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贫困存在于地球上的每一个角落。对身边的人伸出援手并不难，难的是如何将这份爱心延伸到地球的另一边。
有一群人由于工作之便得以来回穿梭于地球的不同角落。心怀“飞行改变世界”的梦想与雄心，1996年，美国航空公司的一位空姐创立了非赢利性慈善组织——航空大使基金会（Airline Ambassadors International）。该组织成立初期，其成员基本上是航空公司的工作人员，随后各种不同职业和身份的人被吸纳进来，包括学生、医务工作者、教会人员和退休人士等等，他们贡献着自己的技能、知识、时间和金钱。他们的无私付出，扫去了无数人脸上绝望的愁云。
2007年11月，航空大使基金会派出6名美国志愿者代表去到玻利维亚首都。这个美洲第二穷国的贫困民众着实感受到了从天而降的温暖。
Angelita Jura sits on the bed in her one-room home here, her head full of the things she wants to say to her visitors. She is tiny and weighs no more than 80 pounds. She is 1)infirm, her hands and legs affected by disease, but an urgency 2)lights her face: “I had a job before I got sick,” she says through a translator. “I want to work again.”
On this early November afternoon, Ms. Jura has many visitors. The nonprofit organization Airline Ambassadors International has sent a group of six Americans (including this writer) to deliver 3)humanitarian aid to the poorest in 4)Bolivia’s capital.
Cut into the side of an 5)Andean mountain valley at an altitude of 12,000 feet, 6)La Paz is home to about one million people, most of them
7)Aymara and 8)Quechua Indians. Relatively few tourists, and even fewer resources, find their way here. Jura was identified as especially needy by local social workers, and the volunteers have traveled more than 4,000 miles to hear her story.
Bob Millonig, a Washington D.C. patent attorney, sits next to her with his arm around her shoulders. A church volunteer tells the group that Jura can be treated medically, but not until she is better nourished. But because she cannot walk, she can no longer cook for herself. And because she has no family to help her, she eats only when people remember to bring her food. In the past, she says, she has gone four or five days without.
That’s the breaking point for Mr. Millonig. “How much will it cost to buy meals from a restaurant every day and deliver them to Angelita?” he asks. “It’s expensive,” says the local volunteer, “around $1 to $2 a day.”
By the end of the visit, Airline Ambassadors has agreed to donate enough money to feed Jura for three months, after which she will likely be strong enough to take treatment.
Founded by American Airlines flight attendant 9)Nancy Rivard as a nonprofit in 1996, Airline Ambassadors International now works with thousands of volunteers to run missions in 45 countries.
“Many people want to help, but they don’t know how,” says Ms. Rivard. Her organization accepts anyone willing to help. “We give ordinary people the opportunity to personally touch the lives of others; to see their money deli-vered,” she says.
On this trip, six volunteers have brought 10)crutches, nine wheelchairs, and 12 large suitcases filled with toothbrushes, sweaters, school supplies, new shoes, and, to the delight of local 11)audiologist Tahia Rojas, hearing aids.
The devices are completely out of reach economically for poorer residents in La Paz, where the minimum wage just went up to about $75 a month. The group has brought several new and 12)refurbished hearing aids to Ms. Rojas, who is volunteering her time. Two-year-old Johann sits on his father’s lap as Rojas fits the piece behind the boy’s ear and softly calls his name. Johann’s eyes 13)flicker toward her. She steps behind his back and claps. Johann turns his head to look, startled. The entire room—volunteers, Rojas, the child’s family—applauds.
Person by person, family by family, the group 14)metes out aid. They climb down a rocky cliff to visit a family with five young children whose mother goes missing for two weeks at a time; money is left with a social worker to buy food for them. Another family needs extra beds: Nine people have been sleeping in two twin beds inside a 10-foot-square, unheated adobe brick room. To the children’s 15)oncology ward in La Paz’s city hospital go sweaters, hats, and toys.
