Atauro Island in Timor-Leste is a tropical paradise of turquoise waters, swaying palms, white sandy beaches and some of the most beautiful and biodiverse coral reefs in the world.
Off the beaten track, the word ‘unspoilt’ might have been invented for it. However, such isolation comes at a cost as Timorese mother Juvita Soares Gomes discovered when her two-month-old Amorcisa dos Santos developed a serious lung infection. It couldn’t be treated on the island. Her child’s life depended on getting to Timor-Leste’s hospital, a journey of up to three hours across the water in the capital Dili – and one that Amorcisa might not survive. She was lucky. An emergency evacuation flight provided by Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF), Timor-Leste’s only air ambulance, swooped in and flew her to the hospital in 15 minutes. It probably saved her life.
The air ambulance in Timor-Leste is just one of many projects established across the world by MAF, a charity whose aim it is to bring help, hope and healing through aviation. Its story began at the end of the second world war, when founders Murray Kendon, Stuart King and Jack Hemmings and a band of RAF comrades struck upon an idea: what if they took their newly acquired aviation skills and used them as a force for good? The aviation charity was launched in 1945, bought their first aircraft in 1947 and undertook their first mission, across Africa, in 1948, when King and Hemmings conducted a six-month survey of Africa. Coming up to 80 years later, MAF is now the world’s largest humanitarian airline, with one of its 115 aircraft taking off or landing somewhere in the world every six minutes.
