Speaker 31st January 2020 - Mercy Ships

The evening meeting on Friday 31st January with members and guests welcomed Ken and Coralie as speakers. They have served with Mercy Ships as chaplains and have been associated with the work for some 30 years.

Mercy Ships is a Christian faith-based international development organisation that deploys hospital ships to some of the poorest countries in the world, delivering vital, free healthcare to people in desperate need.

Conditions requiring surgical treatment kill more people in low-income countries than HIV/Aids, TB and malaria combined. Globally, five billion people have no access to safe, affordable surgery when they need it.

In sub-Saharan Africa, up to 69% of people live on less than £2 a day. Healthcare in these countries either doesn't exist or is unaffordable to most of the population.

As well as completing thousands of urgent operations onboard its floating hospital, the Africa Mercy, Mercy Ships volunteers also work closely with host nations to improve the way healthcare is delivered across the country, by training and mentoring local medical staff, and renovating hospitals and clinics.

Founded in 1978 by Don and Deyon Stephens, Mercy Ships has worked in more than 56 countries, providing services valued at more than £1.2 billion. By improving healthcare delivery in every country it visits, Mercy Ships is working to eradicate the diseases of poverty and effectively do itself out of a job. Mercy Ships follows the model “bringing hope and healing to the forgotten poor”, helping people of all faiths and none.

Among the countries Mercy Ships serves, which lie on the lower third of the World Health Organisation’s Human Development Index, access to safe, affordable and timely surgery is extremely limited. As a result, countless people suffer and die from “diseases of poverty” that can easily be cured.

Now they are poised to double their capacity with a new ship, ‘Global Mercy’.

Rotary Clubs around the world have been supporting Mercy Ships for many years – plaques acknowledging the financial support for specific facilities exist around Mercy Africa. Now Rotary are hoping to raise money to meet a Challenge to raise $1m to fund medical equipment for the new Mercy Ship, Global Mercy, which is presently being built.   The Rotary Club of Chesham has pledged £1000 to the Fund.