Flying for a sustainable future
Jesus’ teaching about the Kingdom of God is remarkably consistent with the vision of a sustainable future recently adopted by the United Nations (UN)
Jesus’ teaching about the Kingdom of God is remarkably consistent with the vision of a sustainable future recently adopted by the United Nations (UN)
Covering areas of public life from healthcare provision to decent jobs, and gender equality to climate action, the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) overlap with MAF’s belief that every community, however remote, should have the essentials for life.
Most people applaud the UN for adopting such ambitious goals to end extreme poverty by 2030.
However, many Christians also embrace the fact that the SDGs are so consistent with Bible teaching on social justice.
Indeed, the 17 SDGs chime both with Jesus’ compassionate examples and the Old Testament principles found in Deuteronomy 15:11, 1 Chronicles 18:14 and Isaiah 10: 1-2.
The UN defines sustainable development as, ‘meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.’
Furthermore, they put MAF’s mission to reach isolated people with help, hope and healing right at the centre of the sustainable development agenda.
Alongside the goals, the UN also states, ‘We pledge that no one will be left behind, and we will endeavour to reach the furthest behind first.’
So – in an echo of Matthew 19:30 – ‘many who are last will be first.’
‘If MAF’s partner organisations can’t get to isolated people groups, then the SDGs will never be attained,’ says MAF Development Advisor Alan Robinson.
‘The areas with the highest rates of disability, malaria, maternal mortality – and those most lacking in healthcare, education and equality – are frequently the most remote areas.
‘A major barrier for many NGOs and missions is the lack of safe, reliable travel to provide an effective field presence. MAF’s flight service to hard-to-reach areas is the perfect solution.
'Of course, MAF applies the principle of "leave no one behind" to physical and spiritual poverty, enabling the work of mission organisations, Bible translators and distributors, and local churches across the world.
‘The SDGs tend to have a focus on physical poverty and so – however successful they are – the successes will be temporal. The eternal element of holistic mission is so important.’
In Khulna, the third-largest city in Bangladesh, sanitation in many areas consists of latrines and septic tanks. Untreated human waste from these is dumped in waterways, destroying the health of the poorest people.
Not only is sustainable development intrinsic to MAF’s own vision of reaching isolated people, our aircraft also multiply the success of 2,000 partner organisations across all 17 SDGs
In March, MAF flew staff from SNV Netherlands Development Organisation to the south-western city to establish a project that will revolutionise waste management services and vastly reduce contamination of public water resources.
The fastest way SNV staff can reach the region is by MAF’s floatplane. Without us, overland travel from Dhaka to Khulna takes at least eight hours – costing a day’s work. (See key opposite for SDGs 6, 8, 11.)
For ten years, MAF has been flying volunteer doctors and dentists to remote Malagasy communities on mobile medical safaris, following the key
sustainability principle of partnership and co-operation with local authorities.
Recently, a 28-strong mission team visited Anjabetrongo, to provide medical treatment for all ages, health and developmental check-ups for school pupils, and a children’s Bible camp.
As a result, 684 patients were treated for problems including hernias, parasite infections, sexually transmitted diseases, toothache and malaria. (See key above for related SDGs 3, 10, 17.)
The staff at Medair’s Stabilisation Centre in the remote northern area of Renk save the lives of severely malnourished children daily, thanks to crucial supplies flown in by MAF planes.
Much of the cargo is medical but – as famine’s grip tightens – it has also included F-100 therapeutic milk to treat severe malnutrition among children.
Dangerously thin for his 2½ years, Rashid was vomiting and had diarrhoea when first admitted to the Centre.
But, thanks to nutritional supplements and antibiotics, he lives. (See key above for related SDGs 1, 2, 3.)
Story Joanna Roberts Photos LuAnne Cadd and Diana Gorter/Medair
Bangladesh is one of the world’s poorest and most densely populated nations. Flooding from monsoons and cyclones pose serious threats
Madagascar is the fourth largest island in the world, and one of the poorest. Nearly 50% of children under 5 are suffering from malnutrition
South Sudan has few roads across its vast swampy plains, meaning aid and mission groups depend on MAF's aircraft to reach people suffering through hunger, conflict and isolation.
