Kiwi Crew Stories

Africa Mercy delighted by royal visitor

09.11.2011 Matamata nurse Glenys Gillingham converses with the Princess Royal

Princess Anne visited the world’s largest charity hospital ship in Sierra Leone recently as part of her tour of the West African country.

Accompanied by her husband, Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence, the Princess visited the 16,000 tonne Africa Mercy which is run by the international Christian charity Mercy Ships. The charity provides free medical care and humanitarian aid to some of the world’s poorest people.

The converted former Danish rail ferry is in its eighth month of a 10-month field service in Sierra Leone, a country the charity has visited
seven times over the last 19 years.

The Royal couple toured the ship’s hospital deck, visiting the operating theatres and the ward where they met some of the patients currently being treated on board, as well as the medical volunteers who serve on the ship. The Africa Mercy is staffed by more than 1000 volunteers from 40 nations annually, with about 400 onboard at any one time.

Her Royal Highness and the Vice Admiral met many of the volunteers during their visit, including Matamata ophthalmic operating theatre nurse Glenys Gillingham. Ms Gillingham said the visit of Princess Anne meant so much to them onboard. “We serve the poorest of the poor through our healthcare services, and for them to know that British Royalty cares enough to come and visit, to take an interest in their desperate needs being met, is totally life-changing.There will not be a patient on our wards who will ever forget this day,” Mrs Gillingham enthused.“They have been healed physically onboard and have had an incredible sense of value instilled into them by The Princess Royal’s visit.

“I was just going about my work in the operating theatre and was not even on the list of those to actually meet the Princess Royal. I was hiding away in Theatre Five when I was spotted by the managing director and beckoned across,” confesses Mrs Gillingham. “I shook my head a couple of times, and then had to emerge and be introduced. I mentioned having met Her Royal Highness at Kalene Mission Hospital in Zambia over 20 years ago. She remembered that we were putting in a new water system at the time. It’s amazing to think the Princess remembered details when she has countless other visits between then and now.”

The Royal couple was also shown the non-medical areas of the ship, including the bridge and the onboard school which has educated many New Zealand children of the volunteer crews over the past 33 years.They also met some of the non-medical volunteers who ensure the smooth dayto- day running of the ship,which is best described as a ‘small town’. The volunteer crew, who pay their own airfare and crew fees to cover the cost of their time onboard, range from the Captain, surgeons and nurses, to cooks, cleaners and engineers.

Graeme Walls, Director of Mercy Ships NZ who served with the Africa Mercy for five years said, “It was an unexpected and huge honour for Mercy Ships that The Princess Royal and her husband took time to visit the Africa Mercy during their stay in Sierra Leone. The visit has meant a great deal to the patients and volunteers alike. We were delighted that The Princess chose to spend time visiting the ship and learning about the work of the charity.”

Mercy Ships has worked extensively with the Ministry of Health and local hospitals to focus on capacity building and the training of local doctors, anesthetists, nurses and other health professionals.

Since February, Mercy Ships, volunteer medical teams in Sierra Leone have performed more than 2700 surgeries and 28,700 dental procedures and over the
last 30 years, the charity has worked in more than 70 countries providing services valued at $NZ 1 billion and impacting about 2.9 million
people.

Liz Irwin’s adventure delivering hope and healing

13.09.2011Liz Irwin comforts a 3 year old patient after a sight-giving operation

Auckland nurse Liz Irwin has just completed her third tour of duty with Mercy Ships, volunteering in as many years while the Africa Mercy was located in the West African nations of Benin, Togo, and now Sierra Leone. She is very much at home in the ship’s wards and with the dramatic conditions her patients have suffered.

Ms Irwin says, “My motivation in returning to the ship three years in a row is about injustice. It is wrong that a child born with a cleft lip and palate in West Africa can spend their whole life with a physical deformity, simply because they cannot afford the surgery, or the medical skills are not available. I enjoy being a part of an organisation that helps right that wrong. It is not just about us sailing into port then taking our skills away with us when we leave, but the investment we make to local doctors and nurses that come onboard. We have the opportunity to teach and train.”

Currently in Sierra Leone, the Africa Mercy spends ten months in a different West African country every year, delivering healthcare services usually unavailable. The length of two football fields and seven stories high, the Mercy Ship provides a transportable platform for the international volunteer crew to provide health care for 70 patients at a time in general and intensive care wards, and the ship’s six operating theatres. The theatres are supported by an onboard pathology lab, x-ray and cat-scan, and pharmacy—everything medically required to make the floating hospital self-sufficient in its provision of world-class services to those who have little or no access to the help they need.

Mercy Ships is altering the yearly schedule for the world’s largest charity hospital ship, Africa Mercy, making it more convenient for Kiwis to take part during their summer holidays.

The revised timetable of the Africa Mercy better facilitates programme implementation by Mercy Ships; minimising the impact of West Africa’s rainy season as during that time mobility for patients is difficult, and health problems in the general population at that time of year put already fragile patients at greater risk.

Mercy Ships has announced the new field service schedule which will provide opportunity for many more New Zealanders to volunteer their professional skills to help Africa’s poorest during our summer, when the hospital ship was previously dry docked. Transformed by this experience, every year short-term kiwi volunteers go on to sign up for long-term service and help provide the core of the organization’s operation.

Aid work realises long-held dream!

05.09.2011- Miriam Tillman is the sole pharmacist onboard the Africa Mercy

Pharmacist Miriam Tillman always believed she should be a missionary in Africa. Weh she visited a charity hospital 'Mercy Ship' as a teeemager, she knew she had found the gateway to realise her dream.

Miss Tillman qualified as a pharmacist in 2004 and worked at Belfast Pharmacy in Christchurch. She enjoyed working as a community pharmacist, but began to get restless. At the beginning of this year, she left the shores of New Zealand and signed up to a two-year stint on the world's largest charity hospital sip - Africa Mercy.

Before she knew it she was in Texas, undergoing intensive training to equip her with the skills she would need for living on board a ship.

The next stop was the Hope Centre in Sierra Leone, West Africa. here Miss Tillman helped vaccinate children against polio and visited orphanages, all giving her a stark initiation into the conditions some people are faced with every day.

