FEATURED STORY

Air Ambulance for Guatemala

Already providing top notch medical care, the impact of Hospital Shalom will extend to the entire Peten region with the addition of an air ambulance able to reach isolated jungle villages.

Located in the center of the northern Guatemala department of El Peten is a special place that has been bringing “health and hope” to thousands of people each year who would otherwise be left without much of either. Hopsital Shalom was started in 1996 by veteran missionaries Tim and Doris Spurrier, founders of New Covenant World Missions. Their vision formed out of the reality that Guatemala has the lowest life expectancy and the highest infant mortality rate of all the countries in Central America.

MAG president Sean Donnelly recently completed an exploratory trip to Hospital Shalom and the department of El Peten. He watched hundreds wait in line daily to receive healthcare that is just not available anywhere else in the region. The few government run hospitals that exist have extraordinarily high infection rates and simply are not equipped to handle the surgical or neonatal care needs of this very populous but poor area of Guatemala. Hospital Shalom is also the only facility in the region meeting the need for prosthetic limbs.

The village of Carmelita will be one of the first villages targeted to receive air ambulance service in the region.

Current estimates put the population of the Peten region at well over 550,000 people. Approximately 85% of that number has no access to “quality” healthcare apart from Hospital Shalom and the remaining 15% live in isolated villages with no access to even “basic” healthcare. Emergency care does not exist at all.

Hospital Shalom has asked MAG to implement an air ambulance program in the Peten region which would make life saving emergency medical care available to an estimated 41,000 people located in twenty one villages that have been identified as having had airstrips within the last ten years with current potential for re-opening for use by an air ambulance. Initial meetings with military and government officials in the region have been all positive. So, what’s next?

Space for a hangar to be constructed at the international airport in Flores has already been granted. Next begins a 12 to 24 month process of getting villages to clear their strips, while MAG begins the fundraising for a Cessna 206 aircraft and the recruitment of a pilot-mechanic. Please pray with us for all these provisions and for the lives that will be touched or saved through them.