Sometimes it is not directly visible what impact our work with MAF has. What we would consider an ordinary flight, can have great significance for passengers involved. This was also true for Sabi:
Maintaining the airstrip (like cutting grass) is the communities responsibility. If it is not done regularly, the strips overgrow, landing gets dangerous, and it needs to be closed for operations. In order to help the villages to keep the grass short, ATprojects, a Goroka based NGO, provided some communities with a Deutscher lawn mower. ATprojects takes the responsibly to maintain the mower, and they also provide fuel on a regular basis. As MAF in Rumginae has been involved in this project from the beginnings, we still do regular flights to deliver fuel.
On those occasions an employee of ATprojects joins us on the flight. They check the lawn mower at each airstrip and carry out repairs if necessary. On the last such flight, to my great surprise, a female mechanic turned up. This might not sound very strange to you, but for Papua New Guinea a female mechanic ist quite a novelty.
Saba Auwo is 22 years of age and was employed by ATprojects after finishing her studies as a car mechanic. "Coming from a family of four women, Sabi is the only one in her family to have completed her formal education. Since childhood she dreamt of one day becoming a mechanical engineer; however despite obstacles in life she did not give up, rather grasped an opportunity when she was accepted at Kamaliki Vocational School. Sabi has a quiet personality but she is resilient in what she does." So, eventually, she was asked to do the fuel and maintenance trips to the rural airstrips in the Western Province. "Though it was her first time to fly on a plane, her first experience was successful and challenging, especially flying into the rural airstrips in a smaller plane. And this is what she said about her trip.
'Going on this trip to Western [Province] was very challenging for me as I was assigned to assess the technical problems of the lawn mowers and to fix them within a limited amount of time given without any supervision. However, I kept on reminding myself that if I can come through this far, doing this job that many females do not venture into, then nothing can ever limit me from doing the tasks that my male colleagues do at work.
It was my first time to fly in an aeroplane and I got really scared when I flew to the first airstrip. I even thought
of not flying back to where I came from even though I still had five more airstrips to cover. But seeing the faces of the people in these remote places who are in dire needs of basic services really changed my perspective about my job and a lot of other things in life.'"
Sabi's journey, however, did not only change her perspective on things. For most of the village population a female mechanic working on her own was certainly a new concept – and maybe one or the other girl was inspired by her. And I learned, that my mundane daily routine could be very scary to the uninitiated.
Maintaining the airstrip (like cutting grass) is the communities responsibility. If it is not done regularly, the strips overgrow, landing gets dangerous, and it needs to be closed for operations. In order to help the villages to keep the grass short, ATprojects, a Goroka based NGO, provided some communities with a Deutscher lawn mower. ATprojects takes the responsibly to maintain the mower, and they also provide fuel on a regular basis. As MAF in Rumginae has been involved in this project from the beginnings, we still do regular flights to deliver fuel.
On those occasions an employee of ATprojects joins us on the flight. They check the lawn mower at each airstrip and carry out repairs if necessary. On the last such flight, to my great surprise, a female mechanic turned up. This might not sound very strange to you, but for Papua New Guinea a female mechanic ist quite a novelty.
Saba Auwo is 22 years of age and was employed by ATprojects after finishing her studies as a car mechanic. "Coming from a family of four women, Sabi is the only one in her family to have completed her formal education. Since childhood she dreamt of one day becoming a mechanical engineer; however despite obstacles in life she did not give up, rather grasped an opportunity when she was accepted at Kamaliki Vocational School. Sabi has a quiet personality but she is resilient in what she does." So, eventually, she was asked to do the fuel and maintenance trips to the rural airstrips in the Western Province. "Though it was her first time to fly on a plane, her first experience was successful and challenging, especially flying into the rural airstrips in a smaller plane. And this is what she said about her trip.
'Going on this trip to Western [Province] was very challenging for me as I was assigned to assess the technical problems of the lawn mowers and to fix them within a limited amount of time given without any supervision. However, I kept on reminding myself that if I can come through this far, doing this job that many females do not venture into, then nothing can ever limit me from doing the tasks that my male colleagues do at work.
It was my first time to fly in an aeroplane and I got really scared when I flew to the first airstrip. I even thought
of not flying back to where I came from even though I still had five more airstrips to cover. But seeing the faces of the people in these remote places who are in dire needs of basic services really changed my perspective about my job and a lot of other things in life.'"
Sabi's journey, however, did not only change her perspective on things. For most of the village population a female mechanic working on her own was certainly a new concept – and maybe one or the other girl was inspired by her. And I learned, that my mundane daily routine could be very scary to the uninitiated.
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| Sabi readying the fuel containers (Honinabi) |
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| Transferring the delivered fuel into containers (Wawoi Falls) |
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| Proud co-owner of a Deutscher lawn mower (Yehebi) |