Statistically, there is only one doctor for every 32,000 people in Sierra Leone, and one dentist for every one million people - help is desperately needed.

On February 28, the Africa Mercy arrived in Sierra Leone,a nd Miss Tillman climbed aboard as the sole pharmacist. She soon realised her job involved so much more than community pharmacy - she also became the only medicines importer, Ministry of Health liaison, and hospital pharmacist for four wards, an ICU, four operating rooms, a dental unit, eye clnic, and pallaxtive and outpatient care. "My workload is intense": Miss Tillman says.

Ordering medicines for the poorest regions of Africa, and receiving them ina timely manner is an ongoing challenge. "I have to out the order through 10 to 12 weeks in advance. The containers come from the US or the Netherlands and are meant to take four weeks to get here. however, these are often delayed and take a lot longer."

Miss Tillman also says there are often problems with the refrigerated medicines which get flown to the ship. Delays mean the medicines arrive warm and are useless.

A total of 450 crew members, including long term families with up to 50 children between them call the ship home.

Miss Tillman says there are people from 30 nations onboard and, for the most part, everyone gets on well.

She shares a bunkroom with three other people, from the US, Australia, and Germany.

With the exception of some snoring, Miss Tillman gets on with her room-mates and even took the option of staying with them in a four-bunk room when she was offered the more sought-after three-bunk room.

She does miss her family back in New Zealand, but says she is pleased she is able to bring treatmant to the world's poorest people. "Kids walk past the pharmacy on their way to get their wound dressings changed They all smile and wave and I know some of them by name. I like knowing I've helped these children in some small way."

Proof dreams do come true, if you have the conviction to make them happen.

Posted with permission, thanks to Pharmacy Today magazine

Anaesthetists join international medical efforts

22.08.2011- Auckland anaesthetist responds to overwhelming need in Africa

Middlemore anaesthetist Grant Waters spent two weeks volunteering onboard a floating hospital operated by Mercy Ships, located in one of the poorest nations on earth. A nation still emerging from the effects of a decade-long civil war, Sierra Leone's health system can claim one dentist per million, one doctor per 32,000, while one in eight women still die in childbirth. Dr Waters joined Mercy Ships in bringing their world-class vessel, Africa Mercy to deliver free health care services to Sierra Leone's people.

Dr. Waters was impressed that he was surrounded onboard by people from across the globe who were focused on one primary goal; creating an environment and infrastructure to provide care for people who have nothing.

Comprising the length of two football fields and seven stories high, the Mercy Ships Africa Mercy provides a transportable platform for an international volunteer crew of 450 to provide world-class health care services to those suffering at the lowest end of the United Nations' Human Development Index. the crew tends to 70 patients at a time in the general and intensive care wards, as well as the sip's six operating theatres. The theatres are also supported by a pathology lab, x-ray and cat-scan, pharmacy - every medically required to make the floating hospital self-sufficient.

Patients outline anaesthetic assessment is carried out when they are initially screened for surgery by the Mercy Ships team. Typically, patients are admitted to the ship's ward the afternoon before surgery, usually accompanied by a family member who will stay with them. Translators in the local Krio language ensure that patients fully understand the services and treatments offered.

Dr Grant, as he became known onboard, said while there were the inevitable small differences to the way anaesthesia is practised in New Zealand, Mercy Ships used familiar techniques and supplied multiple, current standard of care tools to cope with the inevitable difficult airway procedures. Seven new Paragon Platinum SC430 anaesthesia systems enable the surgical teams to work to international requirements. The ship’s Intensive Care Unit has the capacity to deal with a severely ill, inotrope and ventilator dependent septic patients, should it be required. “I even managed to get a bedside echo to exclude significant valve disease in a patient with a worrying murmur and x- ray on my first day”, he was delighted to report.

“There were two operating surgeons while I was onboard; general and maxillofacial. The ‘max fax’ list had its regular inclusions of difficult airways due to lumps and tumours, yet because thyroids are not being performed during this ten-month field service due to a lack of thyroxine in Sierra Leone. The general lists were hernias and hydrocoele cases.”

Mercy Ships determines the patient surgical schedule by when specific surgeons are scheduled to volunteer. These specialties include maxillofacial/head and neck, plastic and reconstructive surgery, obstetric fistula repair, orthopaedic, ophthalmic, and general surgery. Surgeons performed a total of 1,164 surgeries between February and June, 2011.

There were two particularly interesting cases that Dr. Waters noted. “A 50 year old woman had a large maxillary tumour occupying the right side of her mouth and obliterating the nasopharyngeal space on both sides of the oral cavity. The mass would obstruct normal laryngoscopy and tube placement, and nasal intubation was impossible. Using the left sided (right handed) blade, laryngoscopy and intubation was changed from challenging to completely routine.”

“I also attended a 22 year old man presenting acutely with a seven-month history of an enlarging tonsillar mass. At presentation he could neither lie flat nor on his left side, as in those positions his airway was occluded by the mass. Despite huge patient co-operation and excellent topicalisation, four experienced clinicians could not intubate him due to anatomic distortion from the mass. Finally, he received an awake tracheostomy before the mass was excised. If Mercy Ships had not been there, his life expectancy would have been very short!”

Dr. Waters concludes, “The experience I had was extremely positive. Mercy Ships volunteers are recognized and held in high regard by the local people who are thankful for the contribution they are making to the community. Hopefully one day I will get the opportunity to go back to Mercy Ships. It was an extraordinary and humbling two weeks.”

Posted with permission from New Zealand Anaesthesia Newsletter, Te Kotuku Rerenga Tahi. August 2011, Issue 27 published by the New Zealand Society of Anaesthetists

Bizzare meeting on hospital ship

04.07.2011- Women from Matamata meet for the first time in Africa

Despite coming from the same Waikato town, Glenys Gillingham and Janine Boyes had not met until they started changing lives in Africa.

The pair are volunteering aboard a floating hospital docked in Freetown, Sierra Leone, providing the poor with free medical treatment.

The pair has never met before, although they both hail from Matamata and arrived in Sierra Leone in February - they are now close friends and have adjacent cabins on the ship.

Miss Gillingham joined the Mercy Ships organisation in 2006 as an operating room nurse and has since carried out a number of missions toa number of countries, inlcuding Ghana, Lineria and Togo. She believes she is well suited to living and working amongst the poor.

