St Marks Church Utley. Serving Christ, one another and the world

Mission Aviation Fellowship UK

Flying for Life

St Mark’s links with MAF are fairly recent and we are now linked with Michael and Nicki Duncalfe, a British couple, working in Papua New Guinea (PNG)

MAF operates 150 aircraft in 30 countries. They fly aircraft so people living in remote areas can receive the help and support they require. This includes flying sick or injured people to the nearest medical centre as well as assisting mission workers.

The Duncalfes arrived in PNG in January 1994, accompanied by our four sons then aged 6 - 13. Michael is currently the Senior Captain of the 19 seat, twin-engined DHC6 Twin Otters, responsible for training pilots and supervising the Twin Otter programme. We have lived in Goroka, Eastern Highlands Province since November 2002.

MAF has served the churches and rural communities in PNG for over 50 years. Initially a support to missions bringing the Christian gospel, health care and education into the country’s mainland, MAF is still the only link to the outside world for many people.

MAF flies people for the national churches and missions, health workers, teachers, students, people on their own business, and many others. Medical evacuations are a frequent occurrence. Many tonnes of freight are flown each year: crops are taken to market from the remote villages; food, medicines, educational materials and building supplies, just about anything you can think of, are flown in. MAF also provides the only postal service for much of the highlands.

Fact file:

In 2003 MAF-PNG aircraft:

1. Flew a total of 8,616 hours, a total of 22,098 separate flights
2. Covered a total distance of 2.14 million kilometres
3. Operated into 340 different airstrips
4. Carried 63,000 passengers and 4.42 million kilogrammes (that’s 4,420 tonnes) of freight of whom 7,615 passengers were church or mission staff receiving subsidised fares and over 254 tonnes was church or mission freight carried at a subsidised rate.
5. Medical evacuations of 450 adults and 30 children were made from remote communities to a medical centre. Of these 190 were accompanying guardians, the rest patients.
6. 3,330 education, health and community development workers and 25.4 tonnes of medical supplies were carried.
7. 590 tonnes of village produce (coffee, vegetables etc) were transported to markets.

For PNG:

1. 75% of the country’s 5.25 million people live in remote areas
2. 22% of the population have an income of less than one US dollar per day.
3. Maternal mortality during childbirth is 3.7 per 1,000 women.
4. Infant mortality (below 1 year) is 14%.
5. 112 per 1,000 (11.2%) children under 5 will die, and this number is increasing. The rate in the
6. US is 7 per 1,000 (0.7%).

Literacy, human development, AIDS etc are all equally issues of concern.

More information on the Duncalfes at www.duncalfes.com and for MAF at www.maf-uk.org