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| RAAF in mercy dash to Madang with medicine | |
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THE Royal Australian Air Force,
with direct assistance from the Melanesian Foundation and the provincial
health office, has coordinated the delivery of more than 1,500kg of
medical supplies in boxes to more than 50 aid posts in Middle Ramu,
Sumkar and Rai Coast districts of Madang province. The RAAF Caribou planes usually conduct their training in Madang at this time of the year but, this time, they were asked by the Melanesian Foundation to provide assistance to deliver medicine to Madang’s remote locations. RAAF efforts have been commended by the foundation chairman Sir Peter Barter and they included the flight crew under the leadership of flight officers Michael Read and Michael Burgess. “We are grateful for the support and efforts of the RAAF team who came to our rescue to deliver so much of our medical deliveries that sat in the Provincial Health Medical stores for more than six months,” Sir Peter said. The project was coordinated by the director of the Melanesian Foundation, Peter Memafu. Sir Peter said he has done an excellent job in liaising with the Australian Defence Force “and I am quite sure he and the efforts of the ADF was appreciated by the people in these remote regions of Madang province. Aiome, Simbai, Teptep, Bundi and Sangapi airstripos can be very difficult to access when there is rain or too much cloud cover this usually makes the landing strips dangerous for pilots to land or take-off. This was one of the reasons that delayed the uplifting of many medical supplies using commercial flights to these remote areas because the pilots could not land due to the airstrip locations and weather patterns. So far the nedicine boxes have been able to be deliver medicine to aidposts in Josephstaal, Aiome, Karkar, Long Island, Teptep and Simbai using the RAAF, Sir Peter said. |
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