The flight from Dusin to Mt Hagen takes less than 20 minutes – to travel by foot would be 3 days. Read the impact this 20 minute flight – just $50 worth of fuel – has:
As he banked his Cessna 208 Caravan onto the final approach for his second landing of the day at Dusin, MAF’s Jan Ivar Andresen observed how the crowd was cheering when they saw the plane. “Knowing the coffee could go out and they could get the money. That’s why they were cheering…”, said Andresen.
For the average person in Dusin, the coffee they harvest is their only source of income according to Andresen. Without the help of MAF aircraft, the villagers could lose the vital income that helps support their needs such as education, clothing, tools, and food among many other essentials.
“Somebody mentioned that they need to get it out or the quality will just degrade rapidly,” said Andresen.
Therefore, the amount of time that the coffee spends grounded in Dusin can be incredibly detrimental to the value of the coffee beans and the village’s primary source of income. There are no roads in and out of the village and walking the coffee to market is just not a realistic option according to Jayson Chris, a Dusin villager.
“We only move by plane. We can walk, but it’s too far. The plane is easy for us. Otherwise it takes three days, three-days to walk out of Dusin” said Chris.
Chris helped in the harvesting of the Dusin coffee and has been lending a hand with the construction of the new Nazarene Health Services health centre.
“They build this clinic with MAF in PNG and they build it to help,” said Chris. “We will build it. They will bring medicine to treat people. This is for people who will get treatment.”
Nazarene Health Services has been serving the people of Dusin for many years and is building a new health centre in the village for them.
The Dusin airstrip lays nestled alongside a mountain ridgeline and stretches a short and narrow 441 meters long with a 9% slope. It may take the Dusin villagers three days to walk out of the bush and into Mt. Hagen. However, when they can fly with MAF it takes approximately 20 minutes to touch down at the airfield in Mt. Hagen.
Andresen was able to haul 2,700 kg of coffee from Dusin to Hagen in just 3 short trips.