Dave Waterman knows all about working in extreme conditions in South Sudan. He changed an engine in scorching heat and drank nearly eight litres of water a day to survive. MAF’s Jo Lamb, gets the lowdown…
Pastor Dave Jaggerman from Wyoming and New Yorker Sean Gardner, flew into Gulu on the Uganda-South Sudan border to deliver chaplaincy training in Nimule with Far Reaching Ministries, whom MAF fly regularly.
In Autumn last year, MAF Madagascar had the privilege of flying two Bible translators on the first flight of 5Y-AMF after it had a major maintenance overhaul for the last two years.
Patrick Keller is a pilot for MAF in Madagascar, and the family has been in Madagascar for over 10 years.
MAF recently flew staff from Jago Nari a Bangladeshi NGO researching how children from Bangladesh’s minority Manta people group can receive an education in a culturally sensitive setting.
For the approximately two million people who live on the island of Bhola, life is defined by hardship. With practically no medical facilities or social provision available, Bhola’s name ‘forgotten place,’ is sadly apt.
There are over eight hundred rivers in Bangladesh, emptying nutrient-rich water into the Bay of Bengal. But the waters carry a terrible threat to the children in locations like Bhola, the largest island in the delta.
Just over a year ago a little girl called Imanya received her first prosthetic legs. She gradually got the hang of walking and recently returned to be fitted with new pair.
Missionaries working in remote areas of South Sudan don’t have easy access to basic food items such as vegetables, fruit and eggs. So once a month, MAF flies the veggie run, bringing a healthier diet to AIM missionaries living along the route of the eastern shuttle.
MAF passengers in South Sudan have been training church leaders to become agents of healing and promotors of peace through Biblical principles of healing, forgiveness and reconciliation.
The principle of a ‘safe space’ for women is fundamental to the Danish Refugee Council (DRC). In Rhino Camp, northern Uganda, they are putting it into practice with remarkable results.
In 2018, MAF carried out their 100th Medical Safari in Madagascar. Patients, including a little girl called Liny received surgery. She had a tumour the size of a grapefruit removed.
When Samaritan’s Purse repairs a cleft lip in South Sudan, they are changing a life. The procedure, which takes less than an hour to perform, transforms the future for children and adults who are ostracised and hidden away.
Good News Hospital (HVM) in Mandritsara Madagascar is helping women heal and move on with their lives through their annual fistula camp.
Meshack Nagete was a victim at a school shooting in Lokichogio and almost died. 16 months later he is finally able to fly with MAF to Nairobi to get a prosthetic leg, crutches and a wheelchair.
Last week, the MAF team in Madagascar flew thousands of live vaccines to assist in the fight against measles.
Giving out seeds and tools to help rural farmer is not enough for MAF passengers from ACTED. The agriculturalists teach improved farming methods to create more productive, resilient communities.
MAF partners Mat and Katy Linley work with AIM (Africa Inland Mission) at the Good News Hospital in Mandritsara, Madagascar.
In April 2018, conflict forced a large number of people to flee Rumbek North in central South Sudan. They ended up in Yirol as Internally Displaced People (IDP).
Medevacs are always urgent, but crossing borders with an unconscious patient can be a challenge.
Jemimah Ruth Aarakit works as an education project manager for Adventist Development and Relief Agency in South Sudan. The Christian NGO is working in 19 schools in Kapoeta state.
In November 2018, pilot Patrick Keller flew a team of Italian eye doctors who had spent a fortnight restoring sight in Madagascar.
A christian ministry helped South Sudanese refugee Issa overcome trauma and fear. Their very name in Swahili is a faith-filled declaration: Tutapona — ‘We will be healed!’
A crude ‘public toilet’ sits about 30 meters back from the Rupsa Ghat boat dock in Khulna. It’s a tiny corrugated-iron shack with three sides, no roof, and two round concrete slabs with holes to stand on.
Bishop Taban Paride's inspirational vision for Holy Trinity Peace Village Kuron shows where the road to peace may lead in South Sudan.
In just 3 years, a new sport has exploded across the schools and neighbourhoods of Juba and Maridi where 60 community teams and 30 school teams now compete. In a country where women have often struggled to make their voices heard, the exciting thing, is that all the players are girls!
In Madagascar, thanks to The Seed Company, an affiliate of Wycliffe Bible Translators, life-transforming portions of scripture are in progress for speakers of ten Malagasy languages.
Winfred Wanjiku works as a nurse in the transition centre at Kakuma Refugee Camp, where refugees are given medical attention, food and hope by the centre's caring staff.
