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Home About Orders Feedback Contact Projects MAF Our Coffee Blog Projects Ande Installation 26-28th January 2009 (by Koniel Idei)
On Monday 26th January, MAF Goroka had a Twin otter flight to Marawaka station and I was dropped off with my equipment at Ande airstrip. I arrived around 9 o clock, after 28 minutes in the air, and I had the whole day to finish the job. It was a very wonderful moment for the villagers as the first call came back from CRMF,
and other stations on the HF network heard Ande transmitting a test call for the very first
time. I completed the job at the end of the day and spent the next day training the radio
operators.
It was fun, walking around the hauslain, leaning a bit about their life style and the different styles/skills they have. They are a real isolated community and thre was a Great Need for the radio to be installed there. They now know what CRMF does for remote communities, missionaries and churches in the nation and were very happy with the service it provides, especially arranging Medivacs and phone patches. A flight back to Goroka was arranged using the radio and Richard Ebel, flew a Cessna 206 in to get me out again. The radio will be used for giving weather reports, arranging medivacs, passing toksave (messages) and keeping in contact with the rest of the world 10% sales of LatitudeSix - coffeeforcommunities go to development projects for coffee growing communities. The aim is to help provide infrastructure that will in turn enhance further development.
We are about to install an HF radio at Noru, which will benefit the extended community of about 3000 people! Rick Velvin (CEO mafnz) was recently in PNG. He wrote...
I talked with a young mother called Anita who lived in a village 20 minutes walk below the airstrip. Just before Anita was due to give birth, things started to go badly wrong with the pregnancy which required urgent intervention. As there are no medical facilities in the area at all, a radio call was made through CRMF (Christian Radio & Missionary Fellowship) for medical advice. A doctor was able to talk directly to Anita without her having to walk or be carried for 5 hours to the nearest radio. In a short time the MAF base in Goroka was contacted, vital weather information was passed to the pilot and a plane despatched. As you can see from the photo, mum and the baby are well and the community has been spared the grief of what could have been another two deaths. I was also introduced to eleven other people, ranging in age from a young child to an elderly man, all who had been able to receive timely medical attention simply because they could now communicate with others easily when faced with a need for help. THANK YOU for continuing to buy LatitudeSix coffee and enabling us to continue helping the people of PNG. |
MAF PNG had a HF radio they wanted installed in the Obura Waninara electorate of
Eastern Highlands Province, PNG, and Ande airstrip in the Marawaka valley was chosen,
as it is a needy location. It is 4 hours walk to Marawaka station and a two day walk across
the Province to Menyamya, in the Morobe Province. Ande is one of those remote isolated
places that I've often visited to install radios. There is no road linking communities in this
part of the province and the only transport was Aeroplane. 
After the introductions and necessary talk, the radio was decided to be installed in a clinic
built near the airstrip, and so I started my job.
The people were very helpful and happy, always smiling when I ask for needed help, but
could not understand the purpose of what they called the “3metre pipe”. It was a real
surprise to them when the mast was been built on the ground and this telescopic “3 metre
pipe” became erected to 12m, and the antenna raised to its top like a flag. I had the whole
hauslain (community) watching me and joyfully working, with short breaks for fruits and
drink, but mostly talking as they were very interested and keen to learn.
A really basic need that many coffee growing communities have is for access to communication. Once communities have communication they are able to access health advice, education advice, negotiate deals, contact MAF to help provide transport for people or cargo, talk to relatives in different parts of the country, etc. The telecommunications network does not cover most remote areas, and so the most effective form of communication is still the HF radio. 
"I travelled to the remote village of Bioko, where MAF had an HF radio installed, paid for from the funds generated by Latitudesix coffee purchases. I wanted to see first hand what impact this radio had had on the community over the last 18 months. For several months after the radio was installed, the people gathered around just to listen to other people talking. Many have never travelled further than their own valley and had little knowledge of the rest of PNG, let alone the wider world. Hearing other PNG languages, place names and things happening was a bit of a shock and a huge revelation to them.