Bicycles on Board
Written by Karyn Ball
MAF flew a Caravan filled with bicycles to Leer, South Sudan to aid Medair’s nutritional program
Have you ever wondered how many bicycles can fit in a Grand Caravan aircraft? Pilot Andrew Parker knows that fourteen fit quite nicely in MAF’s 208 Caravan. How does he know this? He recently flew 14 bicycles along with fresh fruits and vegetables; totalling 537 kilograms of cargo plus two Medair staff members to aid in Medair’s humanitarian relief efforts in Leer, South Sudan.
Medair is a Christian humanitarian organization whose mission is to relieve human suffering in some of the world’s most remote and devastated places. Medair works in many poor, isolated and war torn communities within South Sudan, including Leer.
Leer, located in the north of South Sudan, is a 1.5 hour flight from Juba. The roads are insecure due to the civil unrest and rising criminal activity. During the rainy season, the roads can become physically impassable, yet there are no commercial flights to Leer – only MAF and a handful of other contracted aircraft fly in and out of Leer’s airstrip.
On this particular flight, the fourteen bicycles were being flown from Juba to Leer to be given to nutrition assistants serving in Medair’s nutrition program. With these bicycles, the nutrition assistants will be able to significantly increase the geographical area in which they serve. This is the first time bicycles have been brought up to Medair’s nutritional assistants in Leer.
Damaris Kunz, Medair’s Nutrition Manager based in Leer, explains “The bicycles will be used to provide services to beneficiaries. The purpose is to be flexible to do home visits, defaulter tracking and follow up visits for children in the program who are not gaining weight or are absent from the program. The catchment area is quite big and the bikes should help them to reach the children and their families in every corner of the county.” Medair has already treated 3,061 malnourished children in Leer and the surrounding areas including operational clinic sites at Adok, Dindin, Padeah, and Tharoup Gandor.
Though at first glance a plane load of bicycles may not look too impressive, this particular load of cargo boasts of the ability to uniquely aid in the humanitarian crisis continuing in South Sudan.
Damaris Kunz shares “We’re happy with MAF’s support and flying in the bicycles. The bicycles will be of great help to our nutrition staff and enable us to continue providing much needed nutrition support to malnourished children during the rainy season.”
Pilot Andrew Parker continues along the same sentiment. “The bicycles were definitely one of the more unusual loads I’ve carried (and a little awkward to unload!), but it is exciting to think of the impact they will have as they are used by Medair staff in the areas around Leer over the coming years.
What an amazing privilege for MAF to support our partner organization Medair in such a practical way – flying bicycles across South Sudan so that malnourished children can receive the life-saving care they need.