"I had been working for about 25 years in missions in Zambia and Congo and went home. After about 5 years I decided I'd be better off ina Third World country than in a cushy job."

She said she quickly grew tired of life back in New Zealand and wanted to help people on a bigger scale.

Ms Boyes joined Mercy Ships at the end of 2009 and works in human resources, managing the arrival of all new volunteers. She had had previous careers in banking and health and fitness.

"I'd already dome some mission work in Thailand and know that;s what I was meant to be doing. It's been great. It's certainly different to working at home."

The Africa Mercy spends 10 months in a different West African country every year, with volunteers delivering healthcare services that are usually unavailable to them. The ship provides care for 70 patients at a time in general and intensive care wards and in six operating theatres. The majority of work involved surgical procedures for problems such as head tumours, cleft lip and palate and hernias, Miss Gillingham said.

A field team screens patients on land to find out their needs and then arranges appointments for them on the ship. In the time the ship is docked about 10,000 people also receive dental treatment.

Miss Gillingham is sponsored by Matamata Bible church and Ms Boyes by Matamata Baptist Church and they are both supported/sponsored by many friends and family in the Matamata community. Those people are also a vital part of the team making the work of the Africa Mercy possible.

Published with thanks to the Matamata Chronicle/Waikato Times

Legacy Giving- a greater cause

22.06.2011- "Your legacy could enable people to see or walk or smile for the first time through life-transforming surgeries" Lord McColl

Leaving a legacy and making donations to worthwhile causes is something that most of us would like to achieve in this life. Regardless of the path our lives take, we all desire to live, create and leave a legacy of meaning and purpose.

Forrest Whitcraft said, "One hundred years from now, it will not matter what my bank account was, or how big my house was, or what kind of car I drove, but the world may be a better place because I was important in the life of another."

So, what is a legacy? It’s making a real and lasting difference to hundreds of people for years to come.It’s the sum of your life so far. It’s your financial and personal assets, your stories, gifts and life experiences. It’s an extension of your values, beliefs and philosophies. It’s the influence you have or the impressions you make in the life of someone else.

A living legacy can start today and may continue many years into the future. It’s something that’s established by you and meaningful to you and others. Experience the satisfaction that comes with establishing your living legacy now. Make it meaningful and ensure a part of you survives beyond your own lifetime. Your family or others become the beneficiaries of your living legacy.

It's important that you are confident your donation is going to a bona fide charity. You need to validate the financial and legal status of charities and missions, particularly overseas, to help you give safely and securely to causes worldwide.

One of the great ways to leave a legacy is to donate to Christian missions, or to leave a legacy in your will so missions can keep moving forward to spread the Gospel.

The objective of these missionaries is to give an understandable presentation of their beliefs with the hope that people will choose to follow the teaching of Jesus Christ and live their lives as his disciples. This all takes money of course and you can be part of giving into God’s kingdom by donating or leaving a legacy.

The majority of churches strongly emphasise the need for committed giving; very few talk to their congregations about the importance of leaving a legacy to a Christian charity. Thousands of Christians die each year, yet many churches are not encouraging them to leave a legacy, according to Christian Legacy a consortium of six charities. “What do you want your Christian legacy to be?

Leaving a gift to charity or missions in your will is an amazing way for your generosity to last beyond your own lifetime. The same generosity applies for donations you can now make to your favourite mission or organisation. Apart from your family, what greater gift can you give than to Christian missions so the Great Commission can be carried out throughout the world.

Creating a living legacy according to what is important to you, means that your values will continue to live well past your time in this world.

Bob Pierce, World Vision founder said, "Let my heart be broken with the things that break God's heart."

Mercy Ships surgeon, Lord Ian McColl says “One of my greatest passions is volunteering onboard a Mercy Ship, performing surgery that literally gives new life. Seeing the joy of a patient who has received a long awaited operation on a cleft lip or facial tumour never ceases to give me immense personal satisfaction.

This gift of new life is only possible because of caring, generous people who can continue transforming lives long into the future by remembering (organisations such as) Mercy Ships in your Will.

Your legacy could enable people to see or walk or smile for the first time through life-transforming surgeries that in many cases, you could even save lives!

Your legacy could even transform the lives of whole communities through development projects. Imagine funding a health care clinic, safe water supply, or an agriculture project for an entire village.

Without legacies, we could not carry out this level of work, let alone reach the increasing number of people in need into the future. That’s the life-changing difference a legacy can make.

Anything you give takes us one step closer to a world where no one is left to suffer simply because they have no access to health care and other basic necessities. This has to be a future worth investing in!”

Professor the Lord McColl; Emeritus Professor of Surgery at Guy’s Hospital in London. Lord McColl was the personal secretary for Sir John Major while he was Prime Minister 1994-97; Deputy Speaker 1994-97, 1998-2002; Deputy Chairman of Committees 1994-97, 1998-2002; Opposition Spokesperson for Health 1997-2010.Lord McColl is the vice-chairman of Mercy Ships International, and has been performing surgeries onboard since 1996. He is a passionate and deeply committed Christian.

Posted with thanks to Later Life digital magazine.

Mercy Ships recruit re-enlists

31.05.2011- Melanie Schulze is on her third tour of duty aboard the world's largest non-governmental hospital ship.

The Africa Mercy is currently docked in Sierra Leone,West Africa, one of the poorest nations on earth. Melanie works shifts one of the Mercy Ships six operating theatres; her team’s specialty is Child Orthopaedics.

“The atmosphere of the community here onboard the ship is incredible. Four hundred people all working together from forty different nations for one purpose-it is unlike any other place I've ever been. I was struck initially by the attitude of the crew and the motivation of the work we do and the love that it is done with."

The 25 year old operating theatre nurse first touched down in Benin to serve for six months in 2009, returned in 2010 to Togo for another four months. This year she has signed on for an eight month stint in Sierra Leone.

Not only was her heart captured by Africa, it's where Melanie met her fiancé Michel, a surgical nurse from Germany, as they happened to serve alongside one another on each of her previous trips. This past Boxing Day Michel proposed to Melanie during a visit to New Zealand, and the couple re-joined Mercy Ships together in January. She says, “We intend to continue to serve God on the mission field. We plan to take some time off after our wedding in January 2012 before returning to the mission field to settle into being married before we return to serving with Mercy Ships.”

