April 8, 2024 • 30 mins
This episode focuses on the situation in Haiti and the rescue missions conducted by the Sentinel Foundation. The conversation highlights the background of Haiti, including its history and cultural context. The challenges of accessing Haiti and conducting rescue missions are discussed, along with the difficulties faced in evacuating special needs children. The issue of child trafficking in Haiti is addressed, emphasizing the importance of responsible giving. The resilience of Haitian children and the comparison to the situation in Afghanistan are also explored. The Tudor Dixon Podcast is part of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Podcast Network - nw episodes debut every Monday, Wednesday, & Friday. For more visit TudorDixonPodcast.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Tutor Dixon Podcast. I think most of
you have probably heard about the dangers in Haiti right now,
the government kind of being overthrown, all of the chaos.
I mean, we've heard of these gangs that are just
attacking folks. Overall, it's an incredibly dangerous situation. And what
you probably don't hear about every day is the kids
(00:23):
that are on the ground and what they're going through.
And that's why I wanted to bring you a couple
of guys from the Sentinel Foundation today who are going
to talk to us about what's going on on the ground.
They actually did some of these rescue missions in Haiti,
and we are so grateful that there are folks out
there that can do this. Just before we started recording,
(00:43):
I'm like, I'm glad you guys exist because this is
not the kind of thing that I can do, so
I can talk about it, and I'm glad that they
are both here to talk to me. So I have
Austin Holmes with me. He is a senior operations officer
at Sentinel and the chief executive officer and found under
of rally X and also TJ who works as the
(01:04):
chief of Special operations at Sentinel Foundation. Thank you so
much for both being here.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Happy to be here, Thanks so much for having us,
Thanks for having us absolutely.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
So we we're kind of reading through what's going on there,
and I think for people who don't exactly know, I
think there's been a lot of rumors. We hear that
they've been overthrown by gangs. There was some story about cannibalism.
All of these things are very hard for us here
in the United States to understand. So can you just
give us a little bit of background what happened there
(01:35):
before we get into the rescue mission.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Oh man, okay, Golf you chubb in uh. You know,
to understand the situation now, you kind of got to
understand a little bit of the history of Haiti. And
I appreciate that question a lot. You know, Haiti we
joke is it's far more African than Latin American, right,
and so to understand that culture and their viewpoints and
(01:59):
from to voodoo to how that affects.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Their worldview is a really big deal.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
You know, Haiti has a long history and it was
a second it was a second nation or take a
successful revolution in the Western Hemisphere to gain their independence.
So in eighteen o four, and you have this history man,
you have resilient, strong patients that want to be independent.
That's why you almost see that kind of narrative coming
out right now at the gangs strongly pushing.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Back against foreign intervention.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
But you also have a unique worldview that's oftentimes missed
by Westerners. It's it's polytheistic in nature. It's it's animistic,
and it's this idea that and there are multiple gods
playing on at their whims on people's fortunes, and that's
going to impact how they seek to appease those guys.
(02:49):
And so that's a really unique play where it's not
a it's not an uncommon thing for you to hear,
you know, barbecue talking about well, I may pray to God,
but I'm going to pray to.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
These evil spirits and I'm going to deal with the devil.
Well that it's not in conflict in that view.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
It's something that's existed for a long time and it
continues to be pervasive in formative as to how they operate.
But anyway, that's I really appreciate that question about the
context of Haite because it really informs what we're seeing
now with gangs and some of the violence, which you
want to share a little bit about how that manifests
itself for us right now?
Speaker 4 (03:26):
Yeah, I think, I mean, we all know that the
terrorists use terror to guide and drive their will. So
what they need or what they want, they don't have
the ability, like we need to go in and make
an election and have politicians operate on your behalf. They
go in, they scare people and do what they want
to take control, and they think that I think the
more control they have. Ultimately, I think the idea was
to turn it back over to the people.
Speaker 5 (03:47):
It just hasn't worked out that way.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
You know, once people get power, they want more, Once
people get money, they want more. And when what you're
doing isn't scaring someone enough, you got to take it
up a notch, which is where you see the telegram
videos of the annibalism, and like Austin said, cannibalism or
that version of it because of voodoo has been going
on there for a very long time.
Speaker 5 (04:06):
It's not something new.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
It's new to videotape, it's new to put it on
Telegram or Instagram or social media, but it's not something
new that happens in Haiti.
Speaker 5 (04:13):
This happened for quite some time.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
And ritualistic killings along with voodoo, especially with children, it's
very common in Haiti.
Speaker 5 (04:19):
So we see a lot of that, especially with Sentinel.
Speaker 4 (04:22):
We've worked with Austin for years now trying to counter
child trafficking child abuse cases in Haiti, and they're always
a voodoo or always a very dark tide to it,
a very African tie. I would say, more African than Caribbean.
Like Austin said, Wow.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
I think I mean, for me, this is kind of
the first time that I'm fully understanding that because we
heard we heard these rumors, and I think some people
here were like, I mean, what do they really mean
when they say that? But it's so shocking to actually
hear child sacrifice and that kind of thing, and that
makes what you're doing even more powerful. But how do
(04:59):
you even get in in this? How does Sentinel Foundation say, Okay,
this is a situation, obviously a very hostile situation. We're
going to fly right in there and see what we
can do to take care of it.
Speaker 4 (05:13):
I think this started a few years ago when whenever
I met the founder of the Central Foundation, Glenn Devitt,
we discussed fundraising and opportunities. It was just you know,
he and I at the time trying to bring on
other guys that were retiring from Special Forces and our
community to do what I think is a very impactful job,
you know, resturing kids. So we go and we we
(05:36):
end up talking to the Tim Tebow Foundation. We have
a meeting, tim ass to come down, and before we
go into the meeting, Glenn says, hey, man, we go
in there at one place.
Speaker 5 (05:46):
I'm not going, Sadie.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
I was like, okay, I've never been, but that sounds reasonable,
Like whatever you say.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
We going in to the meeting.
Speaker 5 (05:52):
Two hours into it. You know it's supposed to be
an hour meeting. We're already an hour over, worried about
the three hour mark ish.
Speaker 4 (05:59):
And they start talking about the interest and they clearly
like us, they want us to do the job. They
start going over countries that they're interested in. It was
you know, Vietnam, Philippines, place like that. And he was like,
but our number one concern is Haiti. And I knew
it was coming as soon as he said but and
he said nothing else.
Speaker 5 (06:14):
I was like, it's gonna be Haiti. He's going to
say Haiti, and I.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
See Glenn over there, he's got his head in his hands,
and I was like, Okay, we got to say yes.
We're not saying no to Tim Tebow and TTF because
they want to support.
Speaker 5 (06:24):
Us and we want to do what they want us
to do.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
And clearly, if that's what the most need is, that's
where we're going. We just had a lot of risk
mitigation things to go through.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
And this is is that why Glenn said no to
Haiti initially? I mean, what was his initial reason?
Speaker 5 (06:37):
He had been prior and had a really bad experience.