When fighting broke out in Juba, South Sudan, in July 2016, MAF was forced to evacuate its team of international staff and families.
A disabled girl was considered worthless until she was noticed by someone outside her family.
On 1 June 2018 MAF flew to Ulang, South Sudan with almost a ton of well drilling equipment for Medair. The area is home to refugees fleeing fighting less than 20 miles away.
There was a great celebration when the food trucks finally rolled into Mundri South Sudan in March - four months later than planned.
Simon Sala works to raise the quality of life for disabled people in South Sudan by helping to get them mobile.
Last week MAF flew medevac flights for two men who sustained gunshot wounds in separate attacks on the country's perilous roads. These are their stories...
Bangladesh is experiencing a hunger crisis and MAF flies organisation International Fertiliser Development Centre who help families increase their crop yields in order to feed themselves and to sell to others in need.
Les Vandenburg is a missionary who is bringing the Gospel to the Toposa people of South Sudan, with the help of his translator Lamano and two motorbikes which flew with MAF!
Sometimes all the passenger seats are taken out of our Caravan aeroplanes. As was the case with a chartered flight for Tearfund in South Sudan.
When MAF’s Cessna 182 landed in the village of Chukudum, it was the first time ever that the Didinga people in the south-east of South Sudan had seen a Bible in their mother tongue.
MAF regularly flies the ADAMS team and investors in a unique project producing a seafood delicacy that wouldn’t be out of place on the finest al-a-carte menu - soft-shell crab!
Manuela needed to be flown to a hospital in Juba when she became seriously ill with cerebral malaria. Story and photos by Thorkild Jørgensen.
Pope Francis has invited all men and women, regardless of their religious denomination, to join a special Day of Prayer and Fasting for Peace for war-torn nations, including the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and South Sudan.
Stuart and Jack fly back to Khartoum before continuing south across Sudan. Extreme heat and the challenges of navigating featureless terrain persist. The intrepid pair are tested to the limit when they are blown off course.
The German Red Cross and Red Crescent conducts a simulation on Hatiya Island using a new process called Forecast-based Financing that bridges a much-needed gap in disaster-preparedness.
Leoni Bouwer tells how MAF Flies Wycliffe Bible Translators from Mananara in the north of Madagascar to workshops in the capital Antananarivo several times a year.
Jump on-board as Pilot Sam Johnston flies the Western Equatoria shuttle service in South Sudan. 21 passengers, 11 organisations, 4 remote airstrips - all in one busy day's work!
Plan International are helping to improve the lives of Bangladesh's children through education and MAF are helping them work faster.
In April 2016, MAF organised for a medical team to be flown to a patient called Melanie in a critical condition. She returned to the hospital in September 2017 to say thank you. Story by Pilot Josh Plett
In 2013, during a visit to Bartholomew’s Orphanage in Kajo Keji, Communications Officer Jill Vine noticed a rusting wheelchair frame that belonged to a teenage orphan. Story Jill Vine Photos 2013 Achim Appel 2017 Claire Wise de Wet
Medair operates a 24-hour maternity facility at the Yusuf Batil camp for Sudanese refugees in the far northeast corner of South Sudan. MAF has been supporting Medair’s work in Maban since they started in 2012.
Hillary Muni is head of World Relief’s Human Resource and Church Empowerment departments – working to build up the local church in remote villages such as Ibba and Maridi in South Sudan.
A team from WomenforWomen, who specialise in plastic surgery on burn victims, operates on 53 women and children at the Friendship Hospital ship in Bangladesh, giving freely and receiving in return. Story LuAnne Cadd
Lives are changed on every MAF medical safari to the remote town of Beroroha
He drove past them every day. He saw their tragic situation and he knew he could help. They desperately needed water and he provided just that, meeting one of their most basic human needs.
Pilot Dave Forney flew Every Village mission teams to the far north of South Sudan, where Every Village is using radio to reach into the homes with the Gospel
Welcome to one of the most peaceful places in all of South Sudan – the award-winning Holy Trinity Peace Village in Kuron.
‘Did you know that South Sudan is one of only four countries in the world that have produced more than one million refugees?' asks Dave Forney, MAF Uganda Pilot
At 191cm tall, Eivind has to quite literally squash himself into the cockpit of MAF’s smallest aircraft; so it clearly isn’t comfort or even the plane's performance that ignites his passion for the Cessna 182!