The Africa Mercy, which is the length of two football fields and seven stories high, can provide care for 70 patients at a time in general and intensive care wards. The theatres are supported by an onboard pathology lab, x-ray and cat-scan, physical therapy, and pharmacy.

The services are provided by volunteers who donate their time and skills including a dozen kiwis serving anywhere from a month to six years at a time.

Mercy Ships is a Christian charity dedicated to bringing transformational healthcare to some of the world’s most desperate and vulnerable people.

Published with thanks to Mahurangi Matters at www.Localmatters.co.nz

Hawkes Bay nurses deliver hope in Africa

25.05.2011- A long-time dream comes true for Anneke Knegtman

Hastings mid-wife Anneke Knegtmans joined her colleague and friend, flight nurse Michelle Baines, on her return visit to Africa, volunteering their services to the poor aboard Mercy Ships hospital vessel Africa Mercy, in Sierra Leone.

Ms Knegtmans initially heard about Mercy Ships more than 20 years ago. “I had the longing to be on a ship like that and serve some time helping the poor. Through the years that my children were at school and at university we could not afford it. Now the children are living all their own life and supporting themselves.”

Her long-time dream came true through the encouragement of Hastings emergency flight nurse Michelle Baines who volunteered with Mercy Ships in West Africa in 2009. “As soon as I returned from the ship Anneke asked me when I was going back to Africa, so she could join me.”

The Africa Mercy is Mercy Ships newest vessel. Converted from a Danish rail ferry and deployed as a state-of-the-art hospital ship in 2006, her capacity includes six operating theatres, X-ray and CT scanner, a pharmacy and a blood laboratory - all the internal facilities to ensure the vessel can fully-function as a first-world hospital in the developing nations it serves. There are beds for 78 in-patients at any given time, with four wards and a small intensive care unit, as well as accommodation for 450 medical, maritime and operational volunteers.

Ms Knegtmans’ onboard role as the admissions nurse is vital. As people arrive for surgery from all parts of Sierra Leone, they are often very afraid. They are without exception people who have suffered enormously; disfigured or injured, poverty-stricken and desperate for the hope and healing offered by Mercy Ships.

As one of the first points of contact for the patients, Ms Knegtmans’ compassion, maturity and professionalism in taking their often tragic personal information is just the beginning of their journey to restoration. It is not an easy process, as each patients history needs to be translated sometimes from a tribal to the national language, then to ‘western’ English, assisted by an interpreter. “It is a lot of paperwork, but after you understand what the medical team want to know, it is quite simple,” she commented.

Meanwhile, Michelle Baines is working shifts as a ward nurse. Noticing the patients waiting on the dock to be admitted early one the morning, she reflected “As they stood quietly waiting, it really struck me -the hope that this ship really does bring to these people. Each one gazed at the ship with some trepidation, but with hope, and relief. They didn't know I could see them. The realization of what we were bringing to them quietly impacted me.”

The free surgeries performed by the volunteer medical teams onboard include cleft lip and palate reconstruction for adults and children, corrective orthopaedic surgeries, and skin grafts for burns victims. They remove disfiguring and life threatening yet benign tumours, and remove sight-stealing cataracts which occur in babies through to the elderly. Dental teams provide essential care in land-based clinics in this poverty-stricken nation where there is only one local dentist per million people.

Referring to the Mercy Ships international community of volunteers, Ms. Knegtmans reflects “The atmosphere here is amazing. I’m getting to know some really special people. I like the aspect that they are coming from all over the world.”

Ms. Baines adds, “The seamless teamwork between multiple countries and health professionals all there for a united purpose is so impacting. The range of patient care is from lifesaving to life enhancing; from routine to complex and specialised, all done in a 'floating hospital. The community ethos has everybody praying for the crew, the patients, situations and unexpected events. The hospital floor is humming; all wards are open and nearly at maximum capacity. The Intensive Care Unit is fully utilised. I worked thirteen hours-plus on my shifts over the weekend as I was caring for a four year old boy weighing only eleven kilograms, who had major reconstructive surgery to his jaw. His jaw was refashioned using bone taken from two of his ribs. It’s an amazing experience - to know that ship-wide people are praying wisdom and skill for the doctors, and are interested in and praying for my patient’s recovery.”

The Hastings nurses arrive home in June after two months volunteering onboard the world largest non-governmental hospital ship, in one of the world’s most impoverished nations.

Fashion event with a mission

19.05.2011- North Shore Vineyard's women help bring life-changing health care to African mothers by hold a fund raising 'Frock Swap'

North Shore Vineyard’s women are connecting with a universal love for fashion with the desperate needs of damaged African mothers, in an innovative way that is creating a stir across generations.

The church will host a Frock Swap - a fashion event with a mission- accenting the resurgence of vintage clothing, and the global social responsibility of recycling, all for a poignant purpose

Auckland women of all ages are donating their past-favourites, last-season’s purchases, or an item loved but no-longer worn, to transform the lives of their sisters in developing nations. . The proceeds from outfits and accessories available for a donation will provide funds for Mercy Ships long term work obstetric fistula work in West Africa.

The event will be held in Windy Ridge School Hall in Glenfield, on May 21 beginning at 7pm.The entry price of $20, or $10 for students, includes bubbles, cupcakes and coffee. this, plus a donation for the clothing, will go directly to support women's health care in Sierra Leone.

Obstetric fistula is a condition that affects girls and women in many developing nations who experience difficulty during childbirth. Simply due to the lack of healthcare services, as many as two million mothers - young and older- are estimated to have become permanently incontinent due to problems with the baby’s delivery. Bearing in mind that most of these women have absolutely no access to incontinence products, the implications of these injuries are devastating in their social and emotional impact.

Each year, Mercy Ships spends ten months in a different West African nation at the invitation of the local government. Mercy Ships addresses women’s health needs in a variety of ways which have included: surgical interventions (obstetric fistula repair), surgeon and nurse training, and facility renovation for maternal and general hospitals.

Posted with thanks to Challenge Weekly.

