By  February 5, 2016, published in Community News Commons

This is one in a series of dispatches from David G. Newman, who attended the recent Rotary World Peace Conference 2016 in Ontario, California. These stories are inspired by the organizers and presenters to this peace conference and are posted by Mr. Newman on CNC as part of the process of advancing Positive Peace in Winnipeg. 

Bazzell Baz, a retired CIA field agent, founded a USA charity – the Association for Recovery of Children – when he chose to spend the rest of his life saving victims of child exploitation and human trafficking.

He told the audience of about 1,000 Rotarians and other peace builders that, “We all have one thing in common. We have 24 hours in a day. What are you doing with yours?”

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2003 rescue of Lilly Snyder, kidnapped from U.S. and taken to Costa Rica.

As president of ARC, Baz recruits other retirees from the police, military and CIA to work with him in this volunteer effort of rescuing missing and exploited children whom authorities can’t find in the United States and in other parts of the world.

Taking on the most impossible cases, Baz offers his services for free to those families of missing kids. He funds these rescue missions out of his own pocket and from donations ARC receives.

“I have been at this for 22 years. I asked God

[after Black Hawk down in 1993] why God was not doing something about this [child victims of oppression and violence]. God’s answer: ‘I did. I created you.’”

Baz then challenged each of us.

He said, “One man or woman with courage is a majority [so] take it upon yourself to just do it.”

Read the original article here.