'Mercy Ships' Arrives in War-Ravaged Liberia

The world’s largest non-governmental hospital ship arrived in Monrovia, Liberia today for its first-ever visit to the war-torn West African nation.

At the urging of United Nations officials, the Liberian Government and the National Council of Churches, the 522-foot Mercy Ship Anastasis will provide a full slate of specialised medical services as well as community development assistance over the next four months, according to Texas-based Mercy Ships. The global ministry will also offer desperately needed operations and medical procedures unavailable in Liberia such as tumor removals and cleft lip/palate repair.

"Liberia's one of the neediest nations on the face of the earth," said Mercy Ships Co-founder and President, Don Stephens. "Ninety percent of the people living inside of Liberia subsist on less than one dollar per day."

Since 1989, the Liberian civil war has claimed the lives of over 150,000 Liberians and further displaced approximately 850,000 others into refugee camps. The fighting has also left Liberia’s economy in tatters and very little medical infrastructure remains.

Mercy Ships HealthCare Services Director Dr. Glenn Strauss noted, "Access to medical care in Liberia is minimal. The population of three million has very little access to just basic medical care, let alone advanced surgical procedure to repair facial tumours, to repair blindness, to correct children's cleft lip and palates, and women's [vesico-vaginal fistula] surgical repairs."

"These are specialties Mercy Ships has to offer to the patients of Liberia," Strauss added.

According to Stephens, the Mercy Ships Rebuilding Hope Project is a collaborative arrangement with 12 communities of internally displaced refugees (IDPs) in Liberia.

"We will be primarily providing water and sanitation, skills and capacity building through education, as well as farm implements, as it's primarily an agrarian community," Stephens stated. "Together and collectively, we hope to make a lasting difference."

As the leader in using a growing fleet of hospital ships to deliver free world-class healthcare services to the poor in developing nations, Mercy Ships aims to serve one million people per year and "be the face of love in action." Each year more than 2,400 career and short-term volunteers serve with Mercy Ships. All services are provided without charge.

Currently, Mercy Ships has three hospital ships and offices in 17 countries and has visited more than 500 ports in over 50 developing nations. Mercy Ships has performed more than 2 million services, with a value of $250 million (USD). These services include treating more than 300,000 people in village clinics, performing 18,000 surgeries, 110,000 dental treatments and completing close to 350 construction and agriculture projects, including schools, clinics, orphanages and water wells.





Kenneth Chan
Ecumenical Press