Mansari was working along cliffs in Kashiguan, Nepal, gathering fodder to feed her animals when a rock that had been loosened during earlier earthquakes fell on her head. The 23-year-old fell 350m to the bottom of the cliff, where her parents found her unconscious but still breathing. They brought her to the Phase Nepal health post, where staff quickly arranged a helicopter through MAF. She was treated at a hospital in Kathmandu and her life was saved.

This is just one of the many people who have been impacted by the Nepal earthquakes, and it’s one example of how MAF’s organized helicopter service is making a difference in a country that is still reeling from the after effects of this disaster.

Here’s a look back over the past year at the damage done by the earthquakes and the difference MAF’s disaster response has made, thanks to the Lord working through generous donors.

Last spring, multiple earthquakes flattened entire villages—leaving thousands dead and millions in desperate situations.

Landslides cut off roads and footpaths, making it impossible for aid to reach some of the hardest-hit villages.

When word got out that MAF was organizing flights, MAF’s “command center” was buzzing as soon as the doors opened. Photo by LuAnne Cadd.

Groups quickly signed up to bring food and supplies to devastated communities.

Medevac flights brought critical patients to the hospital in Kathmandu.

Thanks to MAF’s coordinated flights, Médecins du Monde (MdM) was able to set up temporary clinics to treat the people. In one location, they were able to avert a serious Shigella dysentery outbreak.

Mountain Child’s remote schools were able to continue when MAF flew in 60 large canvas tents via sling load—cargo suspended by cable beneath the helicopter. The tents served as temporary classrooms and boarding facilities, enabling the schools to keep running and preventing vulnerable children from falling into the hands of traffickers.

The road to recovery is a long one for the people of Nepal, as they rebuild their homes and their livelihoods.

MAF is still in Nepal to help with recovery efforts and is taking steps towards having a long-term presence in the country.

Thank you for remembering the people of Nepal today. Please continue to pray for them and the groups that are serving there. And please pray for MAF’s leadership as they determine the best way to continue serving in this beautiful, rugged country. If the Lord is prompting your heart, please consider giving toward MAF’s future efforts in Nepal.

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Airport meeting gives insight into what British Charity CAN is doing in Nepal

Doug Scott, CBE, made the first British ascent of [the south-west face of] Everest in 1975, and since then has wanted to help the mountain people of Nepal.  He founded UK based charity, Community Action Nepal (CAN).  Since CAN started operation in 1994 it has established, and is now sustaining over 40 grass-root projects.

We didn’t get to meet Doug Scott on 11 December 2015[1] (he was off checking other projects at a different location that day) but we did meet Trish, Scott’s wife, CAN’s Administrator from the UK Anne Manger, and local Project Manager Murari Gautam, as they waited to board a Fishtail Air helicopter to take a MAF coordinated flight to Melamchi. Joining the CAN team on the flight was also Melamchi Head Teacher Purna and his wife Thagmu Gautam.  CAN has developed strong links with the Melamchi community over recent years, providing the roof for the community funded Health Clinic, improving the water supply and building the secondary school.  CAN also funds two teachers, teaching materials, musical instruments, training in the use of these instruments and library books for the school.

Head Teacher Purna explained that before the earthquake Melamchi School was a flagship school among public schools in Nepal. The school of 220 (with 140 boarders from the valley) boasted 100% pass rates, an alumni of nurses, teachers and engineers, and even one medical graduate from Manchester, England.  Unfortunately the earthquake totally destroyed everything – not only the whole school, it destroyed the whole village.  There was not one house left standing.  Thagmu (Purna’s wife) explained that she still has neck injuries from being buried in rubble in her home and had to be rescued by one of her sons.