Meet the real Charlie Brown – a pioneering, practical missionary and a big inspiration to MAF's pilots in South Sudan. Karyn Ball, MAF's Communications Officer, interviews him.
As a humanitarian crisis looms over war-torn South Sudan, MAF is working closely with NGO partners to fly emergency food and medical supplies. Amid the physical and political heat came this flight carrying something literally 'cool' and life-saving for 50,000 children.
No, not the type in Spielberg's film E.T. - but have you ever wondered how many bicycles can fit in a Cessna Grand Caravan aircraft? And why they will have a huge impact?
MAF in Madagascar was excited to support SIL International and Wycliffe Bible Translators by bringing together translation teams from every corner of the island.
In South Sudan, a heartfelt request to ‘Help bring God’s Word to the Laarim people’ has been heard, and MAF is privileged to help make it possible.
Little Rosella’s cleft lip meant she couldn’t eat, talk or smile like any other girl. When Ruben Plomp from Mercy Ships examined her in remote Bekodoka, she made him realise how great the need is in Madagascar.
EMERGENCY FLIGHT | Chris walked through the door and I could immediately tell his day had been far from easy. There was a tukul fire in Kajo Keji. The two boys lost their mother in the blaze...
The Dillinghams arrived in Madagascar just a month before MAF’s marine partner Mercy Ships, the largest charitable floating hospital ship in the world, docked in the eastern port of Tamatave.
Bangladesh has been hailed by the UN for achieving several Millennium Development Goals (MDG) targets in school enrolment, immunisation and infant mortality rates. And Aporna is one who has seen the benefits.
South Sudan has the highest maternal mortality rate in the world, but MAF is helping its midwives - and other midwives from around the world - to bring about radical change.
MAF's longest flight in South Sudan is also one of the most vital, bringing in life-saving supplies for displaced people in the far north of the country in partnership with Medair. In the rainy season, it's impossible to reach.
Two-year-old Fitia suffered severe burns when a pot of boiling water fell on her, but a medevac flight in an MAF plane meant she could receive the life-saving treatment she needed.
Did you know that the concept of a latrine is alien to some people? Here's how to introduce the idea and teach the value of sanitation and hygiene in this remote part of South Sudan.
You're a mother. Conflict grips your country. Food is scarce. Where do you take your malnourished child to get help?
Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are real people with real hopes and dreams, forced from their homes. They are vulnerable, and MAF wants to help them. LuAnne Cadd had the privilege to talk to some of them in volatile South Sudan.
Thousands of supporters helped MAF celebrate 25 years of ministry in Madagascar. And Madagascar is grateful, as Jo Lamb found out.
From the pilot to the passengers, you won't find any men aboard this MAF mission flight in Madagascar!
Kiir Dau Mathiang knows a great deal about suffering, he also knows a lot about how God can turn suffering around for his purposes.
When times are hard, MAF deliveries can prove essential to help villages facing famine
A delivery of precious nutritional supplement bars changes lives in Pulchoul
Gord Skonik is a regular MAF traveller to and from South Sudan, and shares what he calls a 'MAF moment'
MAF deliveries are providing a lifeline for many facing crisis situations
MAF’s roving reporter LuAnne Cadd describes her first impressions of Bangladesh - one of the world’s most densely populated countries
LuAnne Cadd meets an inspirational eye-team MAF flew to a remote corner of South Sudan
MAF Pilot Josh Plett talks about a recent 'MAMAFY' flight and how they are helping the pastors and missionaries in Madagascar
MAF was privileged to lend logistical support to the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, when he visited South Sudan in his capacity as Chair of Christian Aid.
Pilot Dave Forney, serving with MAF in Uganda, shares why 'kids love planes'
Why MAF's floatplane is helping to improve the lives of those suffering from malnutrition
As famine threatens South Sudan, Tearfund relies on MAF to get food supplies for their feeding programme in Motot
One year after cyclone Mahasen struck southern Bangladesh, Beauty and her family are still working hard to rebuild their lives. MAF and GIZ are partnering with such people them to help them back on track
MAF Madagascar’s reputation as a supplier of medical aid makes all the difference to Nononje, an elderly lady wounded in a cattle raid
Flying MAF for the second time, Archbishop Justin Welby visits a town ravaged by South Sudan’s recent ethnic fighting