Generating healing power

09.01.2011- Surviving life-threatening illness, Ian Cross determined to change the lives of Africa’s poorest

Ian Cross has delivered the biggest gift he could give at Christmas. The Wanganui born-and-raised handy-man recently survived a life-threatening health crisis. In the process, Ian Cross determined to lend his hands-on assistance to a project that will dramatically change the lives of hundreds of thousands of Africa’s poorest people.

Cross heard of Mercy Ships call for volunteers for a project that would enable him to use his practical skills in a way that would literally save the lives of people that normally have no access to the kind of health care that saved his own life. He says, “Last year I had a journey through cancer. During this difficult period God brought many folk or situations across my path relating to Mercy Ships and their unique medical and practical helps mission. I realized that if I recovered from my cancer, there may be an opportunity at least once to use my annual leave and serve short term on the Africa Mercy. It is a way to serve God and be a good steward of various gifts, abilities and the time that He has given me.”

The charity’s care for people in developing nations has become known around the world. The newest vessel Africa Mercy is a self-contained, state-of-the-art hospital ship. The 450 volunteer crewmembers are dedicated to bringing lifesaving surgeries and health care services to western Africa’s most impoverish communities.

Refitted from a Danish short- haul ferry, the 16,572 tonne Africa Mercy is required to generate all its own power to run the hospital ship’s six operating theatres, 78 bed hospital ward, and all onboard patient services in the developing nations it serves. Air conditioning and lighting, computer technology, and general electrical needs are completely run by ship’s original diesel generators, which are now in need of replacing.

Ian Cross is using his annual leave to volunteer in the ship’s technical team for a month over Christmas and New Year. Engineers, plumbers, welders and other volunteers from 35 nations are installing the new generators. They will increase the capacity of Mercy Ships to serve Africa’s disabled poor by 35%, will reduce carbon emissions from the ship’s engines by 20%, and will significantly reduce annual fuel running costs. As the charity is completely funded by donations, the reduction in operating costs means finances saved can be redirected to fund further surgeries and services where they are most necessary; by those desperate for both hope and healing.

Ian Cross he has first received, and then given, the literal gift of the time to serve others.

Master Mariners meet Mercy Ships

10.02.2011 Graeme sharing the first clean water pumped to a Liberian village

Mr Graeme Walls, Director of Mercy Ships NZ, spoke to Auckland's Master Mariners branch meeting about the operation of Mercy Ships and the huge amount of work achieved by the organization and volunteer staff of their ships.

Graeme first joined Mercy Ships and sailed out of Auckland on 5 July 1983. He has worked as volunteer staff both ashore and afloat on their vessels Anastasia, Island Mercy and Africa Mercy. He became Director of Mercy Ships when it shifted to Auckland three years ago.

Graeme is married to Sharon, who also works in their Auckland office. They have three children and were the 89th couple to have married after meeting on a Mercy Ship.

Mercy Ships is an international charity that provides free medical and humanitarian services to the people of Africa using its hospital ship, Africa Mercy. In the developing world, lack of access to basic health care can have horrific results. Mercy Ships freely provides relief to the forgotten poor - saving lives, improving quality of life and restoring hope.

Because of the costs involved in keeping the ships in Survey, Mercy Ships have now reduced their operation to one ship, Africa Mercy, the world’s largest non-governmental hospital ship. Previously a Danish Ferry the vessel was converted at a cost of £30m ($59m) with the work finally being completed in 2007.
Staffed with volunteer doctors, nurses, engineers and agriculturists, the ship visits ports in some of the world’s poorest countries. Doctors, surgeons and nurses onboard provide free medical and surgical services, while off ship teams help local communities develop sustainable water, sanitation and education programmes.

Published with thanks to NZ Co Master Mariners, Auckland Branch

Number crunching brings hope and healing

Long Term volunteer Irene George donates blood for Lawson's life-transforming surgery

Irene George is neither a doctor nor a nurse, yet for four years the North Shore accounts clerk has played a key role in the delivery of life-changing health care services to thousands of western Africa’s poorest people with little access to even basic health care, in some of the world’s most impoverished nations.

The Mercy Ships vessel Africa Mercy is as tall as an eight-story building, refit from a rail ferry to state-of-the-art hospital ship. From captain to cooks, surgeons to school teachers the multi-national crew of 450 volunteer their skills to make a difference in the lives of Africans with serious ailments caused by diseases have been stamped out in developed countries by medical advances.

Ms George’s work in the finance department onboard is strategic as the charity determines to have as much integrity in its financial dealings at it does in the provision of health care to Africa’s most fragile and vulnerable. As the crew raise their own sponsorship to pay room and board enabling overheads to be kept to a minimum, the processing of that support from more than 30 home-nations falls to Ms George and the finance team.In her ‘free time’ outside the finance department, Ms George spends time where ever she can, interacting with the patients coming to Mercy Ships for hope and healing. One of her most impacting experiences this year was when she donated blood for surgery need by a desperate young man in Togo.

Lawson was admitted to Mercy Ships earlier this year for treatment. “I came here so I could get help,” were his words. A large growth stretched his mouth and cheeks horribly, causing his teeth to stick out in all directions. It had been growing for four years, inhibiting his breathing, eating, and speech – and, eventually, his ability to work.

The tumour had destroyed his life, separating him from everyone and everything he loved. The people in his village would not sell him food because they said he was a devil. His wife left him, leaving behind their three children. Without work or food, he could not provide for his family.

Lawson was literally at the brink of death as the tumour slowly suffocated him. He was immediately admitted to the hospital ship, with surgery the next day. Mercy Ships crew who had signed up to the ship’s blood bank were screened and Ms George was chosen as a match to donate blood for Lawson’s surgery. It took three doctors eight hours to remove the benign growth and repair his nose, upper lip, and cheek.

Lawson was overjoyed when he touched the bandages on his cheek – the tumour was gone! There will be more operations next year when the Africa Mercy is docked in Sierra Leone to complete the reconstruction of his face, but the immediate result of the surgery and Irene George’s compassionate gift, is a saved and restored life with hope for the future.