Bolivia is the second-poorest country in the Americas, after
16)Haiti. Here, $30 is enough to start a business on the street, selling chicken soup or 17)toiletries. Thirty dollars can change a life in Bolivia.
Once the week-long trip is fi-nished, local Bolivian aid workers will monitor the progress of recipients. This follow-up is another aspect that makes Airline Amba-ssadors so important in La Paz, says Diane Bellomy, director of a home for abandoned and abused children here. She provides 18)oversight for the group: Is Jura improving? Is Johann wearing his hearing aid? Have the beds been delivered? The directness of the aid, Ms. Bellomy says, also makes Airline Ambassadors unique. “On earlier visits, they would ask for places that needed help. I suggested deaf and mentally disabled, and they would 19)typically ask, ‘Can you ask what they need?’”
Founder Rivard confirms this approach: “We’re not forcing something down their throats. Our rule is, we listen to what local 20)contacts say, and try to meet their need.”
安吉丽塔•茱拉坐在床上，她的屋子仅有一个房间。她脑子里想着的全是要对来访的客人们说的话。瘦小的她体重不超过80磅（约36公斤）。她很虚弱，疾病已经影响到她的四肢，但她的脸上是一种急切的表情。“我没有得病之前曾有过一份工作，”她通过翻译告诉来访者，“我希望可以重新去工作。”
11月初的这个下午，茱拉女士家来了许多客人。非赢利性组织“航空大使基金会”派遣了一个由6名美国人（包括本文作者）组成的志愿者小组到玻利维亚首都，给当地最贫困的人送上人道主义援助。
拉巴斯位于安第斯山的一座山谷的一侧，海拔高度12000英尺（约3658米）。这里的居民大约有一百万，大部分是印地安人的两大分支——艾马拉人和盖丘亚人。该地区的游客相对较少，自然资源更是匮乏。当地社工首先确认茱拉属于“特别需要帮助的人”，而后远在美国的志愿者们旅行4000多英里（约6437公里）来到她身旁，倾听她的故事。
来自美国首都华盛顿的鲍勃•米洛宁是一位专利律师，他坐在茱拉身旁，手臂揽着她的肩膀。一位教堂志愿者告诉大家，茱拉的病可以用药医治，但必须等到她的体质有所改善以后。然而，由于她不能行走，她无法自己做饭；加上又没有任何家人照顾她，因此只有当人们记得给她送食物时，她才有东西可吃。茱拉说，过去她曾经连续四五天滴水未沾，滴米未进。
此时，米洛宁再也忍不住了。“如果每天都让餐馆的人给安吉丽塔送饭来，花费是多少？”他问。“非常贵，”当地的一位志愿者回答说，“每天大约1到2美金。”
临别时，“航空大使基金会”的志愿者们一致决定捐出足以支付茱拉3个月饭钱的款项。3个月后她的身体有希望好起来，那样她就可以接受治疗了。
“航空大使基金会”于1996年由美国航空公司的空姐南希•里瓦德创立，是一个非赢利性组织。现在，该组织拥有几千名志愿者，在45个国家执行任务。
“许多人都想帮助别人，但他们不知道应该怎样帮助。”里瓦德女士说。她的组织欢迎任何愿意帮助别人的志愿者加入。“我们为普通人提供了亲自接触他人生活的机会，并让捐赠者看到自己的捐款到达被资助人的手中，”她说。
在这次探访行程中，6位志愿者送来了拐杖、9张轮椅，还有12只装满牙刷、毛衣、学习用具、新鞋子的大箱子，箱子里甚至还有助听器——这个让当地的听觉病矫治专家塔希亚•罗亚斯喜出望外。
拉巴斯当地的贫困居民根本没有足够的财力来购买这些物品。这里的最低月工资大约是75美金。志愿者们给罗亚斯女士——这个一直在帮助他人的志愿者带来了几副全新和翻新的助听器。两岁的乔纳坐在爸爸的腿上，罗亚斯在小男孩的耳朵后安装了助听器，然后轻轻地呼唤他的名字。乔纳的眼睛顿时闪烁着亮光，望向她。罗亚斯走到乔纳身后拍了拍手。乔纳转过头来张望，脸上露出惊讶的表情。此情此景，令屋子里的志愿者们、罗亚斯以及小男孩的家人都高兴地鼓起掌来。
