scored at the USAID warehouse the other day putting it into kits for them to work from. We plan to deploy them tomorrow to new sites around the city.

Interestingly, the two from Ohio had a contact in Mirebalais (up in the mountains toward the central plateau). They called him (he is a minister there) when they got here and he came down to PAP to talk to them about whether they might want to come there. It turns out that their little church clinic has 56 refugees from here to take care of. They had a doctor from Ohio who went back yesterday. I asked him if he would like us to send one our teams there for the week. He was quite pleased. They will be getting more doctors on Monday, but this will cover them over this weekend. A new partnership has been forged. The two from Ohio went with him along with two of the Denver fire-fighters this afternoon. We have fielded our first team outside the city.

I turned over my Airline Ambassador team managing duties to Greg Gourgue and Dave Rivard tonight.

Tomorrow I will return on the United flight bringing in our next group of 17 doctors and nurses and return to Chicago. Hopefully home Sunday.

Take nothing for Granted...

2010-01-28T11:40:00.000-08:00

Conditions are worse than imaginable. The entire city is in ruins. The streets are lined with make-shift tents. Even families with houses that still stand choose to live in the streets for fear of after-shocks. Recently orphaned children sit blank-stared
on sidewalks just lost.

As we drove to the hospital, the smells are overwhelming. Many bodies remain trapped under rubble...it has now been over 2 weeks.

My first night, I was woken up to someone from the hospital across the street calling for the "blonde-hair anesthesia". There are two anesthetists (myself included) in our team. I grabbed my new-found CRNA friend and ran next door. There was a stat c-section at the hospital. The conditions are unbelievable. Make-shift ORs with out-dated drugs that I have only read about. But we have an anesthesia machine!

This morning I worked in a public health clinic. 6 of us assessed over 250 Haitian men, women and children. Later in the afternoon I went back to the hospital to help with anesthesia.

Tomorrow more surgeries.

Take nothing for granted.

Emily Zimmerman

Tired...but another medical team on the way

2010-01-28T08:51:00.000-08:00

Very tired tonight. This will be short. Helped Dr Roger get his report done for the Minister of Health today. He did a nice job of describing the situation at CDTI hospital (yesterday's blog) to the minister, and suggesting a good option: Government provides assistance to CDTI which in turn creates a public wing for patients who cannot pay.

Got to have a real meal up at Roger's house while we worked on the report. Haitian food is good.

Downloaded the manifest for tomorrow's United Airlines flight in. Will be picking up 23 people. This time NO surgeons. All E.R. physicians, Internal Medicine, Family Practice, Pediatricians, Tropical medicine specialists, a PA, EMTs and paramedics, 3 logistics people, and a DENTIST! (I've been trying to get a dentist to come with us to Gonaives for the last 5 years).

I think we will be forming 4 or 5 mobile outreach medical teams tomorrow.

Jim Smith

Ernst Leo

2010-01-25T11:00:00.000-08:00

A very gentle, eloquent man. He lost his wife of 10 years, his 5 year old daughter. His 7 year old daughter, Christine (pictured with Ernst), lost her right arm. She says she is eager to get back to school and is practicing writing with her left hand.

I was handing out bottles of water to the patients and families in a ward at the General Hospital of Port au Prince, Haiti. Ernst thanked me for the aid that we brought and for coming to help him and his people. I replied that it was a privilege to be there and added that my husband wasn't really happy that I came, that he was kind of upset because he felt it was so dangerous to be there with the aftershocks.

"Do you mean that you sacrificed your marriage to come and help me and our people?"

"Well, I hope not . . ."

We continued to chat for a while and then I left.

A little while later Ernst came looking for me with a letter in hand:

"Dear Mr. - I say you to thank you, because your wife has give me water me and family, and support me with generous. You have someone special. Thank you, Ernst Leo"

Deborah Quigley

Focusing...

2010-01-24T08:57:00.000-08:00

Our work in Haiti is now so overwhelming we have difficulty fully taking it in. This is unlike any disaster we have yet encountered and will require the focus of Airline Ambassadors for a very long time to come.

We have now set up a command center and have two houses, two vehicles and three warehouses. We will need volunteers for the next year at intervals of 1 week, 2 weeks or 1 month at a time.

Currently our main focus is to leverage the airline industry to continue to support humanitarian relief deliveries after the earthquake becomes old news. So far we only have praise for the airlines, especially United, American and JetBlue, who have brought in huge amounts of aid on their relief flights. Last night at midnight we went to pick up more aid from the American Airlines warehouse, and Art Torno, the AA General Manager at Port-au-Prince who has been offloading cargo from any plane that comes in, was sleeping in the office. The whole AA ground staff here has been amazing.

White dresses are dancing in the moonlight as I write this. Male and female voices singing with an infectiously deep emotion. Never have I seen a whole culture with a spirituality so integrated, so inbred - and where there is such need.

It is so inspiring how everyone is coming together, but, again, the overall relief effort seems overwhelming. It will take all our love, wisdom and patience to put everything together and build a new Haiti.

