“I want to dedicate my life to providing for people in need in Papua New Guinea. If you think that is something you can consider then we can continue dating.” Not your typical proposal, but that is what Mark Palm, then 20, proposed to Kirsten. Kirsten, who is now his wife, simply smiled and said yes.
Palm, born in Illinois to a minister and raised in Southern California, has always had a passion for aviation and a deep desire to help people. At 16, he travelled with his church’s youth group to Mexico where they built houses for the poor. It was during this trip that he decided that he wanted to use his passion for aviation to help people. How he would do this became clear on a trip to Papua New Guinea three years later.
While on a trip to Papua New Guinea with a friend, Palm spent five weeks living amongst local tribes on different islands. The situation of the people was alarming. “They lacked the basics,” recalls Palm of his trip in 1994. “A boy with a small cut was brought to us. This would have been simple enough to treat back home. But here, the boy’s leg was badly infected. We used our first aid kit to try and patch it up as best as we could.”
The experience inspired Palm to establish Samaritan Aviation in 2000. The medical outreach program serves over half a million residents of East Sepik Province in Papua New Guinea. Funded by donations from well-wishers as well as Papua New Guinea’s government, the organization delivers medical supplies to people living in remote areas. Palm also flies people in need of emergency medical care to the only hospital in the province.
“80% of the population in the province lives in remote areas. It takes them between 2 to 5 days to make it to the only hospital in the province,” says Palm. “We’ve saved more than 400 lives by simply providing quick transportation and flying these people to the hospital.” Many of those lives saved are women and their babies.
Palm doesn’t do it all on his own. His family is with him all the way. His wife, Kirsten, waits with an ambulance for the arrival of patients. She drives them from the plane to the hospital. She and their three children, Sierra, Drake and Nolan aged, 13, 11 and 10 respectively offer support to patients and even stay with them.
“We hope to expand our reach to other parts of the world,” says Palm of his organization’s work. “However, there is such a great need in Papua New Guinea right now. Our priority is to help these people before we can start worrying about other areas.”