志愿者们逐家逐户地送去援助。他们甚至爬下陡峭的悬崖去探访一个有5个孩子的家庭，孩子们的母亲曾失踪了两个星期。志愿者们留下钱给一个社工替孩子们买食物。另外一个家庭需要添几张床：他们一家九口挤在一间10平方英尺（约10平方米）的无供暖设备的土砖房里，里面只有两张成对的单人床。在拉巴斯市医院的肿瘤儿童病房里，志愿者们为患儿们送上了毛衣、帽子和玩具。
在美洲国家中，玻利维亚是仅次于海地的第二贫困国。在这里，30美金已经足够在街边做个卖鸡汤或者是化妆品的小生意。在玻利维亚，30美金就可以改变一个人的生活。
为期一周的访问行程一结束，玻利维亚当地的志愿者们将会追踪受助者的最新情况。这种后续的跟进工作从另一方面凸显了“航空大使基金会”在拉巴斯的重要性，黛安•贝洛米这样说道。她是当地一个收留被遗弃及被虐待儿童的庇护所的负责人。她负责为志愿者小组跟进一些后续工作，例如：茱拉的体质是否正在好转？乔纳是否坚持佩戴助听器？那些床是否已被运送到受助者的家中？贝洛米女士补充说道，援助的直接性也是“航空大使基金会”的独特之处。“探访初期，他们会问哪些人需要帮助。我向他们建议，可以关注有听觉障碍或精神问题的人，他们通常会问：‘你能问一下他们需要什么东西吗？’”
创办人里瓦德女士也同意，这正是他们组织的工作方式：“我们不是把东西硬塞给人家，我们的准则是——听取当地联系人的意见，然后设法满足他们的需求。”
有一群人由于工作之便得以来回穿梭于地球的不同角落。心怀“飞行改变世界”的梦想与雄心，1996年，美国航空公司的一位空姐创立了非赢利性慈善组织——航空大使基金会（Airline Ambassadors International）。该组织成立初期，其成员基本上是航空公司的工作人员，随后各种不同职业和身份的人被吸纳进来，包括学生、医务工作者、教会人员和退休人士等等，他们贡献着自己的技能、知识、时间和金钱。他们的无私付出，扫去了无数人脸上绝望的愁云。
2007年11月，航空大使基金会派出6名美国志愿者代表去到玻利维亚首都。这个美洲第二穷国的贫困民众着实感受到了从天而降的温暖。
Angelita Jura sits on the bed in her one-room home here, her head full of the things she wants to say to her visitors. She is tiny and weighs no more than 80 pounds. She is 1)infirm, her hands and legs affected by disease, but an urgency 2)lights her face: “I had a job before I got sick,” she says through a translator. “I want to work again.”
On this early November afternoon, Ms. Jura has many visitors. The nonprofit organization Airline Ambassadors International has sent a group of six Americans (including this writer) to deliver 3)humanitarian aid to the poorest in 4)Bolivia’s capital.
Cut into the side of an 5)Andean mountain valley at an altitude of 12,000 feet, 6)La Paz is home to about one million people, most of them
7)Aymara and 8)Quechua Indians. Relatively few tourists, and even fewer resources, find their way here. Jura was identified as especially needy by local social workers, and the volunteers have traveled more than 4,000 miles to hear her story.
Bob Millonig, a Washington D.C. patent attorney, sits next to her with his arm around her shoulders. A church volunteer tells the group that Jura can be treated medically, but not until she is better nourished. But because she cannot walk, she can no longer cook for herself. And because she has no family to help her, she eats only when people remember to bring her food. In the past, she says, she has gone four or five days without.