Kiwi couple help provide operations for Africa's poorest

01.12.2010- John utilizes his marine technical skills as his wife Sue, an operating theatre nurse, works in surgery onboard

With a background in boatbuilding, specializing in bearings, John Clynes was fascinated with the prospect of using his marine engineering skills to volunteer on the world’s largest non-governmental hospital ship in Africa. His wife Sue’s training as an operating theatre nurse seemed like a perfect fit for the couple as they scheduled annual leave with a difference.

John describes the Africa Mercy as an entirely unique vessel: “Not only is she a ship, but also a hotel and a hospital all in one. The engineering team on board is about 30- strong: including electricians, plumbers, welders, fitters, the marine engineering team Chief and officers. There are also motormen, and watch engineers monitoring engine performance around the clock to maintain the ship’s power for the hospital. All of the team are from diverse backgrounds and nations, but all contribute in a common bond to provide a stable platform to deliver health and healing to Africa’s poor.”

Refitted from a Danish short- haul ferry in 2006, the 16,572 tonne Africa Mercy now boasts a state-of-the-art hospital where the railway tracks once ran through the roll-on roll-off lower deck. A new deck dividing the hold horizontally provides accommodation for many of the 450 volunteer marine, health care services, and operational crew.

While Sue Clynes worked shifts in the six operating theatres - providing life-changing surgeries like cataract removal for Togo’s poorest people - John and his teammates worked tirelessly behind the scenes ensuring the ship’s generators and other operating systems functioned to provide the power needed to care for the forgotten poor seeking hope and healing onboard.

Summing up their service with Mercy Ships, John declares “I felt absolutely connected to the end product (of changing desperate people’s lives) as every hour delivered meant that people with no hope, who were crying for help, received the treatment they fully deserve.”

Mercy Ships has volunteer positions - of one to ten months in duration - available in engineering, deck, and operational departments for one to ten months in duration, for its 2011 field service in Sierra Leone.

Kiwi couple help provide life-saving operations for Africa's poor

01.12.2010- John utilizes his marine technical skills as his wife Sue, an operating theatre nurse, works in surgery onboard

Mercy Ships has volunteer positions available in engineering, deck, and operational departments for field service in West Africa.

Making a real difference

04.11.2010- Nurturing a young Togolese girl longing for life-changing surgery touched Tania Litherland in a profound way

Changing the lives of the poor and desperately sick has been a dream that Orakei nurse Tania Litherland has nurtured since she was a student. Five years into her profession, Ms Litherland’s dream grew into a plan. It involved her raising sponsorship, paying for her own flights to West Africa, then volunteering her services for three months onboard the world’s largest non-governmental hospital ship. She experienced a mixed reaction from others to the idea: “Some people thought it was very strange that I am volunteered my time as well as paying to live on the Africa Mercy, at the same time they respected this and wished they could do it. Other people at worked asked me when I returned ‘How was the cruise?’ I replied, ‘It wasn’t exactly a cruise!’”

Mercy Ships usually spend 10 months per year in a West African nation, delivering health care services to the poorest of the poor free of charge. The 450-strong crew pay their own way, enabling donations made to the charity to provide health care with a minimum spent on administration costs. The multi-national crew representing -35 countries including about 20 New Zealanders- daily embraces the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of West Africa’s forgotten poor.

Ms Litherland reflects, “I used to think that there was such poverty, disease and need in Africa and it was overwhelming. The idea almost made me give up and not even try to make a difference. But now I can see that I can make a difference in people’s lives working as a team. It was not just me that healed people’s deformities, but a whole team on the ship who contributed to that journey of physical and emotional healing. Being in a different part of the world, in a different community and culture opened my eyes to God working in different areas in different ways. I now know there is potential for wonderfully fulfilling life.”

One of the most impacting experiences during those months in Togo was Ms Litherland’s involvement with an eight year old patient named Balkissa, who had a tongue so large she couldn't close her mouth. She could eat, but only pureed food and soup.

“On the day that I met her, Balkissa was so afraid of white people she had tears streaming down her face and was hiding under the blankets. But after a couple of days, and lots of constant love and gentle attention she realised that we were caring and were able to be trusted. From then on, she would sit on my lap, run and hug me and jump up and want to be carried, and follow me out of the ward and up the corridor if i was popping out at all.”

After two surgeries and a month in the care of the ship’s nurses, Balkissa went home with a reconstructed mouth, a confident heart, and a brighter future.

Tania Litherland came home with an assurance that she had played her part in bringing hope and healing to some of Africa’s poorest and most desperate people.

Mercy Ships helps blind Africans to see

04.11.2010- Matamata nurse Glenys Gillingham beside one of the Mercy Ships floating hospitals that are bringing hope and healing to Africans people.

Being able to see is something we often take for granted but for millions of people overseas it is something they have are unable to experience, even though statistics from the World Health Organisation show that most of the world’s blindness is preventable.

Four years ago Matamata’s Glenys Gillingham joined the crusade to bring the gift of sight to West Africa. She has already made a significant difference by volunteering her surgical skills as an operating theatre nurse with Mercy Ships, state-of-the art hospital ships delivering world class health care to some of the poorest countries in the world.

Mercy Vision is an eye care programme that includes land-based eye clinics as well as eye surgeries done onboard the ship. Ms Gillingham’s long-term nursing experience in Africa gave her the insight and understanding that was a vital part of training the short-term medical volunteers who served with the MV Africa Mercy.

‘‘This is just a small little corner of Africa and the plight of these people with no water, no healthcare, no education, no food, no clothes and no decent housing, is duplicated for thousands of miles in any given direction,’’ she said. However since the Mercy Ships had arrived, more and more encouraging patient stories had emerged, such as Komlavi’s, an artist in Togo, West Africa, who simply needed a miracle.

‘‘I am a sculptor and a carpenter – a wood artist. I was having this eye problem for a long time but I was unable to go to the hospital.’’ One day that miracle literally walked into his shop when some Mercy Ships volunteers visited and he mentioned to them that he couldn’t see well out of his right eye. A few days later Komlavi arrived at the eye screening showing a note that a volunteer had written and by the end of the day he was cleared for the surgery that would restore his sight.

However Mercy Ships relied on donations to help patients like Komlavi and also train local physicians in a procedure for cataract removal fine-tuned by Dr Glenn Strauss which required no sutures, was cost-effective and efficient, allowing many patients to be treated aboard the Africa Mercy, and Ms Gillingham said there was still a long way to go. ‘‘Next year we sail to Sierra Leone and will find the same thing there. We’re a drop in the bucket of need.’’