He was I dude, I couldn't get anything done.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
It's really hard to work their super complicated environment. And
this is years before, so that's probably a year or
two before we were sitting here with Tibo. Now this
is four years ago, so that have been six years
ago whenever Glenn had that experience. Well, now we're two
years foward to that. But now we're four years to
hear and we're still working with something that's similar to
what we saw when we first went into Haiti, which
is just gang violence. I mean, in everyday life, it
(07:03):
just filence hard and.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
You don't have airports, you don't have the supportive government,
I mean, how it has to be different than any
other place you go when you don't have any confidence
of how you get there and how you get out.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
It reminds we did a lot for the Afghanistan evacuation,
and it reminds me of not exactly of that, because
it's not a Taliban.
Speaker 5 (07:25):
Controlled state, but it's similar.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
You know, it's a terrorist controlled state, and people there
generally take the brunt of that pain, kids and women
chiefly the weakest, so we see a lot of similarias.
And it's also impossible to get in, almost impossible to
get out. So the borders, like the dr Dominican Republic
closes its borders in and out, and the US government
has been a big part of that, and we've asked
(07:47):
every way that we could think of how to ask
to be able to go in when others can't. But
you just have to be one, go by the letter
of the law and do everything legally, but try to
find as many workarounds as you can to get in.
And the process to get in is allmost as hard
as the rescue, so that is one of the most
difficult parts. And you can often deals with all this
at a much higher level than I have to, but
(08:07):
it's painful.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
So what is that like trying to get in there?
Are you saying physically it's challenging or documents or what
do you mean?
Speaker 4 (08:16):
Both awesome if you want to talk about some stuff,
you want to do all the above.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
So when we on this mission, we arrived in the DR.
I believe it was on Saturday. Maybe the operation happened
on the nineteenth, but the DR was really tightening the
restrictions around travel in and out of Haiti. The airspace
over Haiti was closing and orders both by land in
(08:42):
by sea were being closed off, so we could not
find a route in all of our options. We had
half a dozen options to get in the country, and
then within seventy two hours all of those had got
shut down. Everyone was fearful they were going to lose
permits or or get some kind of significant penalty from
the government.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
And we're sympathetic to that.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
I mean, we certainly understand that the DR has their
own national interest and their population to protect, and they're
concerned about spillover across the border. But we spent more
time troubleshooting how to get in and out, primarily how
to get in, than we did actually run the mission
on it.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
That's how big of an obstacle it was.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
And then the mission was to save kids.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Right, that's right.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
So there's this language that TiVo Foundation uses, which we love.
It's talk about MVPs, your most vulnerable people. And you know,
you have fifty nine high special needs where we've lost
three kids in the last seven months due to inability
to access healthcare and just other critical provisions in country.
(09:46):
And so that area around Portal Prince could not be
a more difficult areadam to operate in right now.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
So we stay nine.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
The team that's in all discussed and wanted to accelerate
getting these fifty nine out tremendous amount of support from
the Jamaican government or not here to bash governments like,
we can't get what we've done without incredible relationships with
you know, host nations. Dr Haiti included US government, but
working with Jamaica was tremendous. There's this organization called Mustard
(10:16):
Seed who stepped up to the plate. I cannot tell
you how difficult it is like to go care for
fifty nine. We did it for three days and Tan
I would both tell you that's probably the best circle
we've ever done where. Oh, I mean, they're a tremendous
amount of need. And you know that's off to the
thirteen caregivers that came across.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
And when you say special needs, how what are you?
What are you dealing with? Because I think about trying
to take my four kids someplace and my kids are
not in that situation. Gathering up four kids can be
a challenge. You're talking about fifty nine special needs children.
What are we looking at? Are you looking at wheelchairs?
Are you looking at you know, mental capacities that are
(10:59):
diferent than the average child. What are we what are
you dealing with?
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Twenty nine?
Speaker 3 (11:05):
We're a mobile And I would say all fifty nine
we're unaware of the difficulty and austerity in their environment.
So I mean when I say severe, I mean we
had thirty in kind of the holding bay at the
now we have two locations where we were basically set
(11:25):
up words on the ship coming in, but the lower
one everyone was a mobile in there. And so, yeah,
I've got five five kids, I've got one Haitian And
this made it feel like a cakewalk being at home
with my five under did right.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Now, let's take a quick commercial break we'll continue next
on the Tutor Dixon podcast. When you get these kids out,
I mean that alone has got to be challenging. Are
you taking them to the US? Where do they go?
What is the ultimate goal for those kids?
Speaker 3 (12:00):
So we were able to plan in this evacuation to
get them out of Haiti. And then this is where
Mustard Seed was so critical. They're this organization that specializes
in special needs care, a tremendous partner. They have operations
across Latin America, obviously in Haitian, Jamaica, and in West
Africa as well, and so they understand the context of
the situation that we're working through and if a tremendous team,
(12:23):
So they stepped up to the plate. They handled all
the coordination with the Jamaican government, so we had absolute,
full not just clearance, but support. I mean to the
point that the last members of our team joined us
by way of the Jamaican Coast Guard, adding them and
bringing that team and critical medical supplies to us and
root from Haiti to Jamaica. So we can't say enough
(12:44):
about the support and the cooperation with the Jamaican government
and Mustard Seed, this tremendous organization and encourage everybody to
look at and support and that.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Whole idea behind Tim Tebow's organization has really been heavily
about trafficked people and children and saving them from this situation.
Was that an issue in Haiti? Were you dealing with
anything like that?
Speaker 2 (13:11):
You go to speak to that kind of some work there.
Speaker 4 (13:14):
Yeah, So a lot of the work we did and
initially in Haiti was exactly for that for orphanages that were,
you know, some using some of their kids for prothels
and things like that, or just flat out child trafficking.
But most of those leads that we get come from
Christian based organizations are NGOs in Haiti. So they'll call
TTF they say, hey, look, we think we have a
(13:35):
problem our neighboring orphanage and such. We believe we've gotten
a few kids here that arebuts that came from there,
and then that's how we start kind of doing our
investigation and that's what leads into something like this.
Speaker 5 (13:46):
But this wasn't that exactly. TTF called and.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
Said, we have, you know, around ninety kids that are
in severe need. They've been blocked off due to their
location geographically, they're not kind of a hard spot they're
just north the Porter of Prince, kind of up into
the hills the mountains, a very hard road to get
in and out of. It's beautiful and it's really not
very far from the ocean, so it's a good place
to have the orphanage. It's just hard to get in
and out of, so they couldn't get supplies, and when
(14:11):
they could, the gang started taking the supplies. So we
tried to give them two separate shipments of food and
medical supplies that they needed because these kids have severe
special needs, but they also have severe medical needs, which
includes things medicines they have to take daily and then
you see doctor business weekly. Depending on the child, some
of them need to see a doctor almost daily, so
that wasn't happening. So we're trying to replace that with
(14:32):
nutrition and medicine, but it wasn't. We couldn't get them
to hold on to it because there was no adult
leadership at the compound to stop these gangs from taking
these supplies, so we actually had to hire it. We've
been paying a security team for what six months now, Austin,
So we had to go through Austin and one of
our good friends in contacts and try to get a
security team, Haitian security team that would stay there in place,
(14:55):
and we finally did. And it's not cheap, but it's
the only option we had to figure, you're out, what
we could do to get these kids out and not
let them start to death, because that's that's legitimately what
was happening. You've got You've got kids with with FD
sores and open infections that aren't getting treated. You've got
kids that are already you know, under nouris because of
their disease or ailment, and now they're not even getting.
