Diane Sawyer mentions our training Jan 29, 2014 on National News:
After AAI Testimony at Congressional Hearing
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Also, the ABC 7 clip was shared via the AAAE.org daily clips distribution which is sent to hundreds of airport managers across the US:  SJ Airport Workers Trained To Spot TraffickingJanuary 23, 2014 KGO-TV A major Bay Area airport is joining a growing effort to stop human trafficking, one of the fastest growing crimes in the world.Full story from KGO-TV (WWW Connection Required) |
SUBCOMMITTEE HEARING NOTICE
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
WASHINGTON, DC 20515-6128
Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations
Christopher H. Smith (R-NJ), Chairman
January 27, 2014
TO: MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
You are respectfully requested to attend an OPEN hearing of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, to be held by the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations in Room 2172 of the Rayburn House Office Building (and available live on the Committee website at www.foreignaffairs.house.gov):
DATE: Monday, January 27, 2014
TIME: 2:00 p.m.
SUBJECT: Lessons Learned from Super Bowl Preparations:
Preventing International Human Trafficking at Major Sporting Events
Diane Sawyer features Hearing and mentions our training Jan 29, 2014 on National News HERE
Live Feed HERE
January 27, 2014
Nancy L Rivard, President, Airline Ambassadors
Testimony to Committee on Foreign Affairs
Lessons Learned from Super Bowl Preparations
Preventing International Human Trafficking at Major Sporting Events
It is documented that human trafficking activity increases around major sporting events and traffickers move their victims to these cities via all forms of transportation, including airlines.
Airline Ambassadors was established in 1996 as the only independent charity of the airline industry. We have been on the forefront of raising awareness on this issue since correctly identifying human trafficking on four different airlines in 2009. One of these cases led to the bust of a trafficking ring in Boston, involving 82 children.
After researching the issue, we learned the U.S. signed the Palermo Protocol in 2000 agreeing to stop the use of commercial airlines as transport for trafficking offenses and were appalled to learn that no action had been implemented.
As flight attendants, we knew that airlines have infrastructure to provide training at virtually no additional cost during annual emergency procedure training for flight crew; and effective protocol could be established for ground personnel to receive calls from pilots regarding potential trafficking.
We solicited Congressman Smith to provide a Briefing to Airlines in 2010, and as a result American Airlines issued a Bulletin to flight personnel and later incorporated this into crew manuals.
We worked closely with Homeland Security and Customs Border Protection to develop an industry specific training consistent with the Blue Campaign – Blue Lightening protocol. We have provided complimentary training’s 20 times; starting in 2011 before the SuperBowl in Dallas, up to last week at Mineta San Jose International Airport, with Congressman Honda, as part of an effort to raise awareness in the Bay Area before SuperBowl 2016 in Santa Clara.
The DHS established protocol trains airline crew to pay attention to passengers boarding fights, be alert for children and who they are traveling with, as well as young people traveling alone, or anyone appearing nervous or unsure of their destination.
Flight attendants are taught to interact with passengers in a friendly, non-threatening manner, giving them opportunities to gather information, vastly increasing intelligence regarding potential trafficking situations. We train crew to be alert for indicators; but never to try and rescue a victim or display unusual concern or alarm. If uncomfortable, they are to report it to the cockpit with seat numbers of passengers involved. Pilots are to call Station Operation Command at the arrival airport, and in turn they call the DHS “Tip” Line to alert law enforcement for proper assessment.
Although positive momentum has begun with several airlines adopting the DHS Blue Lightening computer based training, the truth is that major airlines are still not adequately training staff by emphasizing this in classroom training or establishing procedures for ground personnel.
The typical flight attendant glosses through on line trainings as fast as they can, and very little of the information covered is retained, unless emphasized by classroom instruction.
When I attended emergency procedure training in June 2013, there was one slide out of several hundred on this protocol in the on-line portion, and it was not mentioned in the classroom. Afterwards our team visited Station Operation Command Center where flights all over the world were being monitored. We asked the supervisor, what he would do if a pilot reported a potential human trafficking situation and he said “I would take no action, this situation is not a threat to aircraft security and therefore not in my realm of responsibility.”