Courtesy of Matamata Chronicle.

Rotorua nurse shares right to sight

12.10.2010- Thousands of Africa's poor receive sight through free surgeries

Rotorua nurse Justine Crampton recently rolled up her sleeves and travelled to Togo, West Africa to volunteer her holidays joining the Mercy Ships eye team in providing these free surgeries.

Ms Crampton is an ophthalmic nurse and familiar with most common conditions. What she saw in Africa was tremendous need where people were in advanced stages of sight-loss, due to simple conditions such as cataracts. “There were so many people in such need, yet they were so humble and thankful for the help they were receiving. Their livelihood so much depends on their eyesight in a country that has no welfare or concessions for the disabled. I realized I was only tapping into a small percentage of so many in need of help. It was amazing what we accomplished in my two weeks in Togo. Mercy Ships being there for months long provides so much hope for so many”, says Ms Crampton.

World Sight Day celebrates a blessing that we often taken for granted – the gift of sight. This year the focus is specifically on eye health and equal access to care.

Komlavi, a local artist in Togo, West Africa, simply described his dilemma, saying, “I am a sculptor and a carpenter – a wood artist. I was having this eye problem for a long time, but I was unable to go to the hospital.” He needed a miracle. And, one day, that miracle literally walked into his shop when some Mercy Ships volunteers visited. Komlavi mentioned that he couldn't see well out of his right eye. Alana Abernathy, a member of the eye team, recalls, “I took him over into the shade where I could see into his pupil better. Sure enough, I saw one of those dense, white cataracts.” Alana knew this was a problem that Mercy Ships could definitely solve. She wrote down the location of the eye care screening and told Komlavi to come.

A few days later Komlavi arrived at the eye screening. He showed them the note that Alana had written. By the end of the day, he was cleared for the surgery that would restore his sight.

Komlavi’s story is encouraging, but there are many more people who desperately need eye care.

Statistics from the World Health Organization show that most of the world’s blindness is preventable. But in many poor countries, eye care is simply not available or not accessible. For example, the West African country of Togo has a population of 6.4 million people … and only 2 hospitals. The fact that the majority of the population lives on less than $2 per day, further complicates access to health care.

According to Vision 2020, cataracts are the leading cause of blindness, and 80% of blindness is treatable, curable or preventable. Simple and effective strategies could address this inequity, claims Dr. Glenn Strauss. He gave up his eye practice in the US to serve fulltime with Mercy Ships as Chief of Ophthalmology and as the Vice President of Health Care Initiatives.

Since 2004, Dr. Strauss has fine-tuned a procedure for cataract removal called MSICS (Manual Small Incision Cataract Surgery). The technique, which has been developed in Nepal, India, and onboard the Africa Mercy, requires no sutures. It is also cost-effective and efficient, allowing for a high-volume turnover of patients. Dr. Strauss can serve approximately 40 patients per day by using this procedure.

During a recent Mercy Ships Field Service in West Africa, over 700 patients a day lined up outside the Eye Center. To address this need, Mercy Ships also trains local doctors in the MSICS technique. For the last three years, Alcon, a faithful corporate supporter of Mercy Ships, has sponsored a fellowship program. One recipient is Dr. Abram Wodome, a native of West Africa. He and Dr. Strauss trained five additional surgeons at two hospitals in Benin. As a result, the amount of surgeries went from 320 (all 5 combined) surgeries per year to 2,000 (all five combined) surgeries per year. That’s an increase of 525%!

Gifts from faithful donors have rescued many patients like Komlavi from a world of darkness, and they have provided training for physicians like Dr. Wodome to offer hope and healing to his countrymen. Even small donations have long-lasting, and often life-transforming, effects in countries like Togo.

Mercy Ships uses its state-of-the-art hospital ship, the Africa Mercy, to deliver world-class health care to some of the poorest countries in the world. Their services include Mercy Vision, an eye care program that includes land-based eye clinics as well as eye surgeries done onboard the ship.

Published by The Rotorua Daily Post

Christchurch woman's shipboard reception

26.08.2010- Annette Inkster discovers

it takes all hands on deck to make a hospital ship function

Annette Inkster is neither a doctor nor a nurse. She did, however, recently play a key role in the delivery of life-changing health care services to thousands of western Africa’s poorest people. Volunteering for seven months as a receptionist on the world’s largest non-governmental hospital ship proved to be a life-changing experience.

The Mercy Ships vessel Africa Mercy is as tall as an eight-story building, refit from a rail ferry to state-of-the-art hospital ship. From captain to cooks, surgeons to school teachers the multi-national crew of 450 raise their own sponsorship to provide free transformational health care to people with little access to even basic health care, in some of the world’s most impoverished nations.

Located at the top of the ship’s gangway, Reception is the hub of Mercy Ships onboard communication while the ship is ‘alongside’ the wharf performing its service to Africa’s poor. Its smooth running is critical to the highly professional functioning of the hospital ship. The Receptionists receive calls at all hours of the day or night, and maintain constant contact with duty officers and crew. One of the most crucial roles is operating the fire alarm panel, the 111 phone, and the Security Systems – which have to be staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year for the safety of the patients, the crew and their families onboard the vessel.

Working shifts in the Africa Mercy reception definitely required that Ms Inkster maintain a cool head. There were stressful moments as well as some amusing ones. In addition to monitoring safety and security systems and the general administration work, she processed the arriving and departing crew during her watch. With a crew from around 40 different nationalities, simply pronouncing unfamiliar names correctly was a challenge.

There were also privileges that touched the Christchurch women deeply; the most poignant being the day she watched a small boy who had received corrective surgery for his club feet, and had returned to have his legs checked and casts removed. Oblivious to his emotional audience, the boy scampered up and down the wharf, filled with the sheer joy of being able to run for the very first time in his life.

Ms Inkster, who was supported in her Mercy Ships service in Togo by Christchurch’s Majestic Church, says “I consider myself extremely fortunate to have been able to go to Mercy Ships. The fire fighting, lifesaving, and first aid course that I had to do in preparation was a real challenge to me. I have seen the real dedication of all of the staff on board - not just the nurses and doctors- but the cleaning and dining room staff and others as well. I made some amazing, close friendships.”