Speaker 5 (15:16):
The foody're supposed to have on top of that. So
it was a very dire scenario.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
What's the population of Haiti, I mean, it seems like
you're talking about a lot of orphanages in a country
that doesn't seem like it's got that large of a population.
Does it have kind of a an upside down number
of orphan children.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
You've got about eleven to twelve million in the country.
About a third of that, probably more is in the
porterer prints area. You know, orphanages are prolific. Anyone that's
worked there will tell you that ninety five percent of
those kids are not orphans. They are taken there by
their parents and hopes that they're going to get a
(15:54):
better opportunity, they're going to get access to nutrition or
educational opportunities, and so you know, when the terms us
really loosely, and to Taye's point, it's also where we
see a tremendous amount of abuse. So these are vulnerable kids.
We're under the care of somebody else who typically is
(16:14):
well versed.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
At at placating you know.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
NGOs or ignorant North Americans who are seeking They're well intentioned, right,
they're seeking to do good, but they're not within a
framework of accountability and they have no understanding of the context.
So oftentimes you see these kids abused and kept for
kept in the state of poverty because when those heartstrings
are pulled by that person who's there for five days, right,
(16:42):
they're going to write a check and leave, and so
they're not actually bringing accountability to that support system. So
we strongly discourage direct giving without in country context and
relationship and follow up. It's just a recipe for abuse
by all sides. So that truly helped kind of grow
(17:03):
this problem in country.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
So are those people that are directly giving two orphanages
there or is there. I mean because I think that
we know there's a lot of corruption that surround this situation.
We know obviously there's a lot of danger. But I
think everybody when it comes to kids, you just named it,
it tugs on your heart strings and you can very
easily go, well, if I give them money, that will
help them. How do you know? How do you know
(17:28):
what's safe and what's not safe.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
So I worked there for the last fifteen years, got
to work with Tate very closely on a lot, and
I'll speak the language of a Haitian sun, and I
will tell you that I still don't trust myself.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
And so what I'm going to do is work through
a staff.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
So are in a staff in country of eight hundred nations,
who love their country, who would die for their country,
who are serving it right now, a group of mission
of still feeding one hundred and thirty thousand kids a
day in the face of this terrorist group that's running
the city. And so the narrative that's missed so often
is the capacity of so many good, resilient, capable leaders
(18:09):
within the country who are willing to do and want
to do whatever it takes to see Haiti become what
they know it can be.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Haiti was on it was the pearl of the Caribbean.
It's a beautiful country.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
It means land of mountains, and yet you have this
one person of the population that is now the right
language to use is they are an insurgent force who
are terrorizing a country, holding the other twelve million as
hostages to get whatever they want to abuse it. They're
internationally funded, they're well supported. We see arms and funds
(18:40):
from outside the country. This is a choreograph play deal.
This is not kids running around in flip flops. And
that's what we and I continue to see missed in
this narrative. And so we know we appreciate chances like
this to drive that a little bit more, you know.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
And it's just and we've thought about Haiti.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
Wrong, we feel like for so long long, And so anyway,
I'm thankful because you know, you asked the question about
the nature of these kids, and you know, Tate runs
a team of the highest level operators that our country has.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Okay, I don't know a tougher group of guys.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
Watching them carry kids, and I'm watching every single guy
just tears coming down their face carrying these you know,
these m vps, because that's that's what drives them, That's
what drives a character, you know, of the individuals who
are out there servant and and it's such a privilege
to to get to be a part of it.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
You know, I'm putting on the spot a little bit. Uh, But.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
Sis, he's carried them from the boat, just man, that's
what that's what drives every one of us are here.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
So yeah, it's a privilege. M hm.
Speaker 4 (19:53):
I would say to that point too. The I think
what may of the hardest is they were all dressed
up to get.
Speaker 5 (19:58):
On the boat.
Speaker 4 (19:59):
Now, mind you, this is a flat packed tugboat and
there's not an ounce of the boat doesn't have rust
on it.
Speaker 5 (20:03):
It smells like fishing feet, you know.
Speaker 4 (20:05):
And we look like death because we've been sitting outside
for a day and a half, not taking a shower
and sweating, and these kids smell like baby powder. And
they've all got like little prom dresses on. And the
guys had nice clothes on, they had their nicest clothes
on that they could have, and their their backpack ready
to come on the boat. And I think, you know,
one of the girl, I think, and when he caught me,
I was carrying a girl that looked like she was
(20:27):
wearing a prom dress, and she was happy to be there.
Speaker 5 (20:29):
But she just rode a wooden boat.
Speaker 4 (20:31):
To an even shittier ship and then had these bunch
of strange men, you know, pull her off and then
stick her on the back of the boat. And she
was just completely trusting. And that's what bothered me the
most is that when these kids get taken advantage of,
they're just as trusting to the person that took advantage
of them as they were to us. So it bothers
me that they've got that amount of trust still, you know,
even after how long they've spent Haiti and probably how
(20:52):
many times they've had to come in contact with abuse
or something like that, or just dealing with hunger on
a daily basis, whatever it is. I don't know that
I would feel like putting on an ice dress and smiling,
you know, getting on the back of a boat if
that were me, So I'd like to also's point, they're
incredibly resilient, incredibly loving and trusting still, which is amazing
to me.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
It's so easy for us to forget what happens in
other countries because we're so we really truly are privileged
and blessed in the United States in a way that
other countries just aren't. You talked a little bit at
the beginning about Afghanistan, and I think for those of
us watching that withdrawal, seeing the people run to the
(21:34):
plane and fall from the plane, it was again you
feel like, oh my gosh, how does this happen? How
do we Because I think that we felt differently a
little bit about that situation because we all had a
piece of us there, because we knew our military had
been there, We knew that that was something that we
a country, we had changed for the better, especially for
(21:57):
young women. And then to watch that, know that it
was all getting rid away, We're wondering on the sidelines
what can be done? And you guys went there, So
tell us a little bit about what that was like,
because I think it's probably somewhat of a similar situation
when the Taliban comes in and then they take over,
(22:17):
and I would imagine that for those kids, they had
somewhat of a normal life for a while where girls
could go to school, and then that's all getting ripped
away from them.
Speaker 5 (22:29):
Yeah, I think that's what I mean.
Speaker 4 (22:31):
I don't think anyone saw that evacuation needing to happen
because they imagined a draw down and pull out of
Afghanistan that was reasonable spread out over time, maybe even
a year plus. And when that timeline got put on
it and the Taliban was now being seen as a
political organization, everyone scrambling to get out. And the question
we kept getting once we were there helping was like, well,
(22:53):
why didn't they get out sooner? They were there seeing family,
they hear it's happening, they all buy plane tickets and
then they shut down the aircraft. So now they're stuck.
