The little yellow box clutched in the man’s hand could have been mistaken for a small suitcase. Despite its bright but rugged exterior, what it held inside had become, in the last two weeks, as valuable as a rare jewel.

No sooner had he jumped into the row of seats behind the two pilots, the box tucked beside him, the helicopter roared to life. Lifting from the ground of the ADRA Haiti compound in the Port-au-Prince neighbourhood of Carrefour, the craft surged toward its destination. Every member of the team understood the urgency of delivering the box. If you didn’t know what was inside, it almost seemed ironic that all the power and expense of a helicopter had been focused just to deliver the box.

The destination of the box was the Saint Ard Hospital, a remote hospital in the mountains of Haiti. Since the earthquake several weeks ago, the staff, patients, and nearby community members had been in dire need of the pumps and tubes that were inside the yellow box. All that time they had been living without clean water. And inside the yellow box, carried so urgently and carefully in the helicopter, was a mobile water purification device, especially designed for use in difficult to reach areas. This water purifier is an efficient piece of hardware: it can run off of the energy drawn from a cigarette lighter or a car battery. Once set up, the contents of the little yellow box have the capacity to provide sufficient clean water for 330 people every eight hours.

After quickly training a local team on the maintenance and operation of the system in order to ensure its continued long-term usage, the man hopped back into the chopper to make it back to Port-au-Prince before nightfall.

Using a helicopter is not the typical method that ADRA uses to deliver aid; it was a unique gift, in fact, from Bild, a German newspaper whose aid agency, Ein Herz für Kinder, or, A Heart for Children, had contracted the helicopter to Haiti to support the work of German non-governmental organizations (NGOs). As such, in partnership with ADRA Germany, it provided free transport of humanitarian aid from ADRA to orphanages, hospitals and other isolated communities.

In recent days, the helicopter has given ADRA access to vulnerable populations in Haiti, unreachable by ground vehicles that have received little assistance particularly in places like Gonâve, an island located some 30 miles (48 km) off the coastline of Port-au-Prince. The earthquake halted transportation and commerce between the island and the Haitian mainland effectively ending the islanders’ access to outside food and work. This week the chopper has made deliveries to distressed Haitians in Gonâve, delivering 1.5 metric tons of goods such as rice, oil, sugar, corn soy blend, hygiene materials, and toilet paper to a children’s hospital in the island.

Following the extensive destruction of the capital Port-au-Prince, thousands fled into the mountains, many headed toward the southern city of Jacmel on the other side. Due to the damage of the quake, landslides and collapsed bridges, many roads that had been used for the transport of supplies became impassable for anything but donkeys. When an ADRA team first flew over the area last week, it found two large groups of displaced Haitians, approximately 500 people each, sitting on the banks of a dry river, with no supplies or support. As soon as the people saw the helicopter, they began to wave and call for help. Over the course of three airlift drops, ADRA was able to provide initial supplies amounting to approximately 2.5 metric tons of food, enough to provide them with the necessary energy to continue their journey.

The helicopter has also contributed toward the rapid transport of supplies to Petit-Goâve, a town located nearly two hours west of Port-au-Prince, by road. Aid has included rice, beans, hygiene kits, and a 1,000-gallon (3,785 liters) water tank that is being used in conjunction with a water purification system that ADRA installed at the local community hospital. All together, ADRA has brought six airlift loads to the area, totalling 4.5 metric tons of relief supplies.

This transport has worked especially well, as the helicopter can land within the ADRA compound, right in front of the warehouse, where supplies can be quickly loaded.

For more information about general relief work or to donate to the Adventist Development and Relief Agency International (ADRA), visit www.adra.org