Have you ever imagined living in an isolated area, far away from health facilities, with minimal access to communication and suffering from a very serious illness but not being able to get the help that is needed to treat it?
This is what happened to a woman living in the village of Yasip, located in the middle of the jungle in Papua, Indonesia. It takes about two days to reach the nearest town, Dekai, where there are proper health facilities. You have to cross rivers in a small boat and then continue the journey by car.
We received the information about this patient from a man who used to work in the village. He was contacted by a villager who had walked for four hours from the village to a place where there was a telephone network so that he could contact the man in the city. And then this man came to our office with the news about this seriously ill woman in Yasip.
I immediately began preparing to fly the next day. The village of Yasip is in the south of the island of Papua, where the weather is often very bad during these months. When we get a request for a flight to the south, it often doesn't work because of the bad weather. We then have to decide during the flight if we are able to continue to our destination or if we have to return to the base in Wamena.
On the flight to Yasip the next morning, I brought recovered patients back to the village of Kenkeni and continued to Yasip. Thank God the weather was good enough that day to make the 55-minute flight from Wamena to the village of Yasip, and I was able to pick up the patient and take her to Dekai for treatment.
I was personally very grateful that the emergency flight for this seriously ill patient worked out, as she was in very poor health and needed to be treated quickly.
Thank you so much for all the support we receive so that we can continue to serve and lend a helping hand.
Dyro, Pilot
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