Trish and the team were flying in the B2 helicopter (AKA) from Kathmandu to Melamchi.  Trish explains in her blog that “Because we were a large number and a lot to do Anne and myself flew with Murari and Purna and wife in a MAF helicopter straight to Melamchi. Here we had six hours of a long and calm inspection of everything. When I was here in July it was a very emotional meeting with the community – now they have gathered themselves together, and so have we – it was very useful to go around with Purna, Murari and Kami Lama, the Headman and absorb all their stories – stories of 113 children having lunch when the earthquake struck and not one killed – Purna saved by a table – the drama of dragging his wife Jhamu (Thagmu) from the rubble.”

Their time was short, but thanks to a helicopter flight, the CAN team were able to spend six precious hours with the community in Melamchi listening to their stories and encouraging them.

[1] Alrena Martis and Angela Harding were departing in the other Fishtail Air helicopter (AJI) to Kerauji

The post A Chance Meeting appeared first on Mission Aviation Fellowship.

Captain Niklas flies for Fishtail Air, the local helicopter company that MAF has been partnering with since the earthquake earlier this year. Today Captain Niklas is taking MAF Nepal Acting Country Director Alrena Martis, the newly arrived short-term MAF Nepal Administrator (me), and Nepali psychologist Binit Sharma, from Kathmandu to Kerauja in the Gorkha region.²

Kerauja is not a place for a fixed wing aircraft. It’s a large scattering of orange tarpaulins and small dwellings etched into the face of a very steep hill, and with a platform perched on a cliff edge just big enough for a helicopter. The vast majority of people are still living in tents and without power. All are without running water. But Nepali people are typically stoic and the ones who live in Kerauja are no exception. As the helicopter drops us off, the locals greet us warmly and adorn us with silk scarves. They are full of smiles and appear carefree despite their extremely difficult circumstances. Yet psychologist Binit predicts that he will find many of them suffering from post-trauma stress disorder, depression and grief. I am reminded that these people have emotional needs, just like us.

MAF’s operation in Nepal is clearly different to normal MAF programmes. We are not using our own aircraft, but instead use our expertise and connections to arrange, coordinate and fund helicopter transport with a reputable local company for a variety of local and international relief organisations. Dipesh Regmi, People in Need’s Main Logistician in Kathmandu says “PIN’s working experience with MAF is very positive, they (MAF) have been flexible during the emergency period and this continues until the present. MAF provides an indispensable service for PIN since we work in remote VDCs (Village Development Committees) in the upper Gorkha District.” My visit to Kerauja highlights the impact that MAF is having on these gracious Nepali people. Jesus said that “whatever you did for one of the least of my brothers and sisters, you did for me.” What I see in Kerauja are brothers and sisters in great need and MAF’s ministry bringing them help. That’s even more awesome than the helicopter flight!
¹11 December 2015 in Fishtail Air’s Eurocopter AS350 B3 (call sign 9N-AJI)
²Departing Kathmandu (KTM) at around 10am and returning at around 1.35pm for Kerauja-Gorkha Army Base-Kerauja-Prok-Kerauja-Gorkha Army Base-Solyanter-Kerauja-KTM. Alrena and I were on the KTM-Kerauja, Kerauja-Prok-Kerauja and Kerauja-KTM legs only. The flights were also to move PIN staff from one location to another as well as to move a small amount of cargo.

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Here are also some short stories demonstrating the difference the helicopter facility is making:

Lakpa and Sanatan, Nepali Volunteers

Lakpa and Sanatan survived the Nepal earthquake intact in Kathmandu, but felt desperate to help their fellow countrymen who were suffering. Through friends and a Facebook plea for volunteers, they and many others began contacting their foreign friends asking for financial help. As money came in, they purchased food and tarps and began delivering to needy areas. Soon they began receiving emails and calls from more remote areas pleading for help. An Indian NGO offered to supply them with relief materials, but they had to pay for transport and the villages were in completely inaccessible mountains.

Frustrated with the cost and delay of hiring a commercial helicopter, a local NGO volunteered to sign up with MAF so the small team could book flights through their organisation. “Before we found out about MAF,” Lakpa says, “We had reached the point of desperation – how to get flights as early as possible and as affordable as possible. We were trying very hard to help the Dhading people.”