Nancy

AAI Status Report

2010-01-24T08:25:00.000-08:00

At this point, we are one of the very, very few NGOs that has flown approximately 12 planes into the island, and all but one successfully touched down into Port au Prince, with another one getting diverted to Santo Domingo which Aino Jakobsen, our DR Country Coordinator, quickly transported over to PAP.

We have successfully set up an infrastructure to fly planes in for free or at cost, receive the aid at arrival, place it into trucks, ensure an abundance of fuel (key) and then make certain that it gets delivered to the local points of dire need.

Right now, we have limited need for storage because we are literally consuming 100% of the aid within 12 hours of delivery. Our doctors are performing an amputation an hour, and often it is without anesthetics. I’ve seen people die and cannot share those pictures in a public forum.

A lot of the aid, sadly, is just sitting on the airport. There are many magnanimous supplier donors but are flying aid but without thought as to what happens when they land into PAP. We typically claim such aid if it is untouched for 48 hours. At this point, SouthCom who has taken over the airport has asked us to assist in managing HAD (humanitarian aid distribution) operations for them. I didn’t see many people from the U.S. in the hardest hit areas, except for Doctors without Borders.

Aid of some other NGOs is being sold on the black market. We’ve set up a pretty scary private security detail of U.S. soldiers of Haitian descent who have taken leave to help AAI. We are in the process of trying to get them paid leave. Fuel and electricity is like gold so with each increasing day the level of unrest and knowledge of what we are doing is growing. That being said, the locals are coming to our side and helping. It is amazing to see people who themselves are in such need but decide to place others ahead of themselves. The human heart is strong and pure and it takes events like this to bring out the goodness in people, which we often don’t read in the press or see on the news.

I like being stateside, but I really needed to assess things first with my own eyes and confirm that the people we found both here and down there are those we can trust and have the competency and strength. I needed to formally shake hands with key people of the Haitian government. We are one of the only ones that have been able to form a bridge across both parties.

As I type, our team is in the middle of distributing 13,500 pounds of nutrition bars and 6,000 pounds of water in the dark, along with aid from Americares. People are gracious and thankful. Unfortunately, we still have to pace up and down with shotguns, but we’ve ordered our men to stand down. No more lives should be taken.

Daniel Sheth

A Birthday Gift

2010-01-20T22:19:00.000-08:00

Today was Nancy's birthday, but there was no celebration in this inferno. A strong early morning aftershock drove people in a panic out of the hospital we were in. It was a sight we'll never forget: amputees desperately dragging themselves away from the building, mothers who had given birth under flashlight the night before clutching their newborns.

Yet the day unexpectedly brightened when some street kids we met gave Nancy the best present ever. When they found out it was her birthday one of them took off his necklace and put it around her neck, while another gave her his bracelet.

We remember today the death of friends and colleagues among whom were Archbishop Joseph Serge Miot whose home we had stayed in two weeks prior to the earthquake, when Airline Ambassador's CASA Corps earthquake preparedness building project was in negotiations. (CASA was conceived by the international community after the devastating earthquake in El Salvador in 2001 as an effort to build earthquake-resistant housing in developing nations susceptible to earth tremors).

A terrible irony as his home collapsed upon him only days after we had discussed the dangers of such buildings.

Our global community must get serious about the complete and utter destruction of this nation. Our message to the media when they say “Where is the Haitian government?” is that its members are either under the rubble, or attending to family members who were. They have a hard enough time finding drinking water for themselves, let alone resume any form of functional governance. Nancy and Dave Rivard

First Report from Port-au-Prince

2010-01-20T22:01:00.000-08:00

The situation here is unimaginable. The country is in a state of total collapse. The catastrophe is so enormous that, a full week after the earthquake, even the combined resources of the international community have barely made a dent. It is only the US Army Southern Command that has any organization, but it is stretched to it's very limits.

The biggest logistical problem is getting aid to the people that need it. After we had deposited our aid from LDS Charities at its destination we passed by a hospital and, among the hundreds of people lying in the grass, saw two people die of septicemia because of a lack of simple medicines. Tetanus was taking hold of many others. We also witnessed amputations without anesthetics. We were so appalled we rushed back to the airstrip and grabbed some aid that an NGO had deposited there days before, claimed it as our own, and took it back to the hospital. The overworked doctors were ecstatic.

Dogs are tearing at the thousands of rotting corpses in the streets with the stench so dreadful that desperate inhabitants are using precious gasoline (now going for $100 a gallon) and old tires to burn them. There's no food, not even for the likes of us.

Not even Hollywood could reproduce a horror show such as the one we experienced today. It will remain with us for the rest of our lives.

Nancy and Dave Rivard

Homeless Voice Pulls Out all the Stops

2010-01-18T18:25:00.000-08:00

When news of the January 12th earthquake first became public, the office of Airline Ambassadors turned into a frenzy of activity. Due to their recent visit to Haiti and their impending project to facilitate the implementation of proposed building codes, the news of the earthquake and its destruction came as an especial blow to AAI founders, Dave and Nancy Rivard.

Without commercial airlines flying into Haiti and with no knowledge of the level of damage to the roads from the Dominican Republic, the only option was to charter aircraft at a cost to the small non-profit of $34,000 one way from Miami to Port-au-Prince.

