Traning Centre Opens

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. 

A ceremony was hosted by Bethesda to commemorate the official opening of the Agriculture Training Centre.  The ceremony included performances from local choirs, as well as speeches from several notable guests, including the General Coordinator for Bethesda NGO, the Deputy Minister of Agriculture, and Managing Director of the Africa Mercy, Ken Berry. 

The training centre contains a lecture room for classes, as well as living quarters where participants will reside while attending the “Food for Life” programme. 

In a speech given at the opening ceremony, Ken Berry said, “We knew that an agriculture programme in this area would require a place for the attendees and staff to live.  We were very pleased to partner with Bethesda to help provide the building that is being dedicated today.”

Both Mercy Ships and Bethesda believe the agricultural knowledge shared in the “Food for Life” programme will help uplift communities, providing a level of sustainability which will remain long after the 2009 field service in Benin. 

“Mercy Ships understands that health care doesn’t begin when someone gets sick; it begins long before that.  Part of the health care plan of any group needs to be an understanding of proper nutrition and the ability to provide the foods that will give that proper nutrition,” said Berry.

“This training centre is a part of the vision of the president to reduce poverty in our country, Benin, in the years to come.  I would like to thank the authorities of Mercy Ships and all the guests who have come to witness the ceremony.  I hope the Lord blesses you all.  Long live the partnership between Mercy Ships and Bethesda,” said the Deputy Minister of Agriculture.