So they bought plane tickets to leave, or they had
plane tickets to go, but they just so happened to
fall within those dates of what two three weeks they
decided to pull out. I mean, you can't everyone in
the country that needs to go to anywhere in the
world is buying plane tickets to leave out of one airport.
Speaker 5 (23:15):
It's not going to happen. So I just hate to
hear people say that.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
For one, and then trying to help during that situation
was very similar to this because the government hadn't dealt
with having NGOs do something like that in a while
where they bypassed what the government said was the right
thing to do, and again I know a lot of
people bypassed exactly what they said to do, so I'm
not saying it's illegal, but it was definitely frowned upon
knowing that we could get our retirements taken away and
we were threatened with everything from jail time, to losing
(23:41):
retirements to whatever.
Speaker 5 (23:43):
If you're a proper.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
Service why if you were, why were you threatened with that?
Speaker 4 (23:48):
They didn't want former service members going into Afghanistan to
be mercenaries, and they've got good reasons for it. But
even if you could prove that you were going in
to be a part of the evacuation or an indio
that wanted to be in and around Afghanistan, they were
discouraging you from any help and they wanted to control everything,
control the narrative, control the support. But the problem was
they weren't providing it. So you have what you saw
(24:11):
Americans that were stuck by the hundreds, if not thousands,
in Afghanistan with no evacuation plan other than this date,
We're done. Good luck for everybody after that. I've never
heard of that in my lifetime.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
So that's what I was to say. I mean, was
this a Biden administration special? Have we ever? Has the
United States ever left people behind like that?
Speaker 4 (24:29):
I know my memory is awful, I'll be honest with you,
and I love history, but I can't find anywhere in
any history book for the United States where we've left
that amount of people sitting for that amount of time,
knowing they have no way to get out and what's
about to be a terrorist controlled state. So that's the
bigger issue. Wasn't that we left people behind. I think
we left people behind with no infrastructure, no aircraft, no
(24:51):
ground evacuation. There's no way to get in and out
of a Taliban controlled Afghanistan, especially not for Americans and
everyone after that date. If you're a or American, you're screwed.
That's the way it was. And I just couldn't believe
that was the answer. And we didn't take that. None
of us did. All the nonprofits you saw them, they
all came together and suck screw that.
Speaker 5 (25:09):
They're Americans. We'll figure it out.
Speaker 4 (25:11):
And I think everyone that did it hats off to
them because we were all getting threatened with some type
of something negative when we came back. So when you
cross back the United States we'll see what happens. But
by the end of that they were asking for a
joint talk or a joint operations center that we could
combine all this information and work together all the evacuations.
Speaker 5 (25:29):
So we stuck to our story. We said we would.
Speaker 4 (25:32):
We did it by the letter of the law, and
by the end of it it turned out much much better.
Almost have we done something positive not something negative. Narrative
much different from beginning to end. But the end state
was they were happy and they had no reason to
be upset with it. Thought, well, they did great, we
have nothing to say. I guess we'll come with that
in hand and be nice.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
And it's amazing how God works it all out for
good when you're doing the right thing. Let's take a
quick commercial break. We'll continue next on a Tutor Dixon podcast.
These missions, they have to be so expensive, So how
do you fund this stuff? I mean, I look at
this and I'm like, this is amazing. But I also
(26:09):
if I take a step back from this, I'm like,
my gosh, you have to have so much in place.
I mean, you talk about the paperwork, but the flights,
moving the kids, this supplies. How do you pay for
all of this, I.
Speaker 5 (26:21):
Mean for this one, it was it was pretty easy.
Speaker 4 (26:23):
We went to Tim Tebow and Steve Ttf. I said, hey,
we really need some funding to do Haiti. Now you know,
I know we've been paying for it over the past
six months. Now is the time to move and we
don't have a choice. It's getting worse. He said, Hey,
I've already got three donors lined up. We're good. You
guys go out the door and we'll get paid for.
And that's usually how it goes for something that's of
(26:44):
dire need like this, and it's been the case even
when we went to Afghanistan. TTF funded it. They paid
us a very large chunk of money very quickly to
go and get there now. And that was exactly what
they said, get there as soon as you can.
Speaker 5 (26:55):
What's going to take? How can we help you?
Speaker 1 (26:57):
And that's so somebody wants to help, do they go
to Sentinel Foundation? What do they do?
Speaker 4 (27:03):
At the time we were we were just starting out.
Sentinel was kind of new still and we were much smaller,
and we had had to pull together a group of
ten nine nine employees excuse me. And then now we've
kind of grown and we have a few more donors
and a few more places to go and ask for funds,
but we still go back to TTF because they are
one of our biggest supporters and one of our first supporters.
So we always give them the first rude of refusal
(27:25):
to help us because I know that's what they want,
and they've got a servant's heart, like Austin knows. We
work with them all the time and there's a reason
that that's who we work with and the majority of
the time, as far as other large nonprofits go, they've
got great hearts.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
So yeah, I'm sorry, you know, from Support Too Foundation
to Sentinel you know, Sentinel Survivalency three and and doing
tremendous work. That's how I got pulled in initially some
child exploitation stuff with them, but strongly recommend people join
us in support and pain his team and the team
(27:56):
there feel privileged to get to YEP.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
I think that people don't realize how much Tim Tebow does,
you know, and they see him as this sport's great,
but he really his heart and his wife they are
so dedicated to helping kids and it's been amazing to
just kind of watch alongside what he's been able to do.
But when you talk to him, it's so genuine. I mean,
(28:22):
this is a guy who's really like, I have a
goal and it is to save kids. And it is
amazing to see what he has been able to create
with that and just how God blessed him with the
ability to get his name out there. And then it's
funny because you watch his life and you go, Okay,
he's going to be the sports great and he took
(28:42):
that and he gave that to these kids. Really, he
took what he was given by God, this gift, and
he gave it to kids across the world. And I
just think it's amazing. It's been amazing to watch what
he's done.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
And it's one hundred percent real.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
That's exactly who he is, been crazy faithful the platform
God's given him and for him to stand there and
to just continue to put that on the line for
the sake of these kids who are never going to
have a voice right nobody else is stepping up for them.
And what a tremendous picture of faithfulness right from a
guy who's just seeking to do it right and follow Jesus.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
Love it absolutely well and you guys too, We so
appreciate what you do I mean, honestly, I listen to
it and I'm amazed by it. And you talk about
the tears you see in the eyes of these men
who are carrying children. It's just such a beautiful picture
because I think there's nothing stronger or more masculine than
someone who goes out there and puts his life on
(29:40):
the line and is willing to pick up these vulnerable kids,
these MVPs and save their lives. So Austin and TJ
thank you, thank you for what you do, and thank
you for talking to us about it today.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Thanks so much for having us, Jeter, thanks for.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
Having us absolutely, and thank you all out there for
joining us today on the podcast. For this episode and others.
