Mission airline saving lives

The National National
Samaritan Aviation missionary pilot Chris Cooke carrying seven-year-old Deni along the Sepik River who was bitten by a snake onto the floatplane to be taken for treatment in Wewak last week. – Picture supplied

By LULU MARK
A SEVEN-YEAR-OLD boy bitten by snake along the Sepik River last week has survived, thanks to the quick response of the Samaritan Aviation (SA).
Samaritan Aviation founder and chief executive officer Mark Palm said young Deni was bitten by a death adder at his village in Ambunti, East Sepik.
He said travelling by canoe to reach the waterfront or Wewak would have taken two days and the child needed to be treated promptly.
Palm said the SA team quickly administered the anti-venom at Ambunti and stabilised Deni before flying him to Wewak.
In an interview this week, Palm explained the operations of the faith-based airline.
He highlighted that partnership with the government had enabled them to serve people in the districts.
Samaritan Aviation has been based in Wewak since 2010 and operates floatplanes to provide emergency flights, medicine delivery, disaster relief and community health programmes in East Sepik and soon into Western.
The Sepik River communities are some of the most remote places in the province and country.
People have to walk several days to reach the Sepik River where they can get on a boat or canoe to seek health care in Wewak.
Its two floatplanes land and take off anywhere along the 1,140km long Sepik River offering medical help and hope to around 250,000 people.
“The emergencies range from snakebites to pregnancy complications, malaria, diarrhoea, dehydration, trauma among others,” Palm added.
“The Samaritan Aviation flights really help the people.
“The travel time is cut enabling the people to get help sooner.”
Palm said the travel time by boat for 1-2 days was cut to 25 minutes, 2-3 days to 43 minutes and 3-5 days to an hour.
“More than 120 villages and 40 aid posts have been directly impacted with thousands of lives saved over the last 12 years.”
Palm said the mission airline was able to serve the people thanks to an ongoing partnership with the Health Department and provincial health authority, administration and district offices.
He said a new missionary family arrived on Wednesday and a new floatplane would arrive in the country early next year to serve in Western.