A proposed clinic for rural mothers evacuated via helicopter will finally come into fruition with its first ever funding of K1million from the Morobe Provincial Government.
“The clinic is for mothers we medevac from remote areas of Papua New Guinea via our helicopters, through our not-for-profit organization, the Mountain Area Medical Airlift (MAMA) Foundation,” Manolos Aviation Ltd chief executive officer Jurgen Ruh says.
Ruh said the idea is that when there is an emergency call for mothers with child-birth complications, and they are picked up from remote areas, they go straight into the clinic for operations or get treated right away to save their lives.
“They are stabilized on stretchers inside the helicopter and flown to Lae, when the helicopter lands at the Lae Heliport, the patient is transferred straight into the clinic where emergency operations can be conducted.”
“When it’s an emergency, we don’t want to waste time. We want the mother to be assisted swiftly and this is the only way we can ensure that mothers we medevac get help quickly.”
Morobe Governor Luther Wenge before handing over the cheque of K1million on Dec. 14th, 2023, said Papua New Guinea is currently going through a difficult time in terms of providing health services to remote and inaccessible rural areas of the country.
“A bulk of our people live in the rural areas far away from the cities, and we are separated by sea, by rivers and high mountains. We are separated because of the lack of roads,” Wenge said.
“People want to live in those remote areas because land is important, and it is their land, they own that land. Despite the hardships of no roads or no airstrips or aidposts, they want to continue to live there, and it is very difficult when they are sick, and confronted with all kinds of diseases.”
“It is difficult to bring them to the nearest health facility to get treatment, and the only effective transportation for them to get help quickly is helicopter.”
Ruh said the K1 million funding will go to a separate account and this will ensure the clinic is set up to standard, and installed with medical equipment and supplies.
“A separate account will be created for funds like this and if we get support from other donors and partners to help us set up this clinic, all funds will go into that account.”
He said a fundraising dinner will be hosted by MAMA Foundation annually to raise funds to support the establishment of this “pre-hospital care clinic”.
MAMA Foundation is a non-profit organization, founded by the CEO of Manolos Aviation Ltd, as a social services delivery platform.
MAMA Foundation partners with Manolos Aviation Ltd to assist people in remote PNG survive life-threatening complications, by transporting them via helicopter ambulances to urban hospitals, where they have access to health care and emergency treatment.
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