Hi-tech ships float miracle-working surgeons to Africa’s poor
Published: November 4, 2005
President Bush also has praised Mercy Ships, saying, “I have every hope you will continue to reach more and more patients in the years beyond. I know you will continue your mission of bringing hope and healing to those who need it most. May God continue to bless you in your important work.”
Resurrection
Mercy Ships – which has treated more than 300,000 people in village medical clinics and performed 110,000 dental treatments – began as a work of the international ministry Youth With a Mission, which trains and sends out thousands of short-term volunteers each year to supplement the efforts of permanent staff.
In 1978, Don Stephens, one of YWAM’s original leaders, found an old, decrepit passenger liner in Venice, Italy, called the Victoria. YWAM, viewing the ship as confirmation of a vision by its founder, Loren Cunningham, bought the vessel and towed it to Greece where it was renovated and renamed Anastasis, the Greek word for resurrection. The ship was such a mess that the galley alone took 25 young people three weeks to clean.
Mercy Ships gradually established independence and officially separated from YWAM in 2002.
The group’s second ship, the Caribbean Mercy, operating in the Caribbean Sea and Central America, is in Mobile, Ala., where it serves as a command center to respond to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
In just one example of partnership there, ship staff came to the aid of the devastated fishing community of Bayou La Batre, Alabama – made famous by the 1994 film “Forrest Gump.” Mercy Ships is working with churches of different denominations to help restored the lives of the Cambodian, Thai, Laotian and Vietnamese immigrant fisherman who make their living on local waters. The fisherman saw their homes flattened, their shrimp boats wrecked or pushed inland, and the processing plants that buy their fish all but wiped out.
Last year, Mercy Ships rapidly responded to the Asian tsunami by shipping nearly $400,000 worth of donated relief supplies within days of the disaster. As the scope of the devastation became clearer, Mercy Ships made a long-term commitment to the region, which included providing boats to the fishermen who lost more than 23,000 vessels.
The newest ship in organization’s fleet, the Africa Mercy, is under renovation in the United Kingdom. When completed, it will be the world’s largest non-governmental hospital ship.
Mercy Ships have served in Brazil, China, Cook Islands, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Fiji, The Gambia, Ghana, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Latvia, Lithuania, Madagascar, Mexico, New Caledonia, New Guinea, Nicaragua, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Pitcairn Island, Poland, Samoa, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, South Africa, South Korea, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Vanuatu.
The Anastasis now is in Liberia where it’s partnering with local teachers, church leaders and other community members to help rebuild the West African nation after a 14-year civil war.
A team of 16 Mercy Ships staff members augmented by local volunteers is focusing on adult basic education, HIV/AIDS education, child development and training leaders for the community and churches.
“The drive is to be able to raise men and women who would sustain their own work,” said a Liberian leading the team.
The ships’ crew members, from some 40 countries, serve from two weeks to a lifetime, paying their way through crew fees to help offset the organization’s expenses. Doctors and nurses volunteer for terms of several weeks to years. Hospitals often provide medical equipment and supplies; private companies contribute fuel and basic materials; and governments often waive port fees and related costs.
Lord Ian McColl, the former head surgeon at Guy’s Hospital in London, gives up months of his time to perform operations aboard the Anastasis.
McColl told BBC News the simple gratitude of the patients makes up for the long hours of surgery on board ship
“While we were waiting to see one group this woman came up to me and flung her arms around me,” he said. “She had been cured in an operation for a fistula the previous year and she had just come to thank me.
“That certainly did not happen in the waiting room at Guys.”
McColl said there’s a high morale on the ships and the atmosphere in the theatre is hilarious.
“You get withdrawal symptoms when you leave,” he said.
The physician recalled the case of a man whose relatives had all been killed by rebels in Sierra Leone.
“They had taken an axe to the side of his head and we did extensive reconstructive surgery and he lived,” he said. “But he had lost the will to live because of what had happened.
McColl said the 5-year-old daughter of the captain of the ship went to see the man and gave him a Christmas card and then read to him every night, because he had no visitors.
“She gave him back the will to live.”
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