Unsure of where the funds would come from, but confident that the public would hear the call and respond, Airline Ambassadors decided to go ahead and charter the large aircraft. In Miami, Nancy and Dave were greeted with a welcome and surprising gift. They were approached by Sean Cononie, the head of a local homeless group called Homeless Voice. Over the previous three days members of the group – knowledgeable of what homelessness really means - had and managed to raise a phenomenal $16,000 towards the cost of filling the aircraft with food and water for the hundreds of thousands put out onto the street by the earthquake.

Not content with raising such an incredible sum, members of Homeless Voice also volunteered to load the airplane with ten tons of donated items destined for the people of Haiti.

Amidst so much misery came such selfless dedication from among the most marginalized of our own society.

Getting Back Home from Haiti

2010-01-18T09:33:00.000-08:00

Getting worried that a city with no food, water, electricity or fuel for public consumption could ultimately lead to chaos.

Got a motorcycle to get me to the border. I had to pay $100 USD.

Beautiful drive so different than Port au Prince, greenery, peacefulness, nice people.

But the need for gas still exists so we stopped to fill up gas for $10.00 per gallon!

Bribed someone to get me through the border quickly given the ridiculously long line of Haitians fleeing.

Got a cheap scooter from someone to get me to Jimani.

Found out all the buses are gone as they don't drive in the dark for safety reasons.

$300 for a car seemed the universal cab price to get to Santo Domingo airport.

Ultimately got it down to $200 where I don't pay for gas. As a requirement, I have to agree to take his friend to the hospital who threw out his back.

The car has 333,370 kilometers on it!!!!!

Learned that the the victim didn't have a back problem but a broken hip.

Car was too small. Located a bigger one and got her to the hospital while trying to administer what seemed like ineffective painkillers during the journey.

Stopped by Dominican army for not having a Haitian entry stamp. Tried explaining there are no customs or stamps. About to get detained, I called Ambassador Francis Lorenzo and he saved me!

It is nice to be out of PAP, but time to get back to work bringing more aid back into the country. I toured so many areas and we are - at least so far - the only NGO with any substantial presence in hard hit residential areas. I couldn't find any other non-profit group!

Daniel Sheth

Haiti: "Airline Ambassadors was the ONLY NGO today with a destination for its aid"

2010-01-17T23:27:00.001-08:00

Morning and Day:

With the magnificent help of volunteers from Voices for Homeless we literally stuffed the entire plane with medical supplies and medicine. It was a lot of manual labor but we got EVERYTHING on the plane with the 60 Haitian-American doctors, surgeons and nurses.

We were told when in the sky that the runway at Port-au-Prince was filled with planes unable to move and were getting diverted. However, we had our paperwork, slot number and a lot of divine intervention and they cleared us for landing. The entire plane sang and prayed in Creole.

Late afternoon:

We touched down and played the role of baggage service unloading all the aid. We were the ONLY NGO today that had destinations for this aid and didn't leave it littered at the airport. Otherwise, as one worker told me, there is no organization and tons of aid is just lying at the edge of the airport with no home. They were very happy we didn't have that problem.

In addition, all other planes are C130s there. Pretty amazing we got three of our own to touch down today unscathed.

Night:

I made it work at the house for James and his crew of five doctors by moving myself and my team out to this run down but amazing place with the people. I will rendezvous with them in the morning. In the meantime, I will sleep and just clutch onto my passport, wallet and money listening to the beating drums, songs and prayers.

Everyone is sleeping in the streets, afraid to go into houses in case of more tremors. People are up all night singing and praying.

No rational adult should come here. Total destruction. Dead bodies laying on the streets where people are also sleeping. Tall buildings have collapsed except for the unoccupied homes that Aristide built.

We also started the process of buying fuel and a generator on the black market.

Tomorrow morning:

Having breakfast with Dr. Roger Jean Charles, our liaison here and will start walking through the medical facilities and passing out more aid. The doctors are coming with me and I will place the surgeons in under-served areas (Carrefour). I have gotten a driver and translator for the Oprah team who are in search of a woman who lost her home and family but still has her children and is living on the street. We already identified the place which I just visited. For Eric, I have identified drop zones and barren land whose landowners I have already met so he can begin planning his reconstruction project. All are very grateful.

The airport is now shut down for four days to commercial flights so am trying to make my way back to the DR but nobody has enough fuel.

Trying to go to sleep now where everyone is chanting "Jesus is God".

Daniel

Haiti: Turning Compassion into Action

2010-01-17T09:23:00.000-08:00

It is only today, five days after Haiti's catastrophe, that we find the time to quickly dash off a few lines about Airline Ambassador's response.

We aren't beginners at shipping aid to Haiti - in fact the country was the first we supplied after we began operations back in the early 1990s - but the magnitude of the disaster has given us four days of round the clock labor before we were able to charter an aircraft out today with money we raised from our members. The plane was filled with 10,000 lbs of food and 60 medical personnel - more than half whom are Haitian-Americans from all over the United States.

