Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF)

The Guavi people in Western Province were excited to receive bibles from MAF. Pilots Renee Brewer and Corne Noordhoek, said the people are always beaming with happiness when they receive something as interesting as these bible boxes.

Mission Aviation Fellowship in partnership with the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) has helped overcome some of these challenges.

A Community Health Worker (CHW) at the Telefomin district hospital, Ephraim Urunok emphasized the inconvenience of reaching these villages by foot and spoke about the dependence on such partnerships with MAF.

 "There are no other options, like cars and roads, or waterways to catch a boat, they don’t exist. Therefore, we only have MAF to be able to do that kind of (health patrol) work here in the Telefomin District.

The hospital’s solar power system failed seven years ago and midwives here have been delivering babies under the glow of mobile phones and torches.

The arrival of babies at most times comes at the wee hours of the night, sending mothers and midwives into a mud rush, scrambling for light and water.

A local midwife at Telefomin Rural Hospital, Judith Charles, shares that her job gets difficult when there are no lights. She has no choice but to resort to the use of a mobile phone and torchlights.

A team surveyed potential landing sites for a plan to improve health care for isolated communities in PNG’s Western Province.

According to MAF, preparations are currently underway to bring a float plane to PNG to make health patrols into the wetland areas easier.

MAF PNG Interim Country Director, Doug Miles, said; “We’re making available a different platform to deliver in areas where we cannot get a land-based aircraft”.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), for every 1000 births in PNG, as many as nine mothers and 24 newborn babies die. Papua New Guinea has the highest rate of maternal and newborn mortality in WHO’s Western Pacific Region.

With no proper road access and safe airstrips, the only way to reach health services is a perilous boat journey.

Recently, the people of Fiyak celebrated when an MAF plane made its first official landing on the Fiyak airstrip. The community rebuilt the airstrip. They were trained and equipped by the Rural Airstrip Agency (RAA).

MAF PNG’s Bookings and Operations Officer, Serah Michael, shared that Medevacs are MAF’s priority. It's life and death in terms of saving a life in the remote areas of Papua New Guinea.

Due to the consequences faced, locals worked hard to open an airstrip for the first time in years. 

Recently, the people of Auwi celebrated when the Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) plane made its first landing on the rebuilt airstrip. 

According to Mathias Glass, a long-serving MAF PNG pilot, his last landing at Auwi airstrip via an MAF Twin Otter was on September 11, 2007.

Surrounded by endless hills and mountain peaks, the people of Sikoi in Jiwaka Province celebrate as Sikoi airstrip is among five airstrips to be opened in rural areas of the country. Sikoi Airstrip follows the opening of Rum Airstrip in November 2023, Yakona and Dimanbil in October 2023 and Aiyu in September 2023. 

Youth of Sikoi danced and older people shed tears of joy, waving their Bibles as they celebrated what is to them, the only way out of isolation. 

This was reiterated by the Western Highlands Area Supervisor of SDA Mission, Richard Jacob, who worked with MAF to overcome the distance and difficulty of reaching the area. Mamusi is a rural village located near the Yuat River, in a valley bordering Enga, East Sepik, and Madang provinces.

“We’ve been doing a mission trip there. When I started as the area supervisor, they gave me the mandate to put a church there, and so I said let’s go where the aeroplane can”, said Jacob.

MAF’s last price increase was in 2014. MAF chose not to increase prices for several years to assist the remote communities, delaying it even further in response to the economic impact of the pandemic. 

However, with the overall increase in the cost of consumer goods due to inflation, and a substantial increase in fuel prices, as well as changes to foreign exchange rates, the increase to the price of airfares is now needed and is an inevitable step.