This has to change. For the protocol to be effective; all employees must be aware of it and all employees must be trained. They must understand that human slavery is a reality and that their action or inaction, can save a life.
American Airlines has begun including a scenario in the classroom training for new hire flight attendants and this is a move in the right direction. Silver Airlines uses both the DHS computer training as well as the Airline Ambassadors training in the classroom. They have told us that the classroom training is more profound and touching, therefore more effective.
Flight Attendants carry flashlights as part of their uniform requirement and we produced flashlight cards and wallet cards with key indicators and the TIP Line number for easy access which we will gladly make available to all U.S. based airlines. We will also continue providing Awareness Trainings at major airports as a public service. Our next training in Phoenix, home of SuperBowl 2015, with Innocents at Risk, has over 120 flight attendants committed, from AA, Alaska, Delta, Frontier, United, Southwest, USAIR, who are spending their own time and money to attend. Flight crew are hungry for knowledge and want to be a front line of defense in this horrific crime.
Airline Ambassadors also hosted a meeting in late 2013 with every major flight attendant and pilot union, representing over 100,000 flight personnel, and received huge support on this issue. In the words of Laura Glading, President of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants:
“We are committed not only to preparing our membership to recognize and report suspected instances of human trafficking, but also to raise public awareness of the problem. Flight attendants have thwarted these criminals in the past, but putting an end to human trafficking will require a coordinated and sustained effort as well the commitment of the entire transportation industry.”
WITNESSES:
Panel I
Ms. Maria M. Odom
Chair
Blue Campaign
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
–
Panel II
Ms. Polly Hanson
Chief of Police
National Railroad Passenger Corporation (AMTRAK)
–
Ms. Nancy Rivard
President and Founder
Airline Ambassadors International
–
Ms. Carol Smolenski
Executive Director
End Child Prostitution and Trafficking-USA
–
Ms. Letty Ashworth General Manager of Global Diversity Delta Airlines
Airline Ambassadors and Bay Area Anti-Trafficking Coalition are partnering to provide Human Trafficking Awareness training at Mineta San Jose International airport on Thursday, January 23, 2014. We appreciate support from Congressman Honda. RSVP for this complimentary training at angels@airlineamb.org.
For more information on the Human Trafficking DVD email angels@airlineamb.org
Recent Press:
Dec. 24, 2013 CBS Channel 5 Phoenix Their Job is to Keep you Safe
Dec. 4, 2013 Channel 9 News Washington DC Airlines Raise Awareness to Fight Human Trafficking
Nov. 23, 2013 CNN News Airline Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking
MEDIA ALERT Date: January 14, 2014
Media contact: Nancy Rivard angels@airlineamb.org (650) 489-5322
MAJOR BAY AREA AIRPORT RECEIVES TRAINING TO HELP EMPLOYEES RECOGNIZE AND REPORT SUSPECTED HUMAN TRAFFICKING
UPCOMING TRAINING: Mineta San Jose International Airport Personnel with Congressman Mike Honda Congressman, Santa Clara Board of Supervisors Cindy Chavez, ICE: Homeland Security Investigations
Training Date/Time: Thursday, January 23rd from 9:30-11:30 a.m. MEDIA: 9-9:30 a.m.
1701 Airport Boulevard, Suite B-1130 (between Terminals A & B) San Jose
TRAINING HOSTS: Airline Ambassadors International & Bay Area Anti-Trafficking Coalition
Every year, adults and children are being trafficked through the Bay Area region’s three largest airports. The United States and the State of California have laws to protect victims and penalize perpetrators of human trafficking, which is commonly defined as people profiting from the exploitation of others, controlling them by force, fraud, or coercion.
Since minors currently are not required to carry identification in order to travel by airplanes entering and exiting U.S. airports, traffickers have been trying to use this to their advantage. Cases have been documented in which traffickers have misrepresented themselves as sports coaches, employers and family members of trafficked victims. Airport personnel at ticket counters, gates and other areas of airport operations are in a unique position to be able to identify potential victims and report potential incidents to law enforcement agencies in order to rescue victims and bring traffickers to justice.