As always, go to Tutordison podcast dot com. You can
subscribe right there, or go to the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts and join us next
time on the Tutor Dixon Podcast. Have a blessing.
Welcome to the Tutor Dixon Podcast. I think most of
you have probably heard about the dangers in Haiti right now,
the government kind of being overthrown, all of the chaos.
I mean, we've heard of these gangs that are just
attacking folks. Overall, it's an incredibly dangerous situation. And what
you probably don't hear about every day is the kids
(00:23):
that are on the ground and what they're going through.
And that's why I wanted to bring you a couple
of guys from the Sentinel Foundation today who are going
to talk to us about what's going on on the ground.
They actually did some of these rescue missions in Haiti,
and we are so grateful that there are folks out
there that can do this. Just before we started recording,
(00:43):
I'm like, I'm glad you guys exist because this is
not the kind of thing that I can do, so
I can talk about it, and I'm glad that they
are both here to talk to me. So I have
Austin Holmes with me. He is a senior operations officer
at Sentinel and the chief executive officer and found under
of rally X and also TJ who works as the
(01:04):
chief of Special operations at Sentinel Foundation. Thank you so
much for both being here.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Happy to be here, Thanks so much for having us,
Thanks for having us absolutely.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
So we we're kind of reading through what's going on there,
and I think for people who don't exactly know, I
think there's been a lot of rumors. We hear that
they've been overthrown by gangs. There was some story about cannibalism.
All of these things are very hard for us here
in the United States to understand. So can you just
give us a little bit of background what happened there
(01:35):
before we get into the rescue mission.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Oh man, okay, Golf you chubb in uh. You know,
to understand the situation now, you kind of got to
understand a little bit of the history of Haiti. And
I appreciate that question a lot. You know, Haiti we
joke is it's far more African than Latin American, right,
and so to understand that culture and their viewpoints and
(01:59):
from to voodoo to how that affects.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Their worldview is a really big deal.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
You know, Haiti has a long history and it was
a second it was a second nation or take a
successful revolution in the Western Hemisphere to gain their independence.
So in eighteen o four, and you have this history man,
you have resilient, strong patients that want to be independent.
That's why you almost see that kind of narrative coming
out right now at the gangs strongly pushing.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Back against foreign intervention.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
But you also have a unique worldview that's oftentimes missed
by Westerners. It's it's polytheistic in nature. It's it's animistic,
and it's this idea that and there are multiple gods
playing on at their whims on people's fortunes, and that's
going to impact how they seek to appease those guys.
(02:49):
And so that's a really unique play where it's not
a it's not an uncommon thing for you to hear,
you know, barbecue talking about well, I may pray to God,
but I'm going to pray to.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
These evil spirits and I'm going to deal with the devil.
Well that it's not in conflict in that view.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
It's something that's existed for a long time and it
continues to be pervasive in formative as to how they operate.
But anyway, that's I really appreciate that question about the
context of Haite because it really informs what we're seeing
now with gangs and some of the violence, which you
want to share a little bit about how that manifests
itself for us right now?
Speaker 4 (03:26):
Yeah, I think, I mean, we all know that the
terrorists use terror to guide and drive their will. So
what they need or what they want, they don't have
the ability, like we need to go in and make
an election and have politicians operate on your behalf. They
go in, they scare people and do what they want
to take control, and they think that I think the
more control they have. Ultimately, I think the idea was
to turn it back over to the people.
Speaker 5 (03:47):
It just hasn't worked out that way.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
You know, once people get power, they want more, Once
people get money, they want more. And when what you're
doing isn't scaring someone enough, you got to take it
up a notch, which is where you see the telegram
videos of the annibalism, and like Austin said, cannibalism or
that version of it because of voodoo has been going
on there for a very long time.
Speaker 5 (04:06):
It's not something new.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
It's new to videotape, it's new to put it on
Telegram or Instagram or social media, but it's not something
new that happens in Haiti.
Speaker 5 (04:13):
This happened for quite some time.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
And ritualistic killings along with voodoo, especially with children, it's
very common in Haiti.
Speaker 5 (04:19):
So we see a lot of that, especially with Sentinel.
Speaker 4 (04:22):
We've worked with Austin for years now trying to counter
child trafficking child abuse cases in Haiti, and they're always
a voodoo or always a very dark tide to it,
a very African tie. I would say, more African than Caribbean.
Like Austin said, Wow.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
I think I mean, for me, this is kind of
the first time that I'm fully understanding that because we
heard we heard these rumors, and I think some people
here were like, I mean, what do they really mean
when they say that? But it's so shocking to actually
hear child sacrifice and that kind of thing, and that
makes what you're doing even more powerful. But how do
(04:59):
you even get in in this? How does Sentinel Foundation say, Okay,
this is a situation, obviously a very hostile situation. We're
going to fly right in there and see what we
can do to take care of it.
Speaker 4 (05:13):
I think this started a few years ago when whenever
I met the founder of the Central Foundation, Glenn Devitt,
we discussed fundraising and opportunities. It was just you know,
he and I at the time trying to bring on
other guys that were retiring from Special Forces and our
community to do what I think is a very impactful job,
you know, resturing kids. So we go and we we
(05:36):
end up talking to the Tim Tebow Foundation. We have
a meeting, tim ass to come down, and before we
go into the meeting, Glenn says, hey, man, we go
in there at one place.
Speaker 5 (05:46):
I'm not going, Sadie.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
I was like, okay, I've never been, but that sounds reasonable,
Like whatever you say.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
We going in to the meeting.
Speaker 5 (05:52):
Two hours into it. You know it's supposed to be
an hour meeting. We're already an hour over, worried about
the three hour mark ish.
Speaker 4 (05:59):
And they start talking about the interest and they clearly
like us, they want us to do the job. They
start going over countries that they're interested in. It was
you know, Vietnam, Philippines, place like that. And he was like,
but our number one concern is Haiti. And I knew
it was coming as soon as he said but and
he said nothing else.
Speaker 5 (06:14):
I was like, it's gonna be Haiti. He's going to
say Haiti, and I.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
See Glenn over there, he's got his head in his hands,
and I was like, Okay, we got to say yes.
We're not saying no to Tim Tebow and TTF because
they want to support.
Speaker 5 (06:24):
Us and we want to do what they want us
to do.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
And clearly, if that's what the most need is, that's
where we're going. We just had a lot of risk
mitigation things to go through.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
And this is is that why Glenn said no to
Haiti initially? I mean, what was his initial reason?
Speaker 5 (06:37):
He had been prior and had a really bad experience.
He was I dude, I couldn't get anything done.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
It's really hard to work their super complicated environment. And
this is years before, so that's probably a year or
two before we were sitting here with Tibo. Now this
is four years ago, so that have been six years
ago whenever Glenn had that experience. Well, now we're two
years foward to that. But now we're four years to
hear and we're still working with something that's similar to
what we saw when we first went into Haiti, which
is just gang violence. I mean, in everyday life, it
(07:03):
just filence hard and.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
You don't have airports, you don't have the supportive government,
I mean, how it has to be different than any
other place you go when you don't have any confidence
of how you get there and how you get out.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
It reminds we did a lot for the Afghanistan evacuation,
and it reminds me of not exactly of that, because
it's not a Taliban.