They are going to a country that is in a true state of utter collapse. In many places there is no food, water, electricity, fuel, sewage disposal, communications of any kind, medical care, system to dispose of the dead and public order. Most people are sleeping on the street. As the days wear on the desperation of those trapped in this apocalyptic nightmare becomes ever more apparent.

AAI has also managed to fill three other aircraft with medicines and food aid and has been given space on United Airlines mercy flights departing out of Chicago on a regular basis.

The generosity of our members - especially the remarkable contribution of Voices for Homeless - enabled us to pay for today's flight in only 48 hours with more flights to come.

LDS Charities have donated huge amounts of food for us to transport. Flight Attendant Medical Research Institute (FAMRI) donated money for fuel that allowed us to do all this, and the Community Voices for the Homeless donated half of today's AAI charter aircraft expenses. Homeless people helped load the airplane to maximum capacity.

There was a moment when today's charter was told it would have to land in the Dominican Republic but, as passenger Daniel (who is on our Board) said, "we had all of our paperwork and the whole crew and passengers started singing in Creole and praying and ... we landed in Port-au-Prince! Thank you Nancy and Dave for everything. Your clearance and our reputation with SouthCom helped along with divine intervention. I am in tears (and you know I am a tough guy!)"

Nancy & Dave Rivard

Airline Ambassador Member Featured in People Magazine

2010-01-01T14:47:00.001-08:00

Delta Airlines flight attendant Robin Schmidt, who is a very active member of Airline Ambassadors, recently returned from a trip to visit wounded U.S. troops at the Landstuhl Medical Center in Germany (see her blog entries below).

People Magazine caught up with Robin and featured her in their "Heroes Among Us" section. She brings two blank books on each flight to pass around among passengers to address supportive comments to individual soldiers. She expects to be back at Landstuhl in February with more cards and letters of gratitude to distribute.

Memories of Landstuhl

2009-12-29T16:20:00.000-08:00

The few days we spent in Landstuhl at the beginning of December visiting wounded U.S. soldiers deeply touched me. You would have thought Sherry, Deb, and I had known one another forever. They are both such magnificent women, who radiate love with each person they meet. Sherry was so very gracious in allowing us to not only stay in her home, but in driving out of her way to give us more time with the troops.

With each conversation we had, I was reminded of the significance of simply "showing up". These words have tremendous meaning for me as I experienced them for the first time when I volunteered with the Red Cross at the Respitz Center at Ground Zero for 18 days after 9/11. There was a fire chief who shared a story with me about a camping trip he had that summer with 28 fellow firemen and their children. I remember him telling me how he could visualize them sitting around the campfire sharing stories, and how very much it hurt knowing those children would now have one less parent at future campfires. As tears streamed down both of our faces, he looked at me and said "Thank you for showing up, you don't know how much it has helped me to share this with you."

Never before did I realize that I could make a difference just by "showing up".

As I retold my experiences to some of the troops I was playing cards with, they were astounded that 9/11 was what ultimately brought me to them. One soldier in particular asked me the following day "Why are you here"? I told him that I was there to encourage the wounded and tell each one how much I appreciated the sacrifices they have made every single day to serve our country and to make the world a better place. He then said to me "You know, a lot of celebrities come here for photo ops, and leave without spending any quality time with us. Having you, an ordinary person, come here and just spend time playing cards and talking to us, means more than some of those celebrity visits ever will." Again, "showing up" was all it took.

Of course, not all celebrities are simply into photo ops. I just had Christian Slater on one of my flights (the day after Christmas). He had on a USO cap, and we discussed what it was like for him on the USO tour. He said he was incredibly moved by the tenacity of the wounded and how much he enjoyed spending quality time talking with the troops. Along with Gary Sinise, I believe these two celebrities really take the time to make our military feel valued and respected. Christian told me about his visits to Walter Reed Medical Center and some of his stories from there. They were deeply moving and I was thankful to be able to share the needs we experienced from our Airline Ambassadors mission.

We just never know the importance of one small act and how it can affect others, all the way around the world, even at times in the distant future. We learned that when wounded soldiers arrive, they only have the clothing on their backs. There is a tremendous need for solid black zip up sweatshirts (with no logo) and sweat pants, and black duffel bags that can be put on the wheelchairs. In addition, they need athletic shoes (one pair is often sadly used for two individuals).

One thing the wounded told me they would like are cards and board games to break the boredom. They also asked if we could please come back to the center to share our love and gratitude with wounded troops who come in after them.

One of my projects before going to Germany, was to ask my contacts from Facebook and email to rally together to have Christmas cards written to give to our wounded troops. When we passed out some of these cards (I hand delivered 539 which I received prior to my flight from JFK) at the center, the soldiers lit up saying how nice it was to have complete strangers reach out to them with words of encouragement and thanks. Words cannot begin to convey my gratitude for those who spent countless hours making and writing cards .. or for the kind donations of gifts sent to me to take to the wounded.

I can't wait to share more stories from the next visit to Landstuhl with Airline Ambassadors, which I hope is in the not so distant future, and having more volunteers join us in supporting our Wounded Warriors!

Robin

A 3000-Pound Salvadorean Christmas

2009-12-29T09:14:00.000-08:00

Over Christmas Airline Ambassadors turned my double layover into El Salvador into an amazing holiday experience providing 3,000 lbs of aid for the country's recent flood victims.