Airline Ambassadors International (AAI) is partnering with the Bay Area Anti-Trafficking Coalition (BAATC) to conduct a 90-minute training with Mineta San Jose Airport personnel on Thursday, January 23rd. During this training, airport employees will learn the warning signs to look and listen for to identify victims and perpetrators of human trafficking.
San Francisco International Airport held a similar training in March 2012 with the support of Congresswoman Jackie Speier. AAI and BAATC also plan to launch a training at Oakland International Airport in 2014.
ALL AIR TRANSPORTATION PERSONNEL ARE INVITED TO ATTEND. MEDIA ARE WELCOME FROM 9-9:30 A.M.
RSVP: angels@airlineamb.org
QUOTES FROM PARTICIPATING OFFICIALS AND EVENT HOSTS
“Human trafficking is an atrocity that is not some far away occurrence. It happens here on our shores, and our airline, airport and hotel personnel can be the first line of defense in combating trafficking. That is why I am proud that the Silicon Valley community has taken responsibility and pulled together this multifaceted, holistic approach to eliminating the scourge of human trafficking.”
Congressman Mike Honda, 17th Congressional District
“Increased awareness and education at San Jose Airport cuts off this entry/exit point for traffickers. The U.S. State Dept. has determined that transportation professionals are among the best-placed to identify trafficking situations.”
Nancy Rivard, President, Airline Ambassadors
“Airport personnel are our first line of defense. With an increase in human trafficking through the Bay Area and other U.S. airports, we are being proactive. The threat of human trafficking tends to be heightened around major sports and entertainment events. With the Super Bowl coming to Santa Clara in 2016, we want to act now to offset that threat.
Betty Ann Boeving, Exec. Director, BAATC
Bay Area Anti-Trafficking Coalition (www.baatc.org) works on the front lines to train Bay Area citizens and civic groups in awareness and sustainable engagement to fight local trafficking in the region. BAATC has hosted the largest community-based anti-trafficking training in the United States to date (www.freedom-summit.org).
Airline Ambassadors International (www.airlineamb.org) provides humanitarian aid to children and families in need as well as relief and development to under-privileged communities worldwide. We escort children in need, hand-deliver humanitarian aid to orphanages, clinics, and remote communities, raise public awareness and involve youth in humanitarian efforts
American Airlines was honored at the United Nations on June 20 for the Miles for Kids in Need program for leadership in providing this innovative program helping children. Miles for Kids in Need is an official sponsor of the Global Officials of Dignity Awards and American will be recognized for corporate social responsibility at this event with humanitarians from around the globe. Here’s a recent article on the Children’s Medical Escort Program
Airline Ambassadors gives heartfelt thanks to American Airlines for sponsorship and support of our programs. The support of AAI members traveling on Humanitarian Missions, Children’s Medical Escorts as well as mileage support through AA Miles for Kids in Need has supported our work helping children around the world.
Employees at American Airlines can donate to Airline Ambassadors via payroll deduction and AA’s internal and external communications support have meant so much to our work. AA features a static in-flight ad on 777 airplanes and has shared a 30 sec. PSA with passengers.
Airline Ambassadors began with AA flight attendants using our pass privileges to help children and we have become the only overall charity of the airline industry. We are very grateful for ongoing support from American and look forward to expanding a humanitarian partnership with the new American Airlines helping children worldwide.
This video about our work has aired on AA flights Click HERE
Bravo to AAI’s Board member Sandy Dhuyvetter who was chosen by USA Today as one of the top 20 travel bloggers in the country!
Click Here for the Story
Sandy Dhuyvetter is the founder and inspiration behind Celestialink, LLC, and the TravelTalkMEDIA companies. The company, like its name suggests, has reached out to the world to globally connect listeners and viewers to the experts and world leaders in every field of travel, tourism and lifestyle. Sandy is an award winning journalist and experienced world traveler producing radio and TV broadcasts from all over the world. Sandy’s technical and creative background has enabled her to develop a communication platform that has grown in the last 13 years to become the premier travel programming heard in 185 countries each month. She has an extensive knowledge of international business practices and cust
Thank you to our members and supporters who generated votes for Airline Ambassadors in the United Airlines 10 Million Charity Miles Giveaway Campaign. With your support we came in 9th place out of 35 charities!
