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

Rotary, Gift of Life Foundation Gala

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

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

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

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

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

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.