Thanks to Lory Oppenheimer for arranging the shipping of the aid through TACA, Dave and I delivered the aid to the new First Lady’s office and launched an AAI partnership with her with a press conference at the Presidential Palace.

On Christmas Day our flight crew helped deliver toys and gifts to two orphanages: the Jardin de Amor (for HIV kids) and the Hogar Infantil. All the children received presents.

A thousand thanks for the donation of teddy bears from the Desert Aids Project, toys from Ana Montano, and CROCS shoes and other gifts from the flight attendants on our American Airlines crew.

What better way to spend Christmas!

Nancy Rivard

AAI in Accord in Colombia

2009-12-10T23:30:00.001-08:00

Airline Ambassadors began its first project in Colombia in a small town called San Juan del Cesar. The program is in partnership with the Inter American Development Bank.

On this trip we provided accordions and other musical instruments to the music school of “El Maestro Mauro Milian”, an institution which has dedicated all its efforts to educate the most needy, including very young indigenous children.

We were also able to visit a very poor community called “Las Tunas”: 32 families in real need of homes, education, health and work. We had two meetings with the new mayor who was very receptive to our visit. As always we counted on the help of the National Police Department, especially Colonel Chavarro from the narcotics division who played a very important role in our logistics. We also had huge support from Antonio Urbina (a very well known artist in our country) and Tasha Bermudez, a new Airline Ambassadors' member.

The idea for now is to obtain additional instruments for the school using the formal agreement for partnership with the Inter-American Cultural & Development Foundation of the Inter-American Development Bank and the Organization of American States.

The governor of Cundinamarca would like AAI to initiate the AAI CASA Program, which is key for this community. There are tons of things to do. We are organizing an agenda to start our planning. We’ll keep you all posted!

Andres

Chili-ing with New Friends

2009-12-10T19:55:00.000-08:00

The meal we prepared for the Wounded Warriors was a great success for the soldiers AND us! Periodically I made announcements introducing the celebrity in our presence and handed out the printout about Robin and what she does. They were blown away and sooo appreciative and amazed. A few guys initially were kind of distant but then joined in. They finished off the chili con carne, and we had a little bit of the vegi-chili left over. We had soldiers who, due to their wounds, couldn't serve themselves (one was an officer) so it was an honor to prepare their plates.

Then we put out the word that I was a massage therapist - I had instant "best friends ever" from a number of injured soldiers. I couldn't work on anyone that is on pain medication so a few were disappointed, but the others were very appreciative!

Robin was in her element last night - she was with her people. She can dole it out (as in "smart mouth" and quick wit) with the best of them (see photo with two new friends...)! As for me - I'm a little slow to catch on sometimes - but that provided more laughter which promotes the healing process. YEAHHHH! And of course Sherry was right at home.

Sherry, Robin, and I are totally fulfilled and enjoying every aspect of this opportunity. Thank you, THANK YOU Airline Ambassadors!

Deb

Airline Ambassadors Brings Compassion into Action

2009-12-09T22:41:00.000-08:00

Last Thursday, December 3rd in New York City, Airline Ambassadors International celebrated CHILDREN OF THE WORLD at the United Nations. AAI provides humanitarian assistance to children and families in need as well as international relief and development to under-privileged communities worldwide. It is the only non-profit in the world leveraging connections with the airline industry to facilitate humanitarian efforts, and is recognized by the US Congress and the United Nations. AAI has been granted official U.N. Non-Governmental Organization status.

President and founder, Nancy Rivard, is employed by American Airlines and has been since 1976. She was moving up the management line of American Airlines, but decided to move back to her original position as a flight attendant. She founded Airline Ambassadors in 1996. Originally, AAI began with airline personnel bringing relief and aid to smaller underdeveloped countries whenever Rivard and her colleagues had a layover. AAI has now expanded to 6000 members including medical and business professionals, students and retirees.

Rivard has gotten American Airlines to get involved and provide needed aircraft to deliver shipments to smaller countries. Monthly volunteer mission groups organize in the several selected countries to distribute relief and aid to the needy countries.Thursday's event presented two awards. The 2009 Global Compassion Award went to Joaquin Antuna and Paz y Cooperacion. Paz y Cooperacion was founded by Joaquin Antuna in 1982. It has been centered on promoting a movement of non-violence and creativity and on building a world of solidarity. Airline Ambassadors has partnered with Paz y Cooperacion since 1996 with their annual international school competition, the Peace and Cooperation School Award. The School Award encourages students and teachers to reflect upon the important issues of our time.

The 2009 Global Humanitarian Award went to the McCord Foundation, Jim and Darlene McCord. The McCord Research Foundation is the philanthropic arm of McCord Research, supporting programs and causes close to the hearts of Jim and Darlene McCord. The foundation currently funds many activities including research by the University of Tennessee on a cure for Buruli Ulcer which effects many children in Africa. Darlene McCord informed the audience that Buruli Ulcer is the quiet epidemic that is affecting children in Ghana. Buruli Ulcer is a skin disease caused by bacteria that is a genetic cousin to the bacteria that causes leprosy and tuberculosis. Like leprosy, patients with Buruli ulcer develop ulcers on their body that can eventually cripple and even kill them.

