Our work

Remoteness is a leading cause of poverty. Our flights bring help and make sustainable development possible – even where people are cut off from the world. Until no place is left without help and hope.

Donate now

Luftaufnahme der Buschpiste von Marolambo in Madagaskar: Menschen tragen Fracht von einem MAF-Flugzeug weg

Our approach

What we set out to achieve

People without access to passable roads are markedly poorer than those who have it. Around 900 million people in the Global South live more than two kilometres from a road that is usable all year round. This is how we go about connecting them to the world, and opening up a way out of poverty:

Short term: saving lives

We fly to where medical help is needed and deliver essentials such as food, sanitation equipment and tools. We respond quickly to natural disasters worldwide and support protection against diseases such as HIV/AIDS.

Medium term: securing basic services

We strengthen basic services in health, education and food supply. Hygiene, health and emergency systems are built up. We also support the development of local agriculture by flying in specialists.

Long term: stable self-reliance

We want to improve life in remote regions for good: secure food, stable income and access to education strengthen communities' self-reliance over the long term. That is our goal.

Help from above

A flight doesn't change the world, but it changes someone's world.

How we work

Our focus areas

To save lives, strengthen basic services and make stable self-reliance possible, our work concentrates on the following five areas:

Opening access. Securing supplies.

Health and hygiene

Our medevac flights make medical care possible where medicines and staff are lacking. We provide clean drinking water and sanitation to fight diseases such as cholera.

Learn more

Relatives waiting in Viqueque, Timor-Leste, for a MAF medevac flight; in the foreground a woman with her sick baby

A lesson in a remote village school in Papua, Indonesia – a teacher and schoolchildren in the classroom

Making a way. Opening prospects.

Education and skills development

Cut off from the world, whole generations lack access to education. Because neither teachers nor teaching materials get through on impassable roads, we fly them in. And open up new opportunities on the ground.

Learn more

Reaching places. Shaping lives.

Food and income

Without access to the outside world, families and communities go without essential goods, services and ways of earning a living. We create access to markets and support the food supply.

Learn more

Children from a remote mountain village in Papua New Guinea waving at the airstrip

Bringing help. Saving lives.

Disaster relief

When disaster strikes, we act fast. We set up airlifts for relief supplies and medical teams and coordinate the distribution of aid with our partner organisations on the ground.

Learn more

Crossing borders. Giving hope.

Faith and hope

Where people live cut off, hope is often missing too. We create connections for local churches and communities – and together we strengthen people in their faith. So that no one feels alone any more.

Learn more

So that help also reaches the places it could never reach by road.

Donate now

What motivates us

Love of neighbour that moves us to act

Motivated by our Christian faith, we work for the people the world seems to have forgotten: for them we overcome every obstacle and connect them to the world. We follow a faith-based programme approach that takes the spiritual needs of individuals and communities seriously. And we act according to humanitarian standards and a Human Rights-Based Approach (HRBA).

Learn more

News

Where donations make a difference

All news

Announcement

2026

Something to hold on to in unsteady times

The world feels unmoored to many. Wars and the climate crisis unsettle us, and it is precisely now that international cooperation is being weakened. Under this banner, Swiss aid organisations are standing together.

Read the article

Announcement

2026

Change of CEO at MAF International in Switzerland

The board of MAF International in Switzerland has appointed Mark Roth as the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for Switzerland with effect from 1 October 2026. Thomas Beyeler is stepping down after seven years at the helm.

Read the article

Feature

2026

Daniel owes his life to a rescue flight

Daniel dreams of becoming a lawyer and helping his fellow South Sudanese. That he can dream at all he owes to an MAF rescue flight: 20 years ago, as a toddler, he fell into a fire and his life hung in the balance.

Read the article

Your donation

So that help reaches everywhere

Help us fly to where the roads end, where the terrain is too dangerous or the distances too great. We create air links and bring help and hope to even the remotest places on earth.

Our contribution to sustainable development

Sustainable Development Goals

The United Nations' 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) follow one principle: leave no one behind. That is precisely where we make a substantial contribution: we connect remote regions and so create access to help, services and development. Here are a few examples of how reliable air links make lasting change possible.

SDG 1: No Poverty

Anyone cut off from the world has no access to markets or economic opportunity. MAF creates those links and opens doors to sustainable development.

SDG 2: Zero Hunger

Where roads are missing, food is often missing too. MAF transports seed, equipment and specialists so that communities can feed themselves in the long run.

SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being

A treatable illness can be fatal in a remote region. MAF flies medical staff and medicines to where they are needed.

SDG 4: Quality Education

Education changes lives, but only if it is within reach. MAF brings teachers and education specialists into otherwise unreachable regions.

SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy

No development without energy. MAF transports solar technology into remote regions and lays the groundwork for sustainable growth.

SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

Thanks to our airstrips and reliable airlifts, we also open up access to regions with weak infrastructure.

SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities

Geographical isolation is one of the most invisible forms of inequality. MAF bridges that gap, flight by flight.

SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals

Our flights reliably deliver partner organisations' specialists and relief supplies to places that would otherwise be hard to reach.

Downloads

Our publications

Annual reports, further information about MAF, in-depth features and first-hand accounts are all available to download free of charge in our current brochures and reports.

Annual report 2025 MAF Switzerland

PDF (5.1 MB)

Annual accounts 2025 MAF Switzerland

PDF (415 KB)

PDF (6.4 MB)

PDF (3.9 MB)

PDF (4.7 MB)

PDF (4.8 MB)