Mercyships's blog

Hundreds of well-wishers lined up to welcome the Africa Mercy hospital ship and her crew into the Port City of Lomé, Togo, to begin a six-month assignment in the country.

This is the fourth visit by a Mercy Ship to Togo in the past twenty years. The West African nation of Togo ranks among the world's poorest countries – currently 159th out of 182 nations tracked by the 2009 Human Development Index.  read more »

Mercy Ships raised over £83,000 at its annual Mercy Ships Ball despite being in the midst of the biggest recession for decades.

A host of leading doctors, business leaders and heads of the medical and shipping industries joined together at the prestigious Landmark Hotel in London to celebrate the work of Mercy Ships and congratulate the selfless volunteers that give up their lives to help those less fortunate.   read more »

In the lead up to Easter 2010, Mercy Ships will once again be running its Easter Breakfast fundraising campaign to help improve the lives of the poor and needy.

The campaign to encourage schools, offices, churches and communities across the UK to hold Easter Breakfasts kicks off this month as the Africa Mercy hospital ship arrives in Togo to provide free medical care to thousands of people in need.  read more »

Faith-based volunteers who have served onboard the Africa Mercy, the world’s largest charity hospital ship, are celebrating World Religion Day today ahead of the ship’s impending outreach to Togo.

Mercy Ships is preparing for a seven month outreach to the country of Togo,  following a very successful 10 months in Benin last year. 

In 2009 volunteers on board the Africa Mercy performed 5,000 free surgeries, over 33,000 eye treatments and 10,000 dental procedures for the people of Benin who had no other access to these types of healthcare.  read more »

Mercy Ships medical volunteers are on their way to Port-au-Prince where thousands of people are still buried among the rubble following the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti last Tuesday.

The first of a number of Mercy Ships teams left the United States yesterday to join the international relief effort, bringing with them vital medical equipment.  read more »

The most powerful earthquake to strike Haiti in more than 200 years has left parts of the impoverished Caribbean nation in ruins, destroying buildings and burying people in the rubble.

The earthquake measured 7.0 and buildings all across the capital of Port-au-Prince have collapsed, including the presidential palace and the headquarters of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Haiti.

Our Disaster Response Team is mobilising to address both medical and non-medical relief.

Your gift will go to help those in greatest need. 

   read more »

December marked the end of the 2009 Mercy Ships Field Service in Benin.  Ten months of patient screening, back to back surgeries, and non-stop capacity building efforts resulted in record results.

Due to the combined efforts of 454 crew members from over 40 nations and the support of our state-of-the-art hospital ship, 97,625 total procedures were performed and 67,219 lives were impacted as direct beneficiaries.  read more »

Mercy Ships UK has appointed its first Community Fundraiser in the South West region as part of its commitment to developing the charity across the UK. 

Christine Hartley, who lives in Ivybridge with her husband and two teenage children, joined Mercy Ships this month with more than six years experience in the fundraising sector.   Christine will help to raise the profile of Mercy Ships, working with volunteers across areas such as Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and Bristol.  read more »

Mercy Ships has raised over £50,000 through its annual Grand Prize Draw, with the winner announced last week by Lord McColl of Dulwich, Chairman of Mercy Ships UK.

The first prize – a luxury trip for two at the award winning five star Fairmont St Andrews Hotel in Scotland was won by Mrs Foley from Northamptonshire. 

Speaking after announcing the winner, Lord McColl said, “It is wonderful that we have been able to raise this amount of money for Mercy Ships this year, especially as we are in the middle of a recession.   read more »

Last month, an ITV crew from the north-east of England went to Benin to catch up with British volunteers serving on board the Africa Mercy, many of whom they had filmed previously when the ship was being converted in Newcastle and again on its first field service in Liberia last year. 

Click the link below to see the first of the five films in the series.

http://www.itv.com/tynetees/africamercypart120301/