To help celebrate the evening, performances were led by George Sigma and Jamia Nash. Mr. Sigma debuted an original one of a song entitled “PEACE”, in which in just 3 minutes and 12 seconds he includes the word ‘peace’ in 77 languages and idioms. Thirteen year old singer and actress Jamia Nash sung the inspirational song “Hero” by Mariah Carey. Jamia spoke very eloquently about how passionate she is about AAI and the work that is to be done. Ms. Nash is known for appearing in the film, “August Rush” and singing the song, “Raise It Up”. She currently stars in the daytime soap, “The Young and the Restless”.

The CHILDREN OF THE WORLD event last Thursday raised continued awareness and acknowledged those coming together through shared resources and public engagement to make an international global difference.

Landsthul Bound

2009-12-06T13:47:00.000-08:00

We arrived safe & sound in Frankfurt. Yesterday while I napped, Sherry & Deb went to the commissary to purchase groceries to feed up to 100 wounded troops this afternoon / evening (see info box to the right). Today is Football Sunday and we will be serving homemade chili and loads of baked potatoes. It is probably chilly outside, but you would never know it as the oven has been on since the wee hours of the morning.

The only obstacle we ran into so far, was Sherry and I spending time to dig through the recycling bag to try to find the recipe for banana nut bread. After finally giving up and going to another recipe, Lexi (Sherry's 13 year old) walked into the kitchen and found the note card we had spent hours looking for. Now I will be the one to blame if the banana bread doesn't turn out.

I am also the first one to fall sick. Sherry was so sweet to take me to the bakery with her this morning so we could pick out freshly made German treats for breakfast and coffee (extra strong). As we were standing there talking, I started scratching like a dog with fleas, and my right arm broke out in a huge welt. Hives. After a short discussion, I was popping Benadryl and drank what seemed like a gallon of water - although a good stein of German beer would have probably have made the hives go away quicker...

The facility we are going to is a USO Wounded Warrior center at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center. The Wounded Warriors come and go throughout the day .. and I am hoping to find a way to root on the Seahawks, especially to cause a little adversary between one of the Marines who was giving me hard time yesterday. It seems they LOVE having visitors at the center, and, of course, I now make a good person for them to pick on with my skin looking like beetroot. The troops were so excited to find out we were the ones cooking for them today, and kept asking what time we would be returning. Not sure if they were more excited for the company or our home cooking.

We've been reading through the 600+ cards my friends so graciously rallied to get written for me to hand deliver. It's been incredibly uplifting to see the sweet words of encouragement from girl scouts, students, nursing home residents and all the loving people who contributed to my request. Hopefully going forward people will continue to send Sherry cards for the wounded, as that will be an ongoing request of mine (not just for the holidays).

For now, I must hop in the shower. I've been up since 5am trying to get everything accomplished for our day. I feel so very blessed to be here ..

Robin (photo of us all plus Jo from USO)

Clean Water from Airline Ambassadors

2009-11-28T13:37:00.000-08:00

This is one of two wells dug by Cambodian Child's Dream Organization with donations from Airline Ambassadors. CCDO supports clean water to poor families by building hand pump water wells at a rate of 8-10 wells monthly. Concentration of water wells in the rural surrounding area of Siem Reap Province, comprising 10 different villages and districts. The placement of the water wells is suggested by the evaluation of CCDO staff, each well providing safe drinking water for one to three families.
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(Dr Daniel Susott, AAI Medical Director)

AAI Networking with other NGOs in Cambodia

2009-11-19T09:38:00.000-08:00

Airline Ambassadors International was represented at the ribbon-cutting ceremony of the new Bakong Technical College which is an undertaking of Project Enlighten.

Photo shows me with Bill and Jill Morse of the Landmine Museum, and Lisa McCoy and Asad Rahman of Project Enlighten (see more links at the very bottom of this page).

The school is designed to be socially and environmentally responsible, devoted to the development and preservation of rural Cambodia in the field of green design and environmental conservation, along with cultural and ecological tourism. It is located 16km east of the world’s renowned Angkor World Heritage Site in the Bakong District of Siem Reap.

Lisa McCoy has also donated 30 bicycles for the children in Kep at Cambodia World Family's school there, where she will volunteer for 6 weeks in December and January.
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(Dr Daniel Susott, AAI Medical Director)

A Day of Beauty & Remembrance...

2009-11-18T08:16:00.000-08:00

We spent all day getting to the fabulous cliff-top temples of Preah Vihear, a UNESCO World-Heritage site that the Thais and Cambodians have been fighting over recently...

Now that Cambodian Pime Minister Hun Sen's daughter has built a road up the hill from Cambodia, you can finally access the temples from the Cambodian side. I was the only Westerner there. The views were phenomenal, with Cambodia stretched out below. It was special to be there with By (photo, standing to the right - the woman on the left without the hat is Phirom, an accountant and house mother with the Santhepheap Orphanage or "Children's House of Peace" in Siem Reap), who was one of 30,000 Cambodian refugees trying to escape the Khmer Rouge into Thailand who were forced over these cliffs by Thai troops 30 years ago when they drove the refugees back into Cambodia. More than 10,000 died in the awful melée that ensued. I was just across the border in Thailand working as a young doctor in a refugee camp and remember the terrible stories recounted by desperate Cambodian refugees who had made it across the border.

