21 January 2010
Mission Aviation Fellowship is playing a critical role in the international relief response to last week's devastating earthquake in Haiti.
MAF's aircraft are now in action, with a fourth aircraft set to join the fleet later this week. A new Kodiak 100 aircraft, currently based in Nampa, Idaho, is enroute to Haiti, along with two MAF pilots and two engineers.
Our flights are bringing desperately-needed relief supplies to outlying towns and returning to Port-au-Prince with stranded international workers.
Most of the work will be evacuating the city of Jacmel on the coast south of the capital, which has also been hit hard by the earthquake.
With three aircraft and a hangar strategically based in Port au Prince, and with vital experience in disaster response, MAF is central to the relief effort.
MAF is assisting several international aid agencies by coordinating the storage, distribution, and transportation of food, water and medical supplies, as well as tarpaulins and water purification systems.
The number dead is estimated at 200,000 with a further 1.5 million Haitians left homeless. It is vital that food, water, medical help and shelter reach people as quickly as possible.
Our hangar is being used as a logistics centre for tons of essential aid flown in to the international airport from around the world.
The United States Air Force, now in control of the airport, is sending many humanitarian cargo flights to the MAF hangar. Our team is helping planes refuel and clear cargo through Haitian customs, as well as unload the cargo into the MAF hangar, ready for distribution.
'The air traffic controllers, knowing there is space at the MAF hangar area, have allowed numerous flights to come into this maxed out airport,' explains John Woodberry, MAF Disaster Response Manager.
With the team providing vital logistics support, John describes what this has recently achieved: Today's flights brought in 5,000lbs of cargo and over 78 critical relief workers, doctors, surgeons - so needed - and flew 70 out.
The previous day, with our partner Mission Flights International, we flew in 63 surgeons, nurses and doctors along with their medical equipment and supplies.
We have established a reliable communication centre at the Port-au-Prince airport, utilising a GATR inflatable satellite system. This is a critically important high-bandwidth system allowing us and at least 16 other aid agencies to effectively collaborate in bringing relief supplies to the people of Haiti - including Operation Blessing, World Relief, World Concern, Food for the Hungry and Medical Teams International.
One local MAF staff member is still missing, presumed dead. All other staff are well and all are now accounted for.
A team of key staff members remain to coordinate relief efforts. MAF missionaries homes sustained little damage and are housing relief workers from many agencies. Other MAF and relief staff are sleeping in the ministry's hangar.
Notes to Editors
MAF has been operating in Haiti since 1986. Three planes are based at the MAF hangar at the airport in Port-au-Prince. This disaster follows the widespread devastation caused by a series of hurricanes in Autumn 2008. With roads cut off and damaged, MAF's Cessna aircraft flew essential emergency relief supplies to cut-off communities across the country.
Founded in 1945, MAF has been overcoming barriers in some of the world's poorest nations for over 60 years. MAF is a lifeline to those who live cut off, deprived of the basic necessities of life. MAF works in more than 35 countries, partnering with over 1,000 relief, development and mission agencies.
MAF UK's head office is in Folkestone, Kent.
Contact Emma Stewart
Telephone 01303 852813
Email:
Emma.Stewart@maf-uk.org