When the second world war ended, a group of RAF personnel resolved to do something positive with their newly honed skills. This led to the founding of a charity that’s now the world’s largest humanitarian air operator
Atauro Island in Timor-Leste is a tropical paradise of turquoise waters, swaying palms, white sandy beaches and some of the most beautiful and biodiverse coral reefs in the world.
Off the beaten track, the word ‘unspoilt’ might have been invented for it. However, such isolation comes at a cost as Timorese mother Juvita Soares Gomes discovered when her two-month-old Amorcisa dos Santos developed a serious lung infection. It couldn’t be treated on the island. Her child’s life depended on getting to Timor-Leste’s hospital, a journey of up to three hours across the water in the capital Dili – and one that Amorcisa might not survive. She was lucky. An emergency evacuation flight provided by Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF), Timor-Leste’s only air ambulance, swooped in and flew her to the hospital in 15 minutes. It probably saved her life.
The air ambulance in Timor-Leste is just one of many projects established across the world by MAF, a charity whose aim it is to bring help, hope and healing through aviation. Its story began at the end of the second world war, when founders Murray Kendon, Stuart King and Jack Hemmings and a band of RAF comrades struck upon an idea: what if they took their newly acquired aviation skills and used them as a force for good? The aviation charity was launched in 1945, bought their first aircraft in 1947 and undertook their first mission, across Africa, in 1948, when King and Hemmings conducted a six-month survey of Africa. Coming up to 80 years later, MAF is now the world’s largest humanitarian airline, with one of its 115 aircraft taking off or landing somewhere in the world every six minutes.
MAF’s route map covers more than 1,000 destinations, many of which cannot be safely or speedily reached by road. Its planes fly over mountains, jungles, swamps and deserts, getting emergency aid and disaster relief to isolated communities that are affected by war, natural disaster and disease.
MAF is now the world’s largest humanitarian air operator, with one of its aircraft taking off or landing somewhere in the world every six minutes
The craft carry food, aid, life-saving medicines and sometimes even schoolbooks. They transport development and relief workers, NGOs, missionaries, domestic abuse survivors, nurses, doctors and patients – just like Amorcisa in Timor-Leste – who are in need of urgent medical care.
MAF’s planes were there in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide in 1994, the Boxing Day tsunami in Indonesia in 2004, Hurricane Matthew in Haiti in 2016, and the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2018. And it was a MAF plane that flew the BBC’s Michael Buerk and Mohamed Amin to Ethiopia to report on the famine in 1984. Today, MAF partners with more than 1,500 aid, development, and mission organisations, including Unicef, the World Health Organization and the Red Cross.
A medevac flight to transport two mothers with sick children to Dili. Image: Mark Hewes
In Timor-Leste, where MAF established its programme in 2007, the bulk of its work involves medical evacuation flights (medevacs). Timor-Leste is one of the world’s poorest countries, and its maternal mortality rate, at 195 per 100,000 live births, is one of the highest in south-east Asia. The MAF medevacs provide a lifeline for the country’s population of 1.4 million people, three-quarters of whom live in remote villages, where limited access to healthcare can turn even treatable conditions into fatalities. MAF’s pilots reduce the hospital transfer time to minutes, crossing rugged mountains, desolate desert and raging rivers to save lives.
Continuing care once the journey’s over
On arrival at Guido Valadares National Hospital (HNGV), MAF doesn’t just leave the patients to recover after surgery. Care continues for the duration of their stay. Estella Noronha, MAF’s Closing The Loop coordinator in Timor-Leste, explains: “When patients get picked up by MAF, they are very remote and very poorly. Some have no food, no clean clothes and no contact with their rural village. MAF saw this need and started the care pack project.”
An MAF care pack provides all the essentials a patient and their family needs in hospital, such as clothes, toiletries, a towel, food, drinks, hand gel and phone vouchers. “It’s a small thing that makes a big difference,” says Noronha.
Juavita Soares Gomes and baby Amorcisa, for example, ended up spending two weeks at the hospital, miles away from home. “When we arrived in Dili, the MAF team gave us a care bag containing basic needs,” said Gomes. “This means a lot to us because we didn’t bring enough supplies for an extended hospital stay.”
Mother Juvita Soares Gomes and her baby pictured with a MAF captain before they return home. Image: Lobitos Alves
It was a similar story for Henricos Mandela, whose son Juvanio Gerson dos Santos was transferred to HNGV from Suai, in Timor-Leste’s rural south-west. “At the airport the MAF team gave us a package that contained food, drinking water and sanitary materials like soap, toothpaste, a towel and some clothes,” says Mandela. “It was really helpful for us because during the evacuation to transfer us from Suai to Dili, we had a very limited time in [the] emergency. We weren’t able to bring more stuff and had not enough money to go out for shopping. But this present offered by MAF meant a lot and made us feel cared for and loved.”
MAF’s goal is to prepare and deliver 1,000 care packs to medevac patients in Timor-Leste each year. “When they receive a bag, it shows we care,” says MAF’s Estella Noronha. “It means so much that I can remind people they are not forgotten.”
Main image: MAF’s care pack for medevac patients. The care pack is designed to be given to medevac patients during hospital stays, when the urgency of the situation means they’re unable to go shopping for supplies. Photographed by Lobitos Alves