That’s the breaking point for Mr. Millonig. “How much will it cost to buy meals from a restaurant every day and deliver them to Angelita?” he asks. “It’s expensive,” says the local volunteer, “around $1 to $2 a day.”
By the end of the visit, Airline Ambassadors has agreed to donate enough money to feed Jura for three months, after which she will likely be strong enough to take treatment.
Founded by American Airlines flight attendant 9)Nancy Rivard as a nonprofit in 1996, Airline Ambassadors International now works with thousands of volunteers to run missions in 45 countries.
“Many people want to help, but they don’t know how,” says Ms. Rivard. Her organization accepts anyone willing to help. “We give ordinary people the opportunity to personally touch the lives of others; to see their money deli-vered,” she says.
On this trip, six volunteers have brought 10)crutches, nine wheelchairs, and 12 large suitcases filled with toothbrushes, sweaters, school supplies, new shoes, and, to the delight of local 11)audiologist Tahia Rojas, hearing aids.
The devices are completely out of reach economically for poorer residents in La Paz, where the minimum wage just went up to about $75 a month. The group has brought several new and 12)refurbished hearing aids to Ms. Rojas, who is volunteering her time. Two-year-old Johann sits on his father’s lap as Rojas fits the piece behind the boy’s ear and softly calls his name. Johann’s eyes 13)flicker toward her. She steps behind his back and claps. Johann turns his head to look, startled. The entire room—volunteers, Rojas, the child’s family—applauds.
Person by person, family by family, the group 14)metes out aid. They climb down a rocky cliff to visit a family with five young children whose mother goes missing for two weeks at a time; money is left with a social worker to buy food for them. Another family needs extra beds: Nine people have been sleeping in two twin beds inside a 10-foot-square, unheated adobe brick room. To the children’s 15)oncology ward in La Paz’s city hospital go sweaters, hats, and toys.
Bolivia is the second-poorest country in the Americas, after
16)Haiti. Here, $30 is enough to start a business on the street, selling chicken soup or 17)toiletries. Thirty dollars can change a life in Bolivia.
Once the week-long trip is fi-nished, local Bolivian aid workers will monitor the progress of recipients. This follow-up is another aspect that makes Airline Amba-ssadors so important in La Paz, says Diane Bellomy, director of a home for abandoned and abused children here. She provides 18)oversight for the group: Is Jura improving? Is Johann wearing his hearing aid? Have the beds been delivered? The directness of the aid, Ms. Bellomy says, also makes Airline Ambassadors unique. “On earlier visits, they would ask for places that needed help. I suggested deaf and mentally disabled, and they would 19)typically ask, ‘Can you ask what they need?’”
Founder Rivard confirms this approach: “We’re not forcing something down their throats. Our rule is, we listen to what local 20)contacts say, and try to meet their need.”