Speaker 5 (07:25):
Controlled state, but it's similar.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
You know, it's a terrorist controlled state, and people there
generally take the brunt of that pain, kids and women
chiefly the weakest, so we see a lot of similarias.
And it's also impossible to get in, almost impossible to
get out. So the borders, like the dr Dominican Republic
closes its borders in and out, and the US government
has been a big part of that, and we've asked
(07:47):
every way that we could think of how to ask
to be able to go in when others can't. But
you just have to be one, go by the letter
of the law and do everything legally, but try to
find as many workarounds as you can to get in.
And the process to get in is allmost as hard
as the rescue, so that is one of the most
difficult parts. And you can often deals with all this
at a much higher level than I have to, but
(08:07):
it's painful.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
So what is that like trying to get in there?
Are you saying physically it's challenging or documents or what
do you mean?
Speaker 4 (08:16):
Both awesome if you want to talk about some stuff,
you want to do all the above.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
So when we on this mission, we arrived in the DR.
I believe it was on Saturday. Maybe the operation happened
on the nineteenth, but the DR was really tightening the
restrictions around travel in and out of Haiti. The airspace
over Haiti was closing and orders both by land in
(08:42):
by sea were being closed off, so we could not
find a route in all of our options. We had
half a dozen options to get in the country, and
then within seventy two hours all of those had got
shut down. Everyone was fearful they were going to lose
permits or or get some kind of significant penalty from
the government.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
And we're sympathetic to that.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
I mean, we certainly understand that the DR has their
own national interest and their population to protect, and they're
concerned about spillover across the border. But we spent more
time troubleshooting how to get in and out, primarily how
to get in, than we did actually run the mission
on it.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
That's how big of an obstacle it was.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
And then the mission was to save kids.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Right, that's right.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
So there's this language that TiVo Foundation uses, which we love.
It's talk about MVPs, your most vulnerable people. And you know,
you have fifty nine high special needs where we've lost
three kids in the last seven months due to inability
to access healthcare and just other critical provisions in country.
(09:46):
And so that area around Portal Prince could not be
a more difficult areadam to operate in right now.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
So we stay nine.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
The team that's in all discussed and wanted to accelerate
getting these fifty nine out tremendous amount of support from
the Jamaican government or not here to bash governments like,
we can't get what we've done without incredible relationships with
you know, host nations. Dr Haiti included US government, but
working with Jamaica was tremendous. There's this organization called Mustard
(10:16):
Seed who stepped up to the plate. I cannot tell
you how difficult it is like to go care for
fifty nine. We did it for three days and Tan
I would both tell you that's probably the best circle
we've ever done where. Oh, I mean, they're a tremendous
amount of need. And you know that's off to the
thirteen caregivers that came across.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
And when you say special needs, how what are you?
What are you dealing with? Because I think about trying
to take my four kids someplace and my kids are
not in that situation. Gathering up four kids can be
a challenge. You're talking about fifty nine special needs children.
What are we looking at? Are you looking at wheelchairs?
Are you looking at you know, mental capacities that are
(10:59):
diferent than the average child. What are we what are
you dealing with?
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Twenty nine?
Speaker 3 (11:05):
We're a mobile And I would say all fifty nine
we're unaware of the difficulty and austerity in their environment.
So I mean when I say severe, I mean we
had thirty in kind of the holding bay at the
now we have two locations where we were basically set
(11:25):
up words on the ship coming in, but the lower
one everyone was a mobile in there. And so, yeah,
I've got five five kids, I've got one Haitian And
this made it feel like a cakewalk being at home
with my five under did right.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Now, let's take a quick commercial break we'll continue next
on the Tutor Dixon podcast. When you get these kids out,
I mean that alone has got to be challenging. Are
you taking them to the US? Where do they go?
What is the ultimate goal for those kids?
Speaker 3 (12:00):
So we were able to plan in this evacuation to
get them out of Haiti. And then this is where
Mustard Seed was so critical. They're this organization that specializes
in special needs care, a tremendous partner. They have operations
across Latin America, obviously in Haitian, Jamaica, and in West
Africa as well, and so they understand the context of
the situation that we're working through and if a tremendous team,
(12:23):
So they stepped up to the plate. They handled all
the coordination with the Jamaican government, so we had absolute,
full not just clearance, but support. I mean to the
point that the last members of our team joined us
by way of the Jamaican Coast Guard, adding them and
bringing that team and critical medical supplies to us and
root from Haiti to Jamaica. So we can't say enough
(12:44):
about the support and the cooperation with the Jamaican government
and Mustard Seed, this tremendous organization and encourage everybody to
look at and support and that.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Whole idea behind Tim Tebow's organization has really been heavily
about trafficked people and children and saving them from this situation.
Was that an issue in Haiti? Were you dealing with
anything like that?
Speaker 2 (13:11):
You go to speak to that kind of some work there.
Speaker 4 (13:14):
Yeah, So a lot of the work we did and
initially in Haiti was exactly for that for orphanages that were,
you know, some using some of their kids for prothels
and things like that, or just flat out child trafficking.
But most of those leads that we get come from
Christian based organizations are NGOs in Haiti. So they'll call
TTF they say, hey, look, we think we have a
(13:35):
problem our neighboring orphanage and such. We believe we've gotten
a few kids here that arebuts that came from there,
and then that's how we start kind of doing our
investigation and that's what leads into something like this.
Speaker 5 (13:46):
But this wasn't that exactly. TTF called and.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
Said, we have, you know, around ninety kids that are
in severe need. They've been blocked off due to their
location geographically, they're not kind of a hard spot they're
just north the Porter of Prince, kind of up into
the hills the mountains, a very hard road to get
in and out of. It's beautiful and it's really not
very far from the ocean, so it's a good place
to have the orphanage. It's just hard to get in
and out of, so they couldn't get supplies, and when
(14:11):
they could, the gang started taking the supplies. So we
tried to give them two separate shipments of food and
medical supplies that they needed because these kids have severe
special needs, but they also have severe medical needs, which
includes things medicines they have to take daily and then
you see doctor business weekly. Depending on the child, some
of them need to see a doctor almost daily, so
that wasn't happening. So we're trying to replace that with
(14:32):
nutrition and medicine, but it wasn't. We couldn't get them
to hold on to it because there was no adult
leadership at the compound to stop these gangs from taking
these supplies, so we actually had to hire it. We've
been paying a security team for what six months now, Austin,
So we had to go through Austin and one of
our good friends in contacts and try to get a
security team, Haitian security team that would stay there in place,
(14:55):
and we finally did. And it's not cheap, but it's
the only option we had to figure, you're out, what
we could do to get these kids out and not
let them start to death, because that's that's legitimately what
was happening. You've got You've got kids with with FD
sores and open infections that aren't getting treated. You've got
kids that are already you know, under nouris because of
their disease or ailment, and now they're not even getting.
