THE GOOD FLIGHT
Aviation charity boss tells how sh
Ruth Jack was 12 when she knew she wanted to join the family business.
Her grandad was a missionary in Senegal in the 50s and watching Live Aid convinced her that fighting poverty in Africa should also be her life’s work. It has taken her a few more decades than she anticipated but Ruth, 49, is about to head to Uganda to run a Christian charity.
She works for MAF (Missionary Aviation Fellowship), which flies light aircraft between aid projects, transporting people and supplies around inaccessible areas.
Its Ugandan operation supports the refugee camps on the border with war- torn South Sudan as wel l as two bases in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“MAF is really the logistics part of the aid world,” Ruth explained. “Wherever the United Nations is operating, MAF is there moving people and stuff around. “There’s nothing more fulfilling than helping those who are most in need and enabling other people to do that.” Missionaries have changed since Ruth’s grandparents went to east Africa after World War II.
Ruth said: “My grandfather was the typical missionary in a panama hat and shorts. My dad was born in Senegal in 1949, in the back of the peanut lorry.
“I was surrounded with the stories of Africa and pictures of my parents and their siblings surrounded by little African chi ldren. That was very normal for me.
“I grew up thinking I would probably do w h a t my grandparents had done in one way or another, although I was not really sure what that looked like. In those days there was no such thing as a development worker.”
Her grandad’s job title was missionary but preaching and converting the Senegalese was just the start.
Ruth said: “Missionaries did everything. He went to take the gospel but he built clinics and schools.
“Missionaries were the people with means – they could get stuff done. They were the original NGOs, funded by their charity networks at home.”
Ruth’s dad was set to follow his father. He trained at a mission college in London and was expecting to be posted overseas. Instead, he was sent to convert the heathens in Scotland and spent his life as a minister in Dumbarton.
When the Ethiopian famine of 1984 hit, 12-year- old Ruth had a lightbulb moment. She said: “I realised for the first time that, while our family was definitely not rich, people on the other side of the world were literally starving.
“On the news were these pictures of little children with bloated bel lies starving to death. I remember quite clearly watching Live Aid and thinking, ‘ This is what I need to go and do.’”
Ruth’s first mission was the year she left school. Aged 18, a Scottish charity sent her to Guyana in the West Indies to set up a home for street children.
She recalls: “I connected with the church, connected with a local family, secured a building, renovated it and had the president of Guyana come and open it. It’s still there.”
Ruth returned to Scotland for university, itching to get back to missionary work as soon as possible. However, in her final year she met her husband Duncan, a software developer. The couple ended up living in the US for several years. They had two girls and Ruth went into youth work.
Back in Scotland, Duncan asked Ruth, pregnant with their son Samuel, where she saw herself in five years. She admitted her heart was still in missionary work.
It didn’t happen overnight. While Samuel was young, she did a master’s degree, then worked in Scotland for the Tear Fund, then MAF. As soon as Samuel was old enough asked to be sent o
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After a break in Glasgow, Ruth, Duncan and Samuel are off to Africa next month.
Uganda has a stable government but is surrounded by potential hotspots. Across its northern border, South Sudan has had a civil war since 2013.
MAF flies staff and supplies to the huge refugee camps filled with people fleeing the conflict.
Ethiopia, another of Uganda’s neighbours, has trouble brewing.
Ruth said: “There could be issues coming across the border. The sense is that all around Uganda there are things going on that could spill over. Uganda is the largest MAF programme in that area and is already responding.”
Ruth will lead the team that trains the pilots and services aircraft for MAF’s work in surrounding countries as well as running six small planes within Uganda. Out of her team of 70, 50 are locals. One of her jobs wi l l to be increase the number of African pilots and engineers. This won’t be easy.
She said: “To become a pilot is massively expensive. There’sre’s a language barrier – pilots have to speak English. But it’s one of our priorities.”
Ruth will spend four years in Uganda. After that, she’s not sure.
She added: “While our son is with us, we wouldn’t go anywhere that would endanger him.
“We also need to consider his education – he needs stability for the next six years or so.
“Once he’s off to university, we have no qualms about going somewhere a little more dangerous.
“There is always going to be a need. I say to my children that when their children are ready to come and see granny, I’ll be in a refugee camp on the other side of the world.
“I don’t think I’ll ever be residing in the local care home.
“I’ll keep going until nobody wants to employ me any more.”