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The difference between life and death

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Difference between life and death

According to the World Health Organisation, Timor-Leste has one of the highest malnutrition rates in the world, and there’s only one nurse and midwife for every 1,000 people.

District health centres offering basic medical care are scattered country-wide, but for more advanced treatment, patients must travel to ‘Hospital Nacional Guido Valadares’ (HNGV) in the capital Dili – the country’s one and only hospital serving a population of 1.3 million people.

MAF has an agreement with the Timorese government to provide the country’s only air ambulance service.

The geographical challenges

70% of Timorese live in rural areas, surrounded by mountainous terrain and bad roads.

Much of Timor-Leste is mountainous with bad roads making overland travel challenging (credit: Mark Hewes)

Much of Timor-Leste is mountainous with bad roads making overland travel challenging (credit: Mark Hewes)

‘During the wet season, the land isn’t stable so there are landslides and roads are cut off. Rough seas can cause boat cancellations, so islanders are totally disconnected from the mainland.’

Part of Timor-Leste – Oecusse – is surrounded by neighbouring Indonesia. Without MAF, this exclave would be very difficult to reach:

‘We get a lot of medevac calls from Oecusse. Transporting critical patients overnight by boat is unimaginable, so MAF is crucial for those communities.

A young life saved

MAF Timor-Leste pilot, Ping, recalls a medevac of 6-year-old Bendito, who contracted severe dengue fever and nearly died.

Bendito lives on Atauro Island and without MAF’s 15-minute flight, he would have had to endure a three-hour uncomfortable, unreliable ferry:

‘Bendito was bleeding from his nose, so his mother took him to the district health centre. His condition was severe, and he needed to be transferred to the main HNGV hospital.’

Ping continues, ‘When Bendito’s mother saw MAF’s plane landing, she was relieved that her son was going to get better treatment. Bendito would have died without proper medical care.’

He has since made a full recovery.

MAF medevacked Bendito who nearly died of severe dengue fever (credit: Lobitos Alves)

Every medevac patient is accompanied by a doctor or nurse to and from HNGV (credit: Mark Hewes)

Every medevac patient is accompanied by a doctor or nurse to and from HNGV (credit: Mark Hewes)

MAF Timor-Leste fly around one patient, like Bendito, per day. Through your support, MAF can continue providing this vital service to the people who need it most.

For over 75 years, MAF has been flying over jungles, mountains, rivers and deserts to help isolated people in hard-to-reach places. Every six minutes, an MAF plane is taking off or landing somewhere in the world, bringing hope to thousands of people.

Your gifts can help keep MAF flying for life, so we can continue providing vital medevacs to the people who need them most.

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The video below explains more about MAF’s impact in Timor-Leste

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About MAF UK

Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) is the world’s largest humanitarian air operator. For over 75 years we have been flying light aircraft over jungles, mountains, swamps and deserts. We enable more than 1,400 aid, development and mission organisations to bring medical care, emergency relief and long-term development. Our pilots and personnel deliver relief workers, doctors, pastors, school books, food, medicines - everything that can only be safely and speedily delivered by air. Our faithful supporters give and pray to make this all possible.