We met a Lt. Colonel who, as an orphan, joined the miltary at age 17. Now in charge of the Cambodian troops guarding Preah Vihear, he has formed a classical orchestra of young soldiers, having them make music instead of war. When he helped the U.S. Amassador to Cambodia after an accident leaving the temples, they wanted to give him money but he asked for instruments instead.

It added a lot to have the traditional music permeating the setting, perched on the cliffs affected by the beauty of the temples and the view, yet with room to remember the suffering of so many Cambodians at that very spot over 30 years ago...
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(Dr Daniel Susott, AAI Medical Director)

Beach-House Orphans (and one who was not)

2009-11-13T19:22:00.000-08:00

Today, Kmao arrived from the northern Cambodian town of Battambang with his mother and baby sister in tow. As a child he had left home unable to bear the poverty and hardship, and took up with a troupe of military police in Phnom Penh. They were deployed to the beach at Sihanoukville, where their commander brought Kmao to our orphan beach-house and, impressed that we had TV, determined that our house was a more suitable place for this "orphan" than a spartan soldier's camp.

Now college-educated and engaged to be married, Kmao a couple days ago returned to Battambang to find the mother circumstances had forced him to keep secret all these years, and the baby sister he had never met. His mother, a divorced farmer with 5 children, will travel with Kmao to Phnom Penh tomorrow to meet his fiancee and Naly, the orphanage director who adopted Kmao when the beach-house closed down and has lovingly raised him since.

In the blue shirt is Va Morgan, another former beach-house resident, now married with 2 sons and the Director of Bio-Technology at the Angkor Hospital for Children, Siem Reap's best pediatric hospital. The previous director of this hospital was Jon Morgan, a very accomplished nurse from Hawaii who came to Cambodia in the 90's to help me take Cambodia World Family into a leader in adult literacy in Cambodia (work which Airline Ambassadors International will help continue). He now directs The Lake Clinic, a floating health center in the Tonle Sap, Cambodia's huge central lake. Kmao took the opportunity to reconnect with 2 college friends, now lawyers. Sokha Sen, nephew of Chanthy Yi, is shown next to Va, with his wife. Harold and Christy are the other "barang", or foreigners, in the photo.
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(Dr Daniel Susott, AAI Medical Director)

Mardya's trip back to see Mme Vaddey & her first home...

2009-11-10T15:31:00.001-08:00

At the newly relocated Nutrition Center (the first orphanage set up by Mme Chan Haran Vaddey after the Khmer Rouge were driven out of Cambodia leaving a legacy of thousands upon thousands of orphans), the staff produced the "big book" for us to read. We found the entry for Mardya, showing that she was born in a local hospital on 28 December, 1986. She was taken 2 days later to the Nutrition Center where she lived until she was adopted by her US mother, Joanne, in 1990. Another very emotional moment shared...

Mme Vaddey (pictured above, center, in 1990 with the first 10 children to be adopted from the Nutrition Center - Mardya is the child seated on the steps turning toward her) is now an Under Secretary of State in the Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans, and Youth Rehabilitation in Phnom Penh. After so many years of dedicated service to the children of Cambodia, she nonetheless still works to improve the lives of her nation's disadvantaged children. She remembered Mardya from 1990 and from her subsequent visit to the USA in 1991 when she was part of the first official delegation from the new Cambodia to visit the USA. Together we traveled around the States visiting the families who had adopted her children - some 57 in all.
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(Dr Daniel Susott, AAI Medical Director)

Adult Literacy Campaign in Kep Cambodia

2009-11-09T07:51:00.000-08:00

Daniel and Mardya Millay in front of Cambodia World Family's school in Kep, Cambodia. Chris Grace in the background. His aunt Wendy built the original school 12 years earlier.

Cambodia World Family, which provides food and shelter to Cambodian orphans as well as promoting adult literacy, was begun back in 1989 with funds donated by my parents. The program is still going strong. This photo shows a young grandmother in her 40's expressing how grateful she is that she has been taught to read and write so that she can now help her grandchildren with their lessons. She said she was too poor to go to school as a girl, but thanks to Cambodia World Family, she's literate now. It was a moving moment for me, especially as my mother, who did so much to empower disadvantaged women, recently died. Airline Ambassadors International is continuing her work.
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(Dr Daniel Susott, AAI Medical Director)

Back to Cambodia! 2009...

2009-11-03T20:56:00.001-08:00

Our plane lands in Phnom Penh in 3 hours ... how many times have I made this journey over the past 19 years? In all its forms: by air, by land, even by sea... going back to the vortex, back to the "Heart of Darkness" where so many have struggled and died in a vast karmic swirling over millennia of human history along the banks of the mighty Mekong River. Where cultures have met and clashed and mingled, where "elephants have fought and trampled the grass" of the common people over untold generations.

