VENICE, Fla. — After weeks of waiting to get back to their mission, Tampa Bay Area nonprofit Agape Flights says they’ve now gotten approval to fly into Haitian airspace and deliver critical supplies.
“Even basic things that last year like they might have been able to get, they now can’t, and so we truly are their lifeline to the outside world,” said Gregory Haman, the Director of Flight Operations at Agape Flights.
That’s why it’s been hard seeing precious cargo sitting on the floor at Agape Flights in Venice. Due to the unrest in Haiti and a closed airspace, the nonprofit said it hasn’t been able to deliver supplies to mission partners the entire month of March.
“Everything from medical equipment, medications to just basic necessities of life,” said Haman.
But Agape Flights finally got some good news- they've been authorized to fly planes into the country in the coming days.
Allen Speer, the CEO of Agape Flights, explained they’re needed now more than ever. “There’s hope that flies on these wings, and when the Haitian people see this and they know that their friends who are missionaries there are getting supplies, they know they’re not going to hoard those supplies. They’re going to get those out to the people,” said Speer.
Planes were fully loaded with about 5,500 pounds of cargo Wednesday afternoon.
“We are bringing some of our mission partners back that really need to get out,” said Allen. “Some of them have urgent medical needs.”
Haman will be flying one of the planes down to Haiti.
“We’re talking about hundreds of individuals that in turn serve thousands of Haitians and thousands of individuals, so the reach of the impact is really hard to honestly say,” said Haman. “You’re talking about lives potentially saved.”
