Cheri is flying a Cessna Caravan for Air Serv, International providing air transportation to the humanitarian organizations working in the remote areas of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Cheri, from Raleigh, North Carolina, is a Certified Flight Instructor, and in addition to having a Single Engine Land rating, holds Multi-Engine and Air Transport Pilot ratings.

Cheri studied at the Oklahoma State University and was selected from a large pool of highly qualified applicants considered for 2001 scholarship awards.

The Congo

Since 1997, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DROC; formerly called Zaire) has been rent by ethnic strife and civil war, touched off by a massive inflow of refugees from the fighting in Rwanda and Burundi.

The DROC, slightly less than 1/4th the size of the US, is a land of jungles and highlands - less than 3% of the land is arable. Active volcanoes add to the landscape in the Great Rift Valley. Only 229 airports exist in the country, of which only 24 have paved runways.

Comprised of over 50 million people, the life expectancy is less than 50 years. The infant mortality rate is almost 100 deaths for every 1,000 births.

The economy of the DROC has declined drastically since the mid-1980s. The war, which began in August 1998, has dramatically reduced national output and government revenue, has increased external debt, and has resulted in the deaths from war, famine, and disease of perhaps 3.5 million people.