“Flying to deliver food to people in need is the most fulfilling mission I have ever done,” said UN Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) pilot Christine Brown on her work delivering for the World Food Programme (World Food Programme) with humanitarian workers supporting some of Burkina Faso’s most remote, food insecure and conflict-ridden hotspots.
“It breaks my heart to see all those kids out there and know what they are going through.”
The West African nation is facing widespread insecurity and humanitarian needs, making air transport crucial to reaching places too dangerous to reach by road.
“Without these flights, many of these communities would have no other way to survive,” said Elvira Pruscini. World Food ProgrammeRepresentative and Country Director in Burkina Faso.
“We are literally a lifeline for tens of thousands of people every month, ensuring timely delivery of life-saving food and nutritional support to the hardest-to-reach areas.”
Pilot Christine Brown flies a UNHAS plane in Burkina Faso.
Malnutrition
On any given day, pilots like Ms Brown transport about six tonnes of food – the equivalent weight of an African elephant – to northern and eastern Burkina Faso, where hunger is at its most alarming.
Airlifted cargo accounts for one-sixth of the total monthly food and nutrition aid WFP delivers to food-insecure communities nationwide and has reached more than half a million people in 2023.
Among those assisted by the airlifts are young children, pregnant and lactating women and girls, who are often most vulnerable to malnutrition, a situation that exceeds emergency levels in some places.
Climate change and desertification, coupled with increased armed conflict, have exacerbated hunger. More than 2 million people are internally displaced and some 2.7 million face severe food insecurity.
“Without WFP support, we would have nothing to eat,” said Zourata, a mother of six living in the northern town of Titao, which is besieged by armed groups and has no way to farm the land.
UNHAS staff unload aid in Burkina Faso.
List of women
While Ms Brown was UNHAS’s only female pilot in Burkina Faso when she started early last year, she is now part of a growing roster of women at the organisation, which is celebrating 20th Anniversary this year.
“The women who work for us are talented, dedicated and vital members of the UNHAS team,” said WFP Chief of Aviation Franklyn Frimpong. “They do extraordinary things in some of the toughest places in the world.”
However, for Ms Brown, becoming a successful pilot has nothing to do with gender.
“Flying is a human skill,” she said. “We all have the same arms and legs. For me, I go to work and I do the best I can.”
“Everyone works hard and we work together as a team,” she stressed.
UNHAS Info Box
- UNHAS serves multiple destinations through 17 operations globally, connecting 20 countries.
- Managed by WFP, UNHAS provides passenger and light cargo transport services for the humanitarian community to and from hard-to-reach crisis areas.
- In 2023, WFP airlifts delivered some 11,500 tonnes of food and aid to more than half a million people in isolated towns across Burkina Faso.
- UNHAS’s work in Burkina Faso receives significant support from the European Union, Luxembourg, Switzerland and the United States.