You helped us generate 11,153 votes, coming in 1000 votes more than Americares and beating out charities many times our size like Red Cross, Salvation Army, March of Dimes, Make a Wish International amd many more. The miles will be awarded into our mileage bank on Jan. 3 so stay posted. We couldn’t have done this without your support and THANK YOU!
This will make a world of difference for the kids we are trying to help!
WestJet, pulled off a Christmas miracle for passengers!
Click HERE to see video story of a Holiday Flight
BRAVO for innovative leadership in the airline industry.
Let’s bring magic to someone in our circle every day till Christmas.
Happy Holidays and Goodwill to all!
The death of Nelson Mandela was a loss to the world. It was such an honor to have met him on a visit to South Africa in 2001 with Wheelchair Foundation and follow up on his request to help “feed his people in the Eastern 
Cape, where we started a sustainable agriculture program. As part of his legacy may we help build a world of tolerance, where man’s inhumanity to man is little known.
On a follow up visit, our AAI team received a tour of Robben Island, by Thulani Mbaso, outside Table Bay at Cape Town, South Africa. Thulani shared how prisoners were forced to work long hours in a lime quarry. In the brilliant sun, its white walls glare with painful brightness. Mandela, Thulani and the other prisoners worked long hours and were not allowed dark glasses. The fine lime dust from their back-breaking work pervaded their clothes, invaded their lungs, and irritated their squinting eyes. Some of them, like Mandela, were educated men who knew that even as their bodies labored and suffered, their minds were free and strong. But many other prisoners were uneducated — even illiterate. So the quarry became a place of teaching and learning.
Writing in the dust with sticks, the educated prisoners brought a reverence for the power of knowledge to those who had never had the opportunity to develop their minds. Even prisoners who were criminals, rather than political prisoners, came to understand that grinding poverty, discrimination, ignorance, and lack of opportunity — the wellsprings of crime — were best addressed by empowering their own minds. Some of them became students, too.
This happened before the watchful eyes of prison guards, many of whom were uneducated themselves, but as they watched, many also became students, and Mandela and the others taught them out of respect for their humanity and their interest in learning. Those guards experienced affirmations both of mind and of heart — in sharing their knowledge, the educated prisoners displayed a generosity of spirit that prompted both admiration and growing respect from the guards.
As Thulani was a Member of the African National Congress (ANC), the primary political party in South Africa, he was on the U.S. terrorist watch list. In 2008, AAI’s volunteer for governmental affairs requested from Senator Chris Dodd to get Thulani a special visa before he could enter the US. Remember that Nelson Mandela made a triumphal visit to the United States in June 1990, after his release from twenty-seven years’ imprisonment in South Africa. It was his last visit to the US.
Mandela, fondly called Mandiba by whites, blacks and immigrants alike in South African, openly said that he owed his actual release to General Bantu Holomisa, who retained control of the Transkei Army during his many years of internment. Mandela told our team that there would have been a civil war among the South African Army if Bantu had not been in charge of the larger Transkei divisions. It was largely this Army who influenced his release through negotiations with the civilian government. To this day, South Africans simply refer to Bantu as “The General”.
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AAI’s Anti trafficking program was highlighted again on November. 23 on CNN. See Link here
Feature piece on airline initiative followed news of three women released from bondage for over 30 years. AAI president Nancy Rivard pointed out that more people are subject to human slavery than at any time in history. Less than 1% were rescued in 2012 – so public education is critical. She share Airline Ambassadors initiative to involve airlines around the world so that fight crew can recognize and report human trafficking as it occurs.
The AAI “Recognize It – Report It” initiative was was also featured in Saber Magazine’s ASCEND Magazine for Airline Executives – November issue in two articles STOP Human Trafficking – Training of Travel and Tourism Professionals Can Save Lives as well as a follow up article Keep Your Eyes Open, by Patty McPeak, AAI’s former Chair
We applaud the commitment and leadership of Saber Holdings on the most important human rights issue of our time.