安吉丽塔•茱拉坐在床上，她的屋子仅有一个房间。她脑子里想着的全是要对来访的客人们说的话。瘦小的她体重不超过80磅（约36公斤）。她很虚弱，疾病已经影响到她的四肢，但她的脸上是一种急切的表情。“我没有得病之前曾有过一份工作，”她通过翻译告诉来访者，“我希望可以重新去工作。”
11月初的这个下午，茱拉女士家来了许多客人。非赢利性组织“航空大使基金会”派遣了一个由6名美国人（包括本文作者）组成的志愿者小组到玻利维亚首都，给当地最贫困的人送上人道主义援助。
拉巴斯位于安第斯山的一座山谷的一侧，海拔高度12000英尺（约3658米）。这里的居民大约有一百万，大部分是印地安人的两大分支——艾马拉人和盖丘亚人。该地区的游客相对较少，自然资源更是匮乏。当地社工首先确认茱拉属于“特别需要帮助的人”，而后远在美国的志愿者们旅行4000多英里（约6437公里）来到她身旁，倾听她的故事。
来自美国首都华盛顿的鲍勃•米洛宁是一位专利律师，他坐在茱拉身旁，手臂揽着她的肩膀。一位教堂志愿者告诉大家，茱拉的病可以用药医治，但必须等到她的体质有所改善以后。然而，由于她不能行走，她无法自己做饭；加上又没有任何家人照顾她，因此只有当人们记得给她送食物时，她才有东西可吃。茱拉说，过去她曾经连续四五天滴水未沾，滴米未进。
此时，米洛宁再也忍不住了。“如果每天都让餐馆的人给安吉丽塔送饭来，花费是多少？”他问。“非常贵，”当地的一位志愿者回答说，“每天大约1到2美金。”
临别时，“航空大使基金会”的志愿者们一致决定捐出足以支付茱拉3个月饭钱的款项。3个月后她的身体有希望好起来，那样她就可以接受治疗了。
“航空大使基金会”于1996年由美国航空公司的空姐南希•里瓦德创立，是一个非赢利性组织。现在，该组织拥有几千名志愿者，在45个国家执行任务。
“许多人都想帮助别人，但他们不知道应该怎样帮助。”里瓦德女士说。她的组织欢迎任何愿意帮助别人的志愿者加入。“我们为普通人提供了亲自接触他人生活的机会，并让捐赠者看到自己的捐款到达被资助人的手中，”她说。
在这次探访行程中，6位志愿者送来了拐杖、9张轮椅，还有12只装满牙刷、毛衣、学习用具、新鞋子的大箱子，箱子里甚至还有助听器——这个让当地的听觉病矫治专家塔希亚•罗亚斯喜出望外。
拉巴斯当地的贫困居民根本没有足够的财力来购买这些物品。这里的最低月工资大约是75美金。志愿者们给罗亚斯女士——这个一直在帮助他人的志愿者带来了几副全新和翻新的助听器。两岁的乔纳坐在爸爸的腿上，罗亚斯在小男孩的耳朵后安装了助听器，然后轻轻地呼唤他的名字。乔纳的眼睛顿时闪烁着亮光，望向她。罗亚斯走到乔纳身后拍了拍手。乔纳转过头来张望，脸上露出惊讶的表情。此情此景，令屋子里的志愿者们、罗亚斯以及小男孩的家人都高兴地鼓起掌来。
志愿者们逐家逐户地送去援助。他们甚至爬下陡峭的悬崖去探访一个有5个孩子的家庭，孩子们的母亲曾失踪了两个星期。志愿者们留下钱给一个社工替孩子们买食物。另外一个家庭需要添几张床：他们一家九口挤在一间10平方英尺（约10平方米）的无供暖设备的土砖房里，里面只有两张成对的单人床。在拉巴斯市医院的肿瘤儿童病房里，志愿者们为患儿们送上了毛衣、帽子和玩具。
在美洲国家中，玻利维亚是仅次于海地的第二贫困国。在这里，30美金已经足够在街边做个卖鸡汤或者是化妆品的小生意。在玻利维亚，30美金就可以改变一个人的生活。
为期一周的访问行程一结束，玻利维亚当地的志愿者们将会追踪受助者的最新情况。这种后续的跟进工作从另一方面凸显了“航空大使基金会”在拉巴斯的重要性，黛安•贝洛米这样说道。她是当地一个收留被遗弃及被虐待儿童的庇护所的负责人。她负责为志愿者小组跟进一些后续工作，例如：茱拉的体质是否正在好转？乔纳是否坚持佩戴助听器？那些床是否已被运送到受助者的家中？贝洛米女士补充说道，援助的直接性也是“航空大使基金会”的独特之处。“探访初期，他们会问哪些人需要帮助。我向他们建议，可以关注有听觉障碍或精神问题的人，他们通常会问：‘你能问一下他们需要什么东西吗？’”
创办人里瓦德女士也同意，这正是他们组织的工作方式：“我们不是把东西硬塞给人家，我们的准则是——听取当地联系人的意见，然后设法满足他们的需求。”