Mercy Ships Announces Sierra Leone Field Service

03 JUNE 2010 | BARCELONA, SPAIN

Mercy Ships has now confirmed that Sierra Leone will be the destination of the world’s largest charity hospital ship, the Africa Mercy in 2011.

This will be the fourth time that one of the Mercy Ships has provided free medical care to the impoverished West African nation.

The Protocols and Memoranda of Understanding were recently signed by The Honourable Vice President, Sam-Sumana, and Mercy Ships founder and President Mr. Don Stephens. The agreement provides the necessary framework for the collaboration between the Sierra Leonean government and Mercy Ships and specifies the governments’ responsibilities in regard to the port facilities, security, water, immigration and registration of medical volunteers. It also opens the door for the Mercy Ships Advance Team to do the preparatory work necessary for the upcoming campaign.

For most people in Sierra Leone health care is unaffordable and often unavailable. The country ranks 180 out of 182 nations on the 2009 Human Development Index, and the majority of the population lives on less than 2 Euros per day.

Infant mortality in Sierra Leone is 159 per 1000 births as compared to Spain at 3.35 deaths per 1000 births. Dental care is another illustration of the conditions within the country, with one dentist for every one million people compared to 550 dentists per million in Spain.

Through its 10 month long campaign in 2011, the state-of-the-art hospital ship the Africa Mercy, with six operating theatres will provide free medical care to many desperately needy people in Sierra Leone. The onshore clinics for Eye and Dental care will offer additional medical services.

Mercy Ships also looks forward to their continued partnership with the West African Fistula Centre in Aberdeen which it founded in 2004. The clinic is now under the management of the Freedom from Fistula Foundation.

The Centre offers free surgeries to women suffering from childbirth-related injury and has the capacity to help between 500 and 600 patients per year.

The hospital ship will also serve as a platform for training African healthcare professionals and for community development teams. These programs ensure that the positive impact of Mercy Ships will continue long after the ship leaves Sierra Leone.