Kudos to our Good Samaritans

THE people of Angoram in East Sepik will be celebrating the arrival of a second floatplane operated by the Christian charity Samaritan Aviation.
It will a joyous occasion for the Angoram people and thousands of others along the 700 mile Sepik River the organisation has been serving since it commenced operations in the province in 2016.
The National’s weekend edition tomorrow has the story of how two men driven by a purpose and backed by others sharing a vision can make a difference.
Samaritan Aviation’s website declares that it “is a non-profit organisation, funded through private donations. Sharing Christ’s love, saving lives, impacting communities and providing access and hope to the poor and forgotten would not be possible without donations from people like you.”
That basically is the thrust of Samaritan Aviation’s mission.  It is harnessing the combined goodwill and resources of others and channelling them to where they have the greatest and most appreciated impacted.
In PNG, Samaritan Aviation successfully partners with a number of organisations in order to effectively and efficiently provides these services.
These organisations include the East Sepik government, the Catholic Health Services, Department of Health area medical store, Pacific Islands Ministries, the Seventh-day Adventist Medical Outreach, Save the Children Australia, Oxfam Australia and Heart to Heart International.
For many people along the meandering river who need health services, Samaritan Aviation is truly the godsend it was meant to be. Hundreds of lives have been saved in the six years.
What started out as a dream to share God’s love through action in PNG for Samaritan Aviation’s president Mark Palm and a friend Gary Bustin in 1994 has turned into reality.
After beginning their operation in East Sepik, it quickly became evident that more people were needed to do the work, but more importantly, another aircraft was needed to complement the first.
Samaritan Aviation provides emergency life flights, medical supply flights, literacy and health programme flights as well as disaster relief flights all without charge to the people of East Sepik.
Even with the increase of staff from the United States and the addition of more local employees, several challenges still remain.
One of these challenges was the reason Mark Palm visited Angoram MP Salio Waipo in early 2014.
It was put to the MP then that a second samanbalus was needed because when the only plane was grounded for repairs, there were emergencies not attended to.
Waipo gave an undertaking that Angoram district would lend a hand to purchase a second floatplane. A few weeks later a K400,000 cheque was sent to Samaritan Aviation.
That amount was enough to initially purchase the plane, but much work still had to be done.  The final amount to purchase, refurbish and ship the plane to PNG came to over K1.5 million. These funds were made available from the Angoram district, the East Sepik government and generous donations from generous Samaritan Aviation partners in the US.
But the story of Samaritan Aviation continues to expand because along with the enthusiastic support from Papua New Guineans and a host of people and organisations from the United States who have never set foot in this country but yet have donated close to K800,000 of their own funds towards the refurbish, retro-fit and shipping of the second floatplane to PNG.
On Saturday May 14 at Angoram, a happy and proud MP Waipo and the district administrator, Raymond Wungen, will be hosting a celebration along with other friends and partners from Papua New Guinea and the United States, including Samaritan Aviation’s board chairman, Joseph Burns.
The arrival of the second floatplane brings a lot of hope for these people whose only means of transportation has been motorised dugouts and dinghies.
The support given by other organisations to Samaritan Aviation’s efforts is just what is required to reach such remote parts of the country.
Another organisation that has similarly impacted the lives of rural communities is the Youth With A Mission through its medical ships.
Like Samaritan Aviation, the YWAM has been greatly assisted and encouraged by the backing of government and private businesses which believed in the great work it was doing.
We salute Samaritan Aviation, YWAM and other organisations and individuals who are the veritable Good Samaritans of today.