Thoughts from Masako (Bunny) Doi

“I have been volunteering my time to escort children since 1999 have escorted over 100 children over the years from all over the world.  They are from Nepal, Burkina Faso, Uzbekistan, Russia, China, Indonesia, Guyana, Liberia. Cameroon, Afghanistan, Honduras, Peru and many others countries.  I have been to the places that most tourists won’t go.

Each of them have different medical problems.  Some of them were born with heart problems, cleft palates, colostomy, club feet, etc.. Some of them were burn victims of kerosene oil for heating and hot oil for cooking.

We help non profit agencies like Healing the children, Chinese Agape foundation, and many others. By working with flight attendants, who know how to travel (even in challenging conditions, the agencies do not have to purchase tickets for an escort and save more $$ to further help these children.

 I see it as we are the circle of love: we all are doing our small part to heal each child, one by one. 

We go and get these children who were found by non profit organizations and bring them to USA, met by their foster families who will take care of them before and after surgeries, and when they are ready to go home, we meet them at the airport and take them home to their family. We, the escorts are the only ones who meet the children’s family which I think we play extremely important role as their sick or injured children are leaving with strangers to unknown place to have surgeries. It’s a huge responsibility to reassure their mother (family) that they will be well taken care of.  These children come from extremely poor environment and don’t have the resources to have surgeries in their countries.  Most of them have families, but some are orphans who live in orphanages.

It’s my privilege to be a part of something truly helping children in need –  for them, it’s life changing. 

Especially it’s my pleasure to bring healed children to their family. 

This is the moment of my reward – to see them reunited.  These experiences are my treasures. ” 

 Note from Margaret Whitehead, Director, Children’s Medical Escort Program

“My background is totally airline. I worked for a large airline for 30 years before it filed chapter 7 bankruptcy and closed down. During the time I was working, I also co-founded two inter-country adoption agencies and coordinated a different sort of child escort program where fellow employees brought babies and toddlers primarily from Korea to their adoptive parents throughout the U.S. After my airline shut down Nancy Rivard, heard about me and asked me to head up the AAI Children’s Medical Escort Program. This was in 1995 and I’ve done this continually since then.

American Airlines has been invaluable to our program since they generously give our active AA employees high priority bookable passes when they go on escort trips. Without this benefit I really don’t think we could continue. The agencies for whom we provide airline escorts also use AA’s Miles for Kids in Need program that gives free confirmed space tickets to children traveling to the U.S. for donated medical treatment. No other airline does this.

We have approximately 250 current and also retired airline employees in our medical escort program, with about 85% being AA affiliated. The escorts travel on their regular days off and only their actual expenses are reimbursed. Many have been with us for well over 10 years and we normally escort 12-15 children each month. These children come primarily from various Central and South American countries, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, China, and Haiti.

 Bravo to Mending Kids International

Thanks to our Mileage Bank with United Airlines hard work by Cristina, Rodrigo was able to make it from El Salvador to Los Angeles who operated on him to receive a new ear. Mending Kids provides life-changing surgical care to children worldwide. Over the years, thousands of children have received corrective, transformational surgeries that have given them a chance at longer, healthier and happier lives. Most of the surgeries we perform are to correct congenital heart defects, orthopedic abnormalities, severe scoliosis, and significant cranial facial deformities.

Cristina with Rodrigo