Flights are helping island communities in the South Pacific recover from a devastating natural disaster, with urgent rations delivered for stranded students.
Story by Aquila Matit
MAF has sent a swift response to the cyclone-hit Autonomous Region of Bougainville with a flight from the Papua New Guinea mainland helping authorities to assess the damage. Among the first to receive help were students from Holy Cross Nissan High School, who needed a delivery of food supplies after being cut off when Cyclone Maila swept through the region.
“Due to the disaster, we have been stranded here in Buka for over a week with our school boat. We are the only high school serving the atolls of Bougainville. We came for the holiday break with 15 staff and students but had to leave 127 students behind on the island because they couldn’t get transport,” said school principal John Irisie.
“The first lot of rations have now been flown over to the school, my 127 students will now be happy.”
The principal explained the impact of this cylone on the isolated community.
“Our school serves students from across the Bougainville atolls — Carteret, Fit, Tasman, Motlock, Pororan, Petach, Sapusa, Matuchungan, Buka Island, and even mainland Bougainville. We have 12 classrooms operating on the island, which has a population of around 12,000 people,” he added.
“I am really thankful to MAF for stepping in and assisting us. In the event of a disaster, this kind of support is so valuable. I’ve just put two of my teachers on the plane, they are very happy to be seeing their families again soon,” John said.
The Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) Disaster Department requested MAF commence flights on April 13 to transport an assessment team, along with food and medicine, to Nissan Island. The team includes District Coordinator Sylvia Renetsi, Community Government Manager Marceline Butu, Health Extension Officer Chris Vagelo and other passengers. A second flight delivered additional food and medical supplies with more flights to follow.
In the event of a disaster, this kind of support is so valuable.
The cyclone reportedly left at least 11 people dead in Bougainville. The affected areas, particularly the western side, remain in need of emergency assistance. There has been a reported rise in the sea level, cutting road access to Arawa, Siwai, and Buin, and the sea movement is assessed as high risk due to the weather. There are floods, landslides and washed-out roads.
John Woodberry, who leads MAF’s work in Bougainville, said the organisation had reacted quickly to help.
“We are glad to be making use of MAF’s global disaster response capabilities to support communities in crisis here in Bougainville,” he said. “We’re grateful to our colleagues in Mount Hagen and Goroka for their swift response to the situation here, which involved assigning a pilot and an aircraft to survey the damage and transport the right people to the places in need of assistance.”
The plane is expected to conduct survey flights to assess the damage and carry out shuttle flights for the authorities, response teams, assessment teams and emergency donor supplies between Aropa, Buin, and Nissan. It will also carry out fuel prepositioning in Nissan to sustain the response in the atolls and enable movement where there is no road access and boat travel is unsafe.
Jonathan Ainui, MAF’s Flight Operations and Liaison Officer in Bougainville, said: “It’s great to be working with response teams and Members of Parliament who are linked to remote airstrips, helping them to prepare for receiving assistance while the roads are impassable.”