Join Mercy us at the Roxy Theatre in Victoria, BC on March 24th @ 7PM for a community pre-screening of The Surgery Ship Episode 1: the Power of Yes and No. The eight part National Geographic series follows the work of Mercy Ships, volunteers, patients and life in West Africa.
The first episode will follow patients and volunteers like Dr. Mark Shrime and Screening Nurse Nate Claus.
Come see what life is really like on board a Mercy Ships hospital ship. Join us after the show for a Q&A with Mercy Ships Canada’s National Director Tim Maloney and Canadian alumni Mackenzie Mosely.
Part one of the eight part series is set to air on National Geographic later in 2017.
CLICK HERE to attend the free event (don’t forget to follow us on Facebook 🙂 )
Mar 20, 2017
Mercy Ships
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Plastics patients prepare to transfer from the Africa Mercy to the Hope Center for recovery after surgery.
My first experience with the Hope Centre involved a renovation in Sierra Leone in 2011.
Having arrived from our five week crew training in Texas, our group entered a large warehouse-type building to begin our field service -before the Africa Mercy arrived in Freetown. Fortunately, we had a number of skilled tradesmen among us…but the rest of us were pretty green at ‘building transformation’. In three short weeks, the space was rewired, air conditioning was installed, walls were constructed and painted, windows were cleaned and lights were hung.
Little did I know the true meaning of the transformation that would take place beyond the brick and mortar.
The Hope Centre is a place of hope…and a place of healing. Patients and their family members arrive several days before surgery to undergo pre-admission tests and to ensure they are present and ready when their surgery is scheduled, and their post-op ward bed is available. When one visits the patients who are waiting for their surgery, their excitement and their fear is palpable. Hope Centre staff try hard to keep these patients occupied with board games, bubbles, balloons, conversations, crafts, dancing, singing-and three square meals a day!
Finally, the day before their surgery arrives. With joy and celebration the patients travel to the ship…and to the new life which awaits them.
Time passes…for some it is just a few days of recovery on the ship…for others it is months. When the patients are deemed ready to return to the Hope Centre, they receive a welcome back fit for royalty.
Transformation as wondrous as it is, is also a hard journey. Learning to look at and know a ‘new you’… learning to walk again…to use freed limbs again …to see again –it all takes courage, emotional and physical strength. Again it is the joy-filled Hope Centre staff who help to make this time as nurturing and as supportive as possible.
From bare walls to new lives….this is the Hope Centre story.
Jane McIntosh volunteered with Mercy Ships for two years serving in Sierra Leone, Togo and Guinea. She headed up the Sterilizing Room, processing instruments for all surgeries. Jane currently works at Mercy Ships Canada in Donor Relations for Fundraising
Mercy Ships Canada is VERY excited to announce our commitment to building the next HOPE Center in Cameroon for the 2017-2018 field service! The donations of Canadians will go towards the renovations of a center that is crucial to successful patient care. Stay tuned for updates, as the new HOPE Center gets closer to completion!
The new HOPE Center is a huge project and we need your help to raise $1.3 million dollars to complete the project! Please consider giving a gift of any size today.
GIVE HOPEHOPE CENTER RENOVATION IN TAMATAVE, MADAGASCAR 2014-2016
HOPE Center before renovation
HOPE Center after renovations
Mar 17, 2017 Mercy ShipsNo Comments 
“I couldn’t see anything. They had to take my hand for me to go the bathroom, to use the shower. I couldn’t do anything by myself.” Leopold waved his hands as he spoke, adding, “I always had to depend on somebody else.”
Two years ago, cataracts began to cloud Leopold’s vision. Soon, they took over completely. “From the start, I thought about how to get rid of the problem,” he recalls. “But the money – it was so expensive.” After his initial diagnosis, the 45-year-old father of six went to his priest, asking for help. The leader of the parish gave Leopold money to buy medicine, but his vision continued to deteriorate. He asked his relatives for help, but they didn’t have the means. He asked friends, other taxi drivers and old schoolmates. They all began to disappear from his life.
Leopold at the Eye Clinic for a post op evaluation.
“Now, I don’t have anyone,” he confesses, “just my family.” Before the cataracts came, Leopold used to spend long evenings with friends, sitting by the beach and talking well into the night. “But they don’t invite me out anymore, and no one comes around,” he says. He shrugs his shoulders as if to say, “Well, that’s life.”
Leopold seemed to be stuck in a hopeless situation – always dependent on others, yet having fewer and fewer people to depend upon. He sat alone at home for two long years. His wife and sister busied themselves with caring for his six children as he remained immobile – an island trapped in the midst of their constant movements.
But, after some time, Leopold heard of an opportunity to have free cataract surgery onboard the Africa Mercy. In late January he found himself being led down the hospital halls on his way to the operating theater.
One day later, Leopold could read a chart ten feet away, pointing out which direction each “E” was facing. In a week or two, his vision should be completely back to normal. “We’re using a reasonably new therapy with him,” says volunteer ophthalmologist Woody Hopper (USA). “In the western world this medication has become quite common, and we’re seeing if it can help streamline the healing process here, too.” The plan is that Leopold will see better and faster, and he won’t need as many follow-up appointments. So far, it’s working beautifully.