Within days of registering, the team flew more than 1700 kilos of food to five villages who had received no help at all until that point.

Dr. Gerda Pohl, Medical Coordinator with PHASE Nepal

“What struck me is that we consider helicopters to be a luxury. They’re usually used to get climbing teams up to base camps, or for hotel owners building a new suite for their guests. The average poor people who live in those villages never get a chance to use a helicopter in their life. But now they actually are completely dependent on air transport to survive, to get essentials like food and shelter, and our health workers.

Everything that needs to go up there needs to go by helicopter at the moment, so that’s why MAF makes such a difference. If you pay for the full cost of a helicopter, it’s almost impossible to carry tons and tons of iron roofing sheets. Kashingaun is about 500 households, and they all need about 100 kilos of iron sheets. So do the math. It’s a lot of helicopters. MAF has enabled us to actually get those corrugated iron sheets out.”

“I knew those communities very well, and I knew that they were all struggling on the edge of going under with poverty. They all had an absolute minimum of possessions and an absolute minimum standard of living, and then they’ve lost even that. Now they’re not there with nothing, but with less than nothing because they’ve got to take down the collapsed houses, dig through the rubble, they’ve all got debts probably anyway, and now they’ve got to borrow money to actually start rebuilding. A lot of families won’t recover.”

PHASE Nepal continues to use MAF helicopters to fly iron roofing sheets, food, and medical personnel into the remote villages cut off from all access in the high mountain area of the Nupri Valley.

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May 15, 2015 – Visit to Sambung, Sindhupulchok

The Salvation Army made a second visit to Sambung to deliver aid. They have about 56 households and six people died in the earthquake. At the time of the second earthquake on 12 May, they were completing their mourning ritual from the first earthquake by having a community meal. The second earthquake caused a landslide on the road to their village, which they will have to wait now to clear until after the monsoon season concludes in three to four months. They also noticed a lot of cracks open up on the hillside terraces of their village. They have assembled many small structures using the material from the rubble of destroyed homes, as there were no homes that were not destroyed, and are sleeping in these small areas with just wood, mats and sometimes just leaves to lie on.

Suku is over 60 and has seven children; four of her sons have gone to work in the Gulf countries. When I asked what sort of work they are doing there or if they send money, she said she didn’t know and that she doesn’t hear from them often. She explained that her family took a 400,000-rupee loan (about $3,900) to build their family house a few years ago, but now their house has collapsed and she is not sure what she is going to do.

Their village school, covering class 1 through 4 for 50 or 60 children, has collapsed and they are very worried about their children’s future and don’t know what the government will do to rebuild. They also asked for food, tarps, clothes and solar lamps. The Salvation Army was able to deliver 11 bags of rice and 10 solar lamps via the MAF arranged helicopter that picked up the assessment team.

Photos courtesy of The Salvation Army World Service Office

Bring hope to the people of Nepal:
Donate to MAF:
www.maf.org/nepal

Donate to The Salvation Army:
donate.salvationarmyusa.org/sawso/nepal-earthquake-disaster-relief

The post The Salvation Army Delivers Solar Lamps and Food in Nepal appeared first on Mission Aviation Fellowship.

“Our hearts are hurting for the people of Nepal in the wake of this tragedy,” said John Boyd, MAF president and CEO.  “While MAF’s disaster response team evaluates how we can best serve, we will continue to pray for those living in the disaster area.”

MAF does not have a base in Nepal, and it is not yet known whether MAF’s aviation and communication services will be needed in this particular situation. The ministry is connecting with other aid groups to determine the most appropriate response.

MAF serves in remote areas of 31 countries. In addition to supporting churches, medical agencies, and development organizations, MAF frequently responds to disasters, and provided critical aid following Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines and the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.

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