Mercy Ships, lifesaving surgery in Africa

Don Stephens founded Mercy Ships in 1978, as a Christian charity headquartered in Texas, with the purchase of the SS Anastasis. During his time as President of Mercy Ships, Don directed and led thousands of volunteers from 60+ nations, plus employees in 16 countries.

Don Stephens and wife Deyon

Global Mercy at dock

Mercy Ships

Don pioneered The Mercy Minute, a daily radio broadcast on 840+ stations for decades. He handed over the programme to Mercy Ships spokeswoman Raeanne Newquist while Stephens wrote 3 books: Trial by Trial (1985), Mandate for Mercy (1995) and Ships of Mercy (2005). Then he won an International Humanitarian of the Year Award.

Surgical staff

Mercy Ships focused public attention on providing surgery, and strengthening the healthcare infrastructure in the nations served. Thanks to family support, children and adults suffering from painful, disfiguring and ?preventable diseases were able to find the healing they so desperately needed.

Screening day used to be the biggest day of the year for Mercy Ships. Sometimes 4,000 children and adults were waiting, hoping to be accepted onboard as patients. Recent steps in the building process included 16 months of detailed design work, construction of new machinery systems, installation of new medical equipment, and outfitting the hospital and recovery units. The vision to transform lives by bringing healing has guided Mercy Ships for decades. But the need is ongoing and growing.

Potential patients waiting on screening day in Guinea, 2012

Tertius - jpg

Still, many more children and families are waiting. So together with the nations served, hopefully the Mercy Ships will be able to make a difference in the lives of thousands. With the arrival of our new custom-built hospital ship, the Global Mercy, our capacity to provide free surgery and medical training will more than double.

This newest ship is the world’s largest purpose-built hospital ship, capable of more than doubling its surgical and training capacity. Over the 50 year expected lifespan, 150,000+ lives should be saved through surgery alone. Recent steps in the building process included 16 months of detailed design work, construction of new machinery systems, installation of new medical equipment, and outfitting the hospital and recovery units. The vision to transform lives by bringing healing has guided Mercy Ships since 1978. But the need is growing.

Previously Global Mercy spent Feb-July 2023 in Dakar, helping patients from both Senegal and The Gambia from the one port. In 2023, the Africa Mercy underwent an extensive refit in Durban Sth Africa, to prepare her for years of future service. Its hospital deck will carry out a wide range of surgeries eg cataract removal, plastic surgery to address tumour removal and debilitating burn contractures, cleft lip-palate repair, orthopaedics and obstetric fistula repair . This expansion and growth will allow surgeries for those in need; more health professionals trained and mentored; more local lives changed.

Africa Mercy’s hospital on 2 decks contains: supply services; 6 operating theatres; 102 acute care beds; 7 ICU beds; and 90 self-care beds. All pre-operative and post-operative work can be done aboard rather than ashore on busy ports. The new ship will more than double the annual medical capacity and is designed to carry out a wide range of surgeries.

recovery ward

 

In addition to the surgeries performed on board, ship-based teams serve in local villages providing a wide array of health facilities which include: dental and medical clinics, community health education and agricultural training. Plus there are conference rooms aboard for lectures and training.

It is estimated that 70% of the global population lacks access to safe surgical care, a 1/3 of them children. This burden is most heavily felt in sub-Saharan Africa, where nearly half are under 18. A 2021 study in four sub-Saharan African nations found that 60-90% of patients in need of surgery would face awful outcomes if there was no operation. Eg Senegalese parents who could not afford surgery to correct their children’s bowed legs. In any case, those parents could not be able find a surgeon near home to operate.

But in 2023, those parents received free surgery aboard the Global Mercy. The operation that finally straightened the children’s legs was the result of a partnership between Mercy Ships and Senegal, powered by the passion of African leaders, healthcare professionals from 71 countries, and 1,382 very skilled volunteers.

She is waiting for the surgeons to deal with a muscle contracture, 

especially when her knee hyperextended backwards.

The ships provided 3,513 surgeries in 2023, 1,400+ of them aboard the Global Mercy in Freetown, Sierra Leone and Dakar, Senegal. From those ports, the ship served patients from 3 countries: Senegal, Gambia and Sierra Leone. And apart from those field services, Mercy Ships’ work in Africa had partnerships with 8 countries; 3,513 surgeries; training in nutritional agriculture for 93 farmers; and training for 56 dentists. The volunteers provided 105,000+ hours of training for 1,522 professional healthcare workers. Via mentoring and training, Mercy Ships continue to partner local professionals and governments to build up a work-force of skilled surgeons and healthcare workers in the African countries.

The two Mercy Ships and the host nations made an even greater effort in 2024 when double the number of volunteers came aboard. The Global Mercy is currently serving in Sierra Leone until 2025, and the newly renovated Africa Mercy is in Madagascar.

Enjoy reading the book Ships of Mercy, written by Mercy founder Don Stephens. It tells about the remarkable hospital ships that dramatically changes the lives of millions of people in the most impoverished and diseased corners of the world. Or see the excellent Surgery Ship tv series (2017) .