Haiti's Children "Change the world, Be a voice and Save a child"

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Nancy Rivard, founder of Airline Ambassadors International(AAI), presented a volunteer opportunity that would educate and train me about safe houses, orphanages and tent camps in relation to the issue of human trafficking in Haiti. The CNN Freedom Project came with us to document our journey.

We visited the DCPG Police Station in Port au Prince where I witnessed children being held behind bars for their own protection against exploitation. I was able to see the safehouse being built behind the jail by AAI to give children a safe place to lay their head down at night. My heart was filled with joy to know that change has begun but more safehouses are needed. One safehouse can change the lives of many children and this is just the beginning.

I had the privilege to meet Yves Prophete in charge of All Gods Children Orphanage and see the great work of love being given to the children there. My heart was touched when I met a trafficked boy who had arrived 4 months prior to our visit. He was once filled with fear and now he smiles and laughs with other children. His smile filled my heart with joy. However, my heart dropped as I walked through Delmas 31 Tent Camp. Many children are unable to attend school and families are destitute. However, AAI delivered 60 school kits from kids in Pennsylvania to help continue the education of children there.

Delphia Roberts, USAir Flight Attendant

This humanitarian experience has changed my life.  I thank Nancy Rivard for giving me an opportunity to make a difference in this world.  I will continue to advocate, educate and train others to help combat human trafficking. " Change the world, Be the voice and Save a child".


USAIR Flight Attendant,  Delphia Roberts

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Escort Story, by Terry Bobbitt

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

“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

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

Training flight attendants on Human Trafficking

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!

Back to Cambodia! 2009...

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)