This trip coincides with the annual Water Festival and Boat Races which I helped re-start in 1990, after a 17-year hiatus due to the war in Southeast Asia.

I’m accompanied by Dawn Mardya Millay (photo) who was born in Cambodia with a cleft face which required numerous surgeries. Raised in Maine by a single mom in a household of adopted siblings, several of them blind or with even more serious challenges, she is now a graduate of the prestigious New England School of Photography, a world-class photographer who has already journeyed to Greece and Guatemala, documenting masterfully with compelling visuals (for a treat, visit www.mmillayphotography.com).

"Mardy" was one of the first 10 children to be adopted from Cambodia in early 1990. When I arrived in January 1990, the Viet Namese had just exited the country after a 10-year occupation (having liberated it from the Khmer-Rouge rein of horror 1975-1979 when up to 3 million of Cambodia's 8 million people perished through execution, forced labor, starvation and disease).

Meeting me at the airport today will be one of my all-time best friends, "Lady By", Mme. Eng By Pheng. She was one of half a million Khmer refugees who in 1979 massed at the Thai-Cambodian border seeking food and medicine, and to be reunited with family after the horror of the Khmer Rouge years. Of these, Thai soldiers forced 30,000 at gunpoint over remote jungle cliffs back into Cambodia. "Lady By", with a baby on her back and another in her belly, was one of the survivors. We met in the Khao I-Dang Holding Center for Illegal Aliens, at the time the largest refugee camp (125,000 souls) in the world. Working together in pubic health in this huge camp we became fast friends forever. After raising her daughters in the USA and having a successful career in research, she has returned to Cambodia to make a life and to teach.

Lim Huy (Bou Ming Ty), a young man I met first in 1979 when he was an orphan starving on the border, will also join us. He grew up in Paris, became an optician, and married a lovely Khmer woman whose family he has set up in an auto-repair business in Cambodia.

We’re also joined by Christy and Harold, young retirees seeking to make a difference and coming to check things out in Cambodia in case it "captures" them as it has so many.

My godson Chris Grace and his friend, newly graduated from college, will be with us on their adventure through Asia.

I first came to Cambodia to help alleviate the misery, illness and trauma - and I stayed for the beauty, the joy and the HOPE... Now, all these years later, my refugee friends are returning, the adoptees are returning, and I can savor the sweet rewards that come of seeing people regain their lives and grow into people who now want to help with the work Airline Ambassadors International does so well.

So it looks as though I’ll hit the ground running - going straight to the river for a pass or two in the canoe as they paddle upstream past the two million spectators jamming the riverbanks between racing heats to reprise my favorite role, the "neak raum kandal tuk!" (“the person who dances in the middle of the boat"), clowning for the spectators who throw fruit and cheers to encourage the paddlers.

We're landing! Let's go! Welcome back to Cambodia!
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(Dr Daniel Susott, AAI Medical Director)

AAI's Medical Director Dr Daniel Susott to travel to Cambodia

2009-10-20T12:34:00.000-07:00

Aloha! I will be traveling back to Cambodia in late October to follow up on AAI's work with Language Corps, founded by AAI members Jerry and Jan Patton. Jerry and Jan were part of a previous AAI trip and provided a motorcycle for girls they have been sponsoring in Siem Reap. They also offered free language training to staff of the Cambodian Children's Fund and to FLOW (Future Light Orphanage ).

A very exciting part of this trip will be that I'll be traveling with some former orphans who I helped be adopted here in the U.S. many years ago. They are now returning to their country of origin to see what they can do for those less fortunate than themselves.

When it's hard to be objective

2007-02-16T19:30:00.000-08:00

(Reproduced from MSNBC blog posted by Mario Garcia, NBC News Producer, New York)

Spend some time around Nancy Rivard and you quickly learn she is many things. Smart. Kind. Compassionate. And a little crazy.

Just crazy enough to believe that she could actually pull off her plan. Convince major airlines to utilize space on their planes to help people around the world live better lives.

The idea seems simple enough, but common sense is a rare commodity these days. To see Nancy's idea in action is remarkable. Perhaps more remarkable, her energy and her ability to actually make things happen.

As Kerry already posted, as journalists we are supposed to "tell a story." Not be part of it. That was hard when dealing with Nancy and her Airline Ambassadors. OK, in the interest of full disclosure, it was impossible.

Nancy and the many people she has inspired are truly "Making a Difference" in the lives of people around the world. When you are around these folks you quickly get wrapped up in their whirlwind of compassion.

The Airline Ambassadors deliver humanitarian aid personally. They escort ill children across oceans for medical treatment. They travel thousands of miles to simply hold orphan babies who have no one else to hold them.

I traveled with Kerry and our news team to tell the story of these "do gooders." I wound up holding one of those babies. He was small and he was crying. He stopped crying for a little while, but not long enough.

It is easy to be cynical in the world we live in these days. It is not easy to be cynical when you are comforting a crying three-month-old orphan. I think it's fair to say that Nancy and her fellow Airline Ambassadors made it hard to be a "good journalist," but a little bit easier to be a good person.

Thank you, Nancy. Thank you all.