Dunedin surgeon serves Africa's mothers in poverty

10.05.2010- Alastair Yule finds great reward in his voluntary work aboard the world's largest non-govenmental hospital ship

Mother’s Day can be a bitter-sweet time for women who struggle with infertility, have miscarried, or lost a child. Reaching out to others in pain can often bring a measure of healing. This Mother’s Day, Mercy Ships New Zealand launches its annual Mercyful Mother’s Day Appeal to reach out with physical help and God’s hope to Africa’s silently suffering mothers, especially those who have endured the shame of obstetric fistula.

Obstetric Fistula is a condition that affects women more than 2 million mothers in the poorest nations, some as young as 13, who experience difficulty during child birth. The Obstetric Fistula or V V F (Vesico Vaginal Fistula) complication results from an obstructed labour where the baby becomes lodged in the birth canal, sometimes for days at a time. Where no health care is available, this often results in the mother delivering a stillborn child. The trauma causes the mother major injury, creating a hole between her birth canal and her bladder or rectum. In pain and incontinent, these women are often cast out of their communities because of their horrendous smell, to survive by begging. Without treatment their condition worsens and can be fatal.

Mercy Ships is an international hospital ship Christian charity crewed by volunteers; doctors, nurses, mariners and operational staff, visiting some of the world’s most impoverished countries and providing life-changing medical assistance free of charge.

Alastair Yule, Senior Clinical Lecturer at Dunedin School of Medicine is a prime example. He declares “As a volunteer Kiwi crew member, I have seen with my own eyes how, in desperately poor countries like Benin in West Africa, blind, disabled or disfigured children and adults urgently need help. And since there is usually no affordable medical treatment near where they live, we go to them with the Africa Mercy to provide the urgent care needed. I have just returned from my third trip performing free surgeries there.”

On board Mercy Ships, doctors perform free fistula repair surgeries for affected women and girls. The healed patients are given a new outfit and traditional headdress, for many their only clean clothes, as symbols of their new life. Their inner wounds take longer to heal, however. The love and acceptance the patients receive onboard the Mercy Ship is often the beginning of God’s work of complete restoration in their lives.

Mercy Ships New Zealand’s Mercyful Mother’s Day campaign contributes to this mission helping African women of all ages live with dignity; free from a life of misery and pain. Communications Manager Sharon Walls, says that New Zealanders are most often completely unaware of this terrible plight of women in developing nations. “Kiwis have big hearts and a tremendous desire to help when they see injustice” states Mrs Walls, who expects the campaign to fund numerous surgeries aboard the m/v Africa Mercy in western Africa. Since 1978 Mercy Ships volunteer surgeons have performed more than 47,000 free life-changing operations for the poor, 2,700 of these for women suffering from obstetric fistula.

Trading flight wings for sea legs

24.03.2010- As emergency nurse Michelle Baines looks over her early morning flight schedule, it’s a paradigm shift from her volunteer work in Africa with Mercy Ships.

Ms Baines journaled an early start a world away; “This morning, as I sat eating breakfast - watching the local Beninese fishermen with their canoes and nets out through the porthole, I was trying to picture myself in my own kitchen, with 4 walls, and it seems a million miles away.”

African dawns were most reflective times for Michelle Baines as she volunteered her time, her skills, and her compassion to bring lasting change to impoverished people in Benin, West Africa who had minimal access to even basic health care – until Mercy Ships pulled into port.

The m/v Africa Mercy is as tall as an eight-story building, refit from a rail ferry to state-of-the-art hospital ship. From captain to cooks, surgeons to school teachers, Mercy Ships’ multi-national crew of 450 raise their own sponsorship to provide free transformational health care to the poorest of the poor in West Africa.

Ms Baines felt although the days were long, and work hard in the six wards of the Mercy Ship, she felt she got to know her patients personally during the two months she worked onboard. “Basically I just came prepared to encounter anything, but also knew I was not on my own. They have staff coming and going all the time so would have good support systems in place to help people adjust to life in Africa, and living in community. From the beginning I felt that this is what God wanted me to do- to give an offering of myself-my nursing ability.”

Ms Baines experienced genuine camaraderie in the ship wards, and a unity and cohesion amongst the 35 nationalities that serve in the ship’s crew. Local Beninese people were recruited as volunteers to translate for the patients. The language barrier from French and local dialects was overcome, and a good rapport established with the patients all of whom were both poor and desperate for medical intervention for their debilitating problems.

Celestine was one of those patients. The 19 year old had simply been bitten by an ant of the back of her hand, but lack of access to basic health care in her impoverished nation turned her lower arm into a raw, non-healing wound. Celestine’s wrist bent backwards and she was unable to move her fingers as a result. After suffering this condition for more than a year Celestine heard about the free medical care being offered by the Mercy Ship docked in the capital city. She received treatment onboard for the wound and skin grafts to her hand and wrist, restoring her mobility. Celestine’s declaration was she left the ship both physically and spiritually restored, with a radiant smile that had previously been hidden behind her anxiety and self-consciousness over her disfigurement.

Ms Baines recalls another morning as she ate breakfast, some of the pre admission patients for the next day were arriving, including a little three year old girl with a grossly deformed-outwardly bowed right knee; a four month old baby with a huge – C2-3 level menigocoele - a fluid filled sac bulging out from the neck, burns and contractures where thick scar tissue pulls the arm or leg into an unnatural twisted or clenched position and they can not move ,use or straighten that arm or leg that has been burned. “As they stood, quietly waiting, it really struck me; the hope that this ship really does bring to these people. Each one gazed at the ship with some trepidation, but with hope, and relief. They didn't know I could see them. The realization of what we were bringing to them quietly impacted me.”

Ms Baines urges, "Anyone can do this, there is a place for everybody and anybody on board. You don’t need to be a nurse or a doctor. I met people here in Hastings who financially support individuals on board, or who donate to Mercy Ships. That is vital. Not everybody is able to leave home and work overseas but money provides hospital care, dental care ,eye surgery, health education, palliative care, and practical agricultural ,hydration ,water wells and more, in West Africa .Check out the web-site…you might be surprised…and encouraged.”

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