From the Field

In order to keep the machinery onboard the Africa Mercy running effectively, divers must plunge into murky, polluted water every week to prevent obstructions from blocking the ship’s seawater intake valves. 

The Africa Mercy’s machinery is cooled by seawater pumped in via intake valves on the sides of the ship. Without a continuous intake of cool water, the generators that power the ship and the various facilities onboard, including the hospital, would all cease to function.  read more »

There are many mediums through which we communicate, but our most frequent, and arguably most powerful, channel of communication is speech.  Some patients onboard the Africa Mercy are discovering this power for the first time. 

Maxillofacial operations are an integral part of the Mercy Ships 2009 Field Service in Benin.  Many maxillofacial patients, particularly those with cleft lips/palates, have spent their lives communicating with impeded speech.   read more »

Mercy Ships recently partnered with Bethesda, a Benin-based NGO (non-governmental organisation), in the construction of the Bethesda Community Development Agriculture Training Centre in Hévié, Benin. 

Now completed, the facility is serving as the venue for a Mercy Ships agriculture training programme, “Food for Life”, which teaches farmers organic agriculture skills in nutrition and crop production.   read more »

The Mercy Ships Dental Team recently travelled to Lokossa, Benin, in order to run a two-day dental clinic at a nearby refugee camp.

The camp of Agame was formed in 2005 to accommodate Togolese refugees who fled neighbouring Togo shortly after violence erupted during elections.

Agame became home to more than 12,000 refugees, most of whom had lost all their possessions in fleeing the escalating hostility. The population has since decreased to around 3,000, with many of the refugees either resettling in Benin or returning to Togo.  read more »

Every day Jean Claude Mouditou leads thirty men and women, equipped with machetes and tall rubber boots, into the fields of the recently constructed Bethesada Community Development Agriculture Training Centre in Hévié, Benin. 

Jean Claude is running a three-month agriculture training programme, “Food for Life,” which teaches farmers organic, agricultural skills in nutrition and crop production.   read more »

The Africa Mercy, the world’s largest charity hospital ship, is now performing up to 40 free cataract surgeries every day, using a procedure that takes just five minutes to restore sight to some of the world’s poorest people.

The Africa Mercy is thought to be one of only three locations around the world using manual small incision cataract surgery (MSICS) on a daily basis. The procedure enables small wounds to heal faster than a conventional incision meaning patients do not need to wear spectacles after surgery.  read more »

In the city of Abomey, 81 miles north of the port of Cotonou where the Africa Mercy is currently docked, is an orphanage called the House of Hope. 
 
In February 2009, construction of the House of Hope came to completion. A one hectare piece of land was donated by the mayor of Abomey to Pierre Christ, a board-member of Mercy Ships Switzerland.  read more »

Mercy Ships has held its first Church Leaders Conference in Cotonou, Benin, at the Hall des Arts Conference Centre.  Over 350 church leaders attended the conference, which presented how the Church can be an instrument for practical change in West Africa.  read more »

During March of this year, a team from South Africa visited the Africa Mercy to assess the feasibility of creating an eye training programme for South African eye surgeons. The visit was a great success.

The first trainee of Mercy Vision South Africa, Dr. Gcobane Tuswa, is currently nearing the completion of his training programme.

Dr. Tuswa, who has been working with the South African Department of Ophthalmology since 2005, has undergone an intense but enlightening six weeks, working alongside and learning from eye surgeon Dr. Glenn Strauss.  read more »

Amitatau was extremely underweight when she came to the Africa Mercy.  At four weeks old, she weighed only 2.3 kg, just half the average weight of babies her age.  Amitatau’s cleft lip and palate had made nursing difficult for her.  As a result, she was starving.      read more »