1,600 patients booked

Screening Day. The ship is empty bar the on-duty crew as every person is assigned a role to help with the enormous task of facilitating the medical screening the thousands of people coming to seek help from the Africa Mercy in Togo, West Africa.

The ship arrived into the port of Lome in late January for our fifth field assignment in this desperately needy nation. In order to find those we can help, advance notice is given of a mass screening day, and this time 3.500 people came seeking help from everything from headaches and minor wounds, to tumours, blindness and incontinence.

You can catch a 90 sec glimpse into the heart of the day here                                  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwrBKTbhaCc
The task is gruelling; emotionally, physically, spiritually. Initial descriptions with sometimes several translations from tribal to local language then to English, those we can help have their history taken under even more challenging conditions as people with minimal education and much superstition attempt to describe their symptoms. Those suffering from conditions like cataracts, club feet, cleft lip, tumours, contractured burns, and obstetric fistulas are the ones we can help as these are our dedicated surgeries. Surgeons examine, blood tests taken, patient ID photos made. Sandwiches and water are passed out to people in the impossibly long queues. Hugs and kind touches reassure frightened people who have been physically isolated by their conditions sometimes for years that God loves them and hope is on the way!

Hope On My Horizon

Parachute Music Festival 2012, 20,000 punters. No, not performing (Hahahaha) we have the privilege of working alongside singer/songwriter Peter Woolston who has written a powerful song called Hope On My Horizon for Mercy Ships NZ, and at Parachute we ran a Sing2Win competition for some fabulous new talent to audition for a part to sing on the chorus of the soon-to-be released album. Exhausting, exhilarating, and wonderfully fun ... we are ready to open the People's Choice X-Factor voting portion on Saturday Feb 18th at http://peterwoolston.com/sing2win/ , so why not check it out?

Kolkota

How many people can you get in a train? ALL of them! Between accidently sitting on the women's side of the bus, missing his train stop and being momentarily lost 7 hours outside Kolkata, and learning to hail a rickshaw ... Jason's orientation to India's teeming culture has been exciting as well as a little stressful at times. Oh how very strange it is to be on the OTHER side of sending young people into missions!

Jason has divided his time in Kolkata working with ministries that help street people in various ways. Asha Bari is like a day care centre for street kids so they have an alternative to wandering the dangerous city streets all day. The photo on the left is of a wee boy who loved blowing bubbles with Jason.  who helped feed and bathe the kids attending for the first 3 weeks he was in Kolkata. In the weekends he helping out at the Mother Teresa Sisters of Charity home, mainly washed the orphans clothes (by hand ! Hope he doesn’t lose that skill!). For the latter 3 weeks he is working with a FairTrade project called FreeSet which provides employment for women wanting to get out of street prostitution. He has been doing some graphics work, and a lot of manual labour. He was very pleased to have been able to take a few days out of the city to visit a World Vision project, as he is works part-time with thecharity here in NZ. A lot for him to process, and we can’t wait to hear all the tall stories when he gets home late February, ready to begin his 2nd year at Uni studying Communications
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Giving Glory to God

The Africa Mercy spent 2011 in Sierra Leone; a nation where 1/5 children still die before their 5th birthday, and 1/8 women still die in childbirth

During the field service Mercy Ships completed :

• more than 3,300 life-changing surgeries (including cleft and palate repair, tumour removal and orthopaedic surgeries) for more than 1,400 patients

• more than 10,000 general medical consultations

• more than 34,700 dental treatments

• more than 2,600 eye operations (including cataract surgeries) and more than 17,800 eye consultations.

More than 36,000 people directly benefited from the help received!

• In addition: Mercy Ships offered Basic Health Training (covering topics like nutrition, hand washing, wound care and dental care,) to more than 12,600 people in villages and clinics.

• Sixteen students from local organisations were trained in organic farming methods.

• More than 450 local health care professionals were coached and trained in their area of expertise (anaesthesiology, midwifery, instrument & equipment sterilisation, orthopaedic and reconstructive surgery).