Speaker 5 (15:16):
The foody're supposed to have on top of that. So
it was a very dire scenario.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
What's the population of Haiti, I mean, it seems like
you're talking about a lot of orphanages in a country
that doesn't seem like it's got that large of a population.
Does it have kind of a an upside down number
of orphan children.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
You've got about eleven to twelve million in the country.
About a third of that, probably more is in the
porterer prints area. You know, orphanages are prolific. Anyone that's
worked there will tell you that ninety five percent of
those kids are not orphans. They are taken there by
their parents and hopes that they're going to get a
(15:54):
better opportunity, they're going to get access to nutrition or
educational opportunities, and so you know, when the terms us
really loosely, and to Taye's point, it's also where we
see a tremendous amount of abuse. So these are vulnerable kids.
We're under the care of somebody else who typically is
(16:14):
well versed.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
At at placating you know.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
NGOs or ignorant North Americans who are seeking They're well intentioned, right,
they're seeking to do good, but they're not within a
framework of accountability and they have no understanding of the context.
So oftentimes you see these kids abused and kept for
kept in the state of poverty because when those heartstrings
are pulled by that person who's there for five days, right,
(16:42):
they're going to write a check and leave, and so
they're not actually bringing accountability to that support system. So
we strongly discourage direct giving without in country context and
relationship and follow up. It's just a recipe for abuse
by all sides. So that truly helped kind of grow
(17:03):
this problem in country.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
So are those people that are directly giving two orphanages
there or is there. I mean because I think that
we know there's a lot of corruption that surround this situation.
We know obviously there's a lot of danger. But I
think everybody when it comes to kids, you just named it,
it tugs on your heart strings and you can very
easily go, well, if I give them money, that will
help them. How do you know? How do you know
(17:28):
what's safe and what's not safe.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
So I worked there for the last fifteen years, got
to work with Tate very closely on a lot, and
I'll speak the language of a Haitian sun, and I
will tell you that I still don't trust myself.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
And so what I'm going to do is work through
a staff.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
So are in a staff in country of eight hundred nations,
who love their country, who would die for their country,
who are serving it right now, a group of mission
of still feeding one hundred and thirty thousand kids a
day in the face of this terrorist group that's running
the city. And so the narrative that's missed so often
is the capacity of so many good, resilient, capable leaders
(18:09):
within the country who are willing to do and want
to do whatever it takes to see Haiti become what
they know it can be.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Haiti was on it was the pearl of the Caribbean.
It's a beautiful country.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
It means land of mountains, and yet you have this
one person of the population that is now the right
language to use is they are an insurgent force who
are terrorizing a country, holding the other twelve million as
hostages to get whatever they want to abuse it. They're
internationally funded, they're well supported. We see arms and funds
(18:40):
from outside the country. This is a choreograph play deal.
This is not kids running around in flip flops. And
that's what we and I continue to see missed in
this narrative. And so we know we appreciate chances like
this to drive that a little bit more, you know.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
And it's just and we've thought about Haiti.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
Wrong, we feel like for so long long, And so anyway,
I'm thankful because you know, you asked the question about
the nature of these kids, and you know, Tate runs
a team of the highest level operators that our country has.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Okay, I don't know a tougher group of guys.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
Watching them carry kids, and I'm watching every single guy
just tears coming down their face carrying these you know,
these m vps, because that's that's what drives them, That's
what drives a character, you know, of the individuals who
are out there servant and and it's such a privilege
to to get to be a part of it.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
You know, I'm putting on the spot a little bit. Uh, But.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
Sis, he's carried them from the boat, just man, that's
what that's what drives every one of us are here.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
So yeah, it's a privilege. M hm.
Speaker 4 (19:53):
I would say to that point too. The I think
what may of the hardest is they were all dressed
up to get.
Speaker 5 (19:58):
On the boat.
Speaker 4 (19:59):
Now, mind you, this is a flat packed tugboat and
there's not an ounce of the boat doesn't have rust
on it.
Speaker 5 (20:03):
It smells like fishing feet, you know.
Speaker 4 (20:05):
And we look like death because we've been sitting outside
for a day and a half, not taking a shower
and sweating, and these kids smell like baby powder. And
they've all got like little prom dresses on. And the
guys had nice clothes on, they had their nicest clothes
on that they could have, and their their backpack ready
to come on the boat. And I think, you know,
one of the girl, I think, and when he caught me,
I was carrying a girl that looked like she was
(20:27):
wearing a prom dress, and she was happy to be there.
Speaker 5 (20:29):
But she just rode a wooden boat.
Speaker 4 (20:31):
To an even shittier ship and then had these bunch
of strange men, you know, pull her off and then
stick her on the back of the boat. And she
was just completely trusting. And that's what bothered me the
most is that when these kids get taken advantage of,
they're just as trusting to the person that took advantage
of them as they were to us. So it bothers
me that they've got that amount of trust still, you know,
even after how long they've spent Haiti and probably how
(20:52):
many times they've had to come in contact with abuse
or something like that, or just dealing with hunger on
a daily basis, whatever it is. I don't know that
I would feel like putting on an ice dress and smiling,
you know, getting on the back of a boat if
that were me, So I'd like to also's point, they're
incredibly resilient, incredibly loving and trusting still, which is amazing
to me.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
It's so easy for us to forget what happens in
other countries because we're so we really truly are privileged
and blessed in the United States in a way that
other countries just aren't. You talked a little bit at
the beginning about Afghanistan, and I think for those of
us watching that withdrawal, seeing the people run to the
(21:34):
plane and fall from the plane, it was again you
feel like, oh my gosh, how does this happen? How
do we Because I think that we felt differently a
little bit about that situation because we all had a
piece of us there, because we knew our military had
been there, We knew that that was something that we
a country, we had changed for the better, especially for
(21:57):
young women. And then to watch that, know that it
was all getting rid away, We're wondering on the sidelines
what can be done? And you guys went there, So
tell us a little bit about what that was like,
because I think it's probably somewhat of a similar situation
when the Taliban comes in and then they take over,
(22:17):
and I would imagine that for those kids, they had
somewhat of a normal life for a while where girls
could go to school, and then that's all getting ripped
away from them.
Speaker 5 (22:29):
Yeah, I think that's what I mean.
Speaker 4 (22:31):
I don't think anyone saw that evacuation needing to happen
because they imagined a draw down and pull out of
Afghanistan that was reasonable spread out over time, maybe even
a year plus. And when that timeline got put on
it and the Taliban was now being seen as a
political organization, everyone scrambling to get out. And the question
we kept getting once we were there helping was like, well,
(22:53):
why didn't they get out sooner? They were there seeing family,
they hear it's happening, they all buy plane tickets and
then they shut down the aircraft. So now they're stuck.
So they bought plane tickets to leave, or they had
plane tickets to go, but they just so happened to
fall within those dates of what two three weeks they
decided to pull out. I mean, you can't everyone in
the country that needs to go to anywhere in the
world is buying plane tickets to leave out of one airport.
