"MAF really saved his life."
- Meliana Ribera, mother of medevac patient -
For parents and caregivers living in remote communities, accessing medical care can often take hours or even days, by car or on foot.
By which point, it's often too late.
By donating today, you can give isolated people access to critical medical care when they need it most. Saving hours, and giving back a lifetime.
Meliana is a mother of five children living in Suai, a remote part of Timor-Leste. She has access to basic medical care in the city, but any specialised treatment requires a six-to-eight-hour one-way trip to the capital.
One night, her youngest child, Geovanio, woke up crying and vomiting. She could see that something wasn't quite right, so she took him to the local hospital immediately.
The doctors identified that baby Geovanio had hydrocephalus, a condition causing fluid to build up in his brain. Without treatment, his health would continue to deteriorate, leading to serious disabilities or worse, death.
With a simple medical procedure, Geovanio would make a full recovery.
But it wasn't that simple.
"Unfortunately, he could not continue his treatment in Suai because there were no paediatrician specialists.
This required special care at the national hospital in Dili, the capital on the northern coast," said Henricos, Geovanio's father.
Geovanio's father, Henricos
Baby Geovanio was fighting for his life. His head was bandaged, his eyes and mouth closed, and blood was everywhere.
His parents wanted to do everything they could to save their baby. But they weren't sure if he would make the six-to-eight-hour journey to the national hospital.
And then hope came in the form of a MAF plane.
Will you give today to help fund the next MAF medical evacuation (medevac) flight in Timor-Leste, saving hours of travel along poor roads?
The emergency MAF flight cut down the treacherous journey to just 35 minutes by air.
And Geovanio arrived at the hospital just in time to save his life.
“MAF’s planes really helped us a lot in this critical moment, as they were the only option to save my son’s life,” said Henricos.
“If he had travelled by ambulance at that time, he might have lost his life because his condition was grave.”
Devastatingly, many mothers living in isolation like Meliana will face similar emergencies this year but may not have access to the care they need for their family.
Right now, MAF is the only option for medical evacuation flights in Timor-Leste.
And already this year, nearly 400 Timorese people have called upon MAF Medevac flights for help, with almost 150 of those being children and infants.
You can ensure that people across Timor-Leste have access to immediate medical care when an emergency happens. By giving a one-off gift today, you can help fund a short emergency medical flight and save another life like Geovanio’s.