Speaker 5 (23:15):
It's not going to happen. So I just hate to
hear people say that.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
For one, and then trying to help during that situation
was very similar to this because the government hadn't dealt
with having NGOs do something like that in a while
where they bypassed what the government said was the right
thing to do, and again I know a lot of
people bypassed exactly what they said to do, so I'm
not saying it's illegal, but it was definitely frowned upon
knowing that we could get our retirements taken away and
we were threatened with everything from jail time, to losing
(23:41):
retirements to whatever.
Speaker 5 (23:43):
If you're a proper.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
Service why if you were, why were you threatened with that?
Speaker 4 (23:48):
They didn't want former service members going into Afghanistan to
be mercenaries, and they've got good reasons for it. But
even if you could prove that you were going in
to be a part of the evacuation or an indio
that wanted to be in and around Afghanistan, they were
discouraging you from any help and they wanted to control everything,
control the narrative, control the support. But the problem was
they weren't providing it. So you have what you saw
(24:11):
Americans that were stuck by the hundreds, if not thousands,
in Afghanistan with no evacuation plan other than this date,
We're done. Good luck for everybody after that. I've never
heard of that in my lifetime.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
So that's what I was to say. I mean, was
this a Biden administration special? Have we ever? Has the
United States ever left people behind like that?
Speaker 4 (24:29):
I know my memory is awful, I'll be honest with you,
and I love history, but I can't find anywhere in
any history book for the United States where we've left
that amount of people sitting for that amount of time,
knowing they have no way to get out and what's
about to be a terrorist controlled state. So that's the
bigger issue. Wasn't that we left people behind. I think
we left people behind with no infrastructure, no aircraft, no
(24:51):
ground evacuation. There's no way to get in and out
of a Taliban controlled Afghanistan, especially not for Americans and
everyone after that date. If you're a or American, you're screwed.
That's the way it was. And I just couldn't believe
that was the answer. And we didn't take that. None
of us did. All the nonprofits you saw them, they
all came together and suck screw that.
Speaker 5 (25:09):
They're Americans. We'll figure it out.
Speaker 4 (25:11):
And I think everyone that did it hats off to
them because we were all getting threatened with some type
of something negative when we came back. So when you
cross back the United States we'll see what happens. But
by the end of that they were asking for a
joint talk or a joint operations center that we could
combine all this information and work together all the evacuations.
Speaker 5 (25:29):
So we stuck to our story. We said we would.
Speaker 4 (25:32):
We did it by the letter of the law, and
by the end of it it turned out much much better.
Almost have we done something positive not something negative. Narrative
much different from beginning to end. But the end state
was they were happy and they had no reason to
be upset with it. Thought, well, they did great, we
have nothing to say. I guess we'll come with that
in hand and be nice.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
And it's amazing how God works it all out for
good when you're doing the right thing. Let's take a
quick commercial break. We'll continue next on a Tutor Dixon podcast.
These missions, they have to be so expensive, So how
do you fund this stuff? I mean, I look at
this and I'm like, this is amazing. But I also
(26:09):
if I take a step back from this, I'm like,
my gosh, you have to have so much in place.
I mean, you talk about the paperwork, but the flights,
moving the kids, this supplies. How do you pay for
all of this, I.
Speaker 5 (26:21):
Mean for this one, it was it was pretty easy.
Speaker 4 (26:23):
We went to Tim Tebow and Steve Ttf. I said, hey,
we really need some funding to do Haiti. Now you know,
I know we've been paying for it over the past
six months. Now is the time to move and we
don't have a choice. It's getting worse. He said, Hey,
I've already got three donors lined up. We're good. You
guys go out the door and we'll get paid for.
And that's usually how it goes for something that's of
(26:44):
dire need like this, and it's been the case even
when we went to Afghanistan. TTF funded it. They paid
us a very large chunk of money very quickly to
go and get there now. And that was exactly what
they said, get there as soon as you can.
Speaker 5 (26:55):
What's going to take? How can we help you?
Speaker 1 (26:57):
And that's so somebody wants to help, do they go
to Sentinel Foundation? What do they do?
Speaker 4 (27:03):
At the time we were we were just starting out.
Sentinel was kind of new still and we were much smaller,
and we had had to pull together a group of
ten nine nine employees excuse me. And then now we've
kind of grown and we have a few more donors
and a few more places to go and ask for funds,
but we still go back to TTF because they are
one of our biggest supporters and one of our first supporters.
So we always give them the first rude of refusal
(27:25):
to help us because I know that's what they want,
and they've got a servant's heart, like Austin knows. We
work with them all the time and there's a reason
that that's who we work with and the majority of
the time, as far as other large nonprofits go, they've
got great hearts.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
So yeah, I'm sorry, you know, from Support Too Foundation
to Sentinel you know, Sentinel Survivalency three and and doing
tremendous work. That's how I got pulled in initially some
child exploitation stuff with them, but strongly recommend people join
us in support and pain his team and the team
(27:56):
there feel privileged to get to YEP.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
I think that people don't realize how much Tim Tebow does,
you know, and they see him as this sport's great,
but he really his heart and his wife they are
so dedicated to helping kids and it's been amazing to
just kind of watch alongside what he's been able to do.
But when you talk to him, it's so genuine. I mean,
(28:22):
this is a guy who's really like, I have a
goal and it is to save kids. And it is
amazing to see what he has been able to create
with that and just how God blessed him with the
ability to get his name out there. And then it's
funny because you watch his life and you go, Okay,
he's going to be the sports great and he took
(28:42):
that and he gave that to these kids. Really, he
took what he was given by God, this gift, and
he gave it to kids across the world. And I
just think it's amazing. It's been amazing to watch what
he's done.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
And it's one hundred percent real.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
That's exactly who he is, been crazy faithful the platform
God's given him and for him to stand there and
to just continue to put that on the line for
the sake of these kids who are never going to
have a voice right nobody else is stepping up for them.
And what a tremendous picture of faithfulness right from a
guy who's just seeking to do it right and follow Jesus.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
Love it absolutely well and you guys too, We so
appreciate what you do I mean, honestly, I listen to
it and I'm amazed by it. And you talk about
the tears you see in the eyes of these men
who are carrying children. It's just such a beautiful picture
because I think there's nothing stronger or more masculine than
someone who goes out there and puts his life on
(29:40):
the line and is willing to pick up these vulnerable kids,
these MVPs and save their lives. So Austin and TJ
thank you, thank you for what you do, and thank
you for talking to us about it today.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Thanks so much for having us, Jeter, thanks for.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
Having us absolutely, and thank you all out there for
joining us today on the podcast. For this episode and others.
As always, go to Tutordison podcast dot com. You can
subscribe right there, or go to the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts and join us next
time on the Tutor Dixon Podcast. Have a blessing.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Nikki Glaser Podcast
Every week comedian and infamous roaster Nikki Glaser provides a fun, fast-paced, and brutally honest look into current pop-culture and her own personal life.