After two years in cloudy shadows, Leopold welcomes a quick recovery – he’s s ready to get on with life. “If I can get my specialized driving license and be a chauffeur, that’d be good,” he says. “But I’ll do any kind of job I can – I want to work.”
Leopold has reason to celebrate! He can see again.
He plans to contact his old friends too – the ones who disappeared. “I’ll welcome them back into my home,” he says. “Of course! I’ll be so glad to finally see them.”
Story by Anna Psiaki
Mar 09, 2017 Mercy ShipsNo Comments 
Today on International Women’s Day we are celebrating women around the world who are being bold for change! We see a constant stream of strong, kind and successful women come and go from the Africa Mercy, and today I am honoring my friend Christina Fast, a Sterile Processing Educator, who has made safer surgery possible for thousands and continues to partner with Mercy Ships to educate people in undeveloped nations about sterile processing.
I first met Christina in 2011 while serving onboard the Africa Mercy. Volunteering with Mercy Ships in Sierra Leone in 2011 motivated Christina at the age of 22 to look for an organization that worked internationally to improve medical device reprocessing. When no organization was found she decided to start her own, called Sterile Processing Education Charitable Trust (SPECT), the only organization that focuses on free medical device reprocessing education and training in developing countries.
In partnership with Mercy Ships International and Grand Challenges Canada, SPECT has provided education and training to local Sterile Processors in Guinea, Republic of Congo, Madagascar, and Benin. Christina has also volunteered twice a year to assist Mercy Ships, an organization that provides surgeries in the poorest of the poor countries, training workers onboard and making recommendations for further improvement in practice. Christina also works countless hours assisting to coordinate and organize training for SPECT, as well as communicate the work SPECT is doing through social media and fundraisers.
Christina recently received an award as one of 20 people under the age of 35 who is making a difference in the developing world. SPECT is currently partnering with Mercy Ships Canada and Assist International, providing education classes, mentoring, and consultation to hospitals and clinics in Benin and Ethiopia.
Knowing that sterile processing is the underpinning of successful surgery, Christina is an amazing advocate for Sterile Processors and improvements in this area of health care. She gives her time and gives up more lucrative work, to do what she loves – helping people learn to clean and sterilize well!
Photo Credit Ruben Plomp, Christina FAST, OR Sterilizer/ Trainer and consultant of org. SPECT. Collage of school, and hands-on training.
Jane McIntosh volunteered with Mercy Ships for two years serving in Sierra Leone, Togo and Guinea. She headed up the Sterilizing Room, processing instruments for all surgeries. Jane currently works at Mercy Ships Canada in Donor Relations for Fundraising
Mar 08, 2017 Mercy ShipsNo Comments 
Like most people, Nate Claus finished high school without a clear vision for his future. When he signed up for a Discipleship Training School (DTS) aboard the Mercy Ship Anastasis, he was hoping to learn more about God, get a taste of working overseas, and start to answer that nagging question: what was he meant to do with his life?
The five-month stint worked. Nate recalls his service with Mercy Ships in Sierra Leone: “I was exposed to poverty and the way other people in the world live. It gave me career direction – a programmatic way to help people.” Armed with this newfound vision, Nate entered nursing school back home.
It wasn’t long before he re- joined Mercy Ships: Nate spent the summer of 2007 working as an instrument sterilizer in the ship’s hospital. Those months in Liberia confirmed his choice: “I knew then that this was the kind of work I want to be involved with for the rest of my life.” But he did not immediately sign up for full-time service. After passing his nursing exams, Nate worked five years in California.
He continued to volunteer with Mercy Ships during his vacation time, serving in Togo, Guinea, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Madagascar. Over the years, his role with Mercy Ships began to grow. Originally a ward nurse on board, Nate felt drawn to work with the screening team, joining full-time in Madagascar. Their unique role is to find and select the patients whose lives we seek to change.
Nate’s dedication and love for what he does enables him to face the sometimes heartbreaking “no” that he has to say to say to people we are unable to treat. Fortunately, we get to say “yes” many times and support patients on their journey to healing. More recently, he has stepped into the role of Screening Supervisor.
He brings gusto and imagination to his post: “I want to stay up late at night dreaming of creative ways we can improve the efficiency and safety in how we reach out to find and select patients,” he says, “I want to strive to improve our procedures and processes in order that they reflect the patient’s best interest.” Nate’s love for people and compassion for those in need shines through when he says, “I still view this job – this work we do as an organization – as the greatest privilege I have ever had … walking with others through this harrowing process of life and experiencing the vast spectrum of the human experience. The pain, joy, sorrow, laughter, anxiety, freedom, and adventure….[they] remind me that we are all connected. That deep connection… ultimately makes me want to work harder.”
Thanks for sharing with us Nate, the work of Mercy Ships wouldn’t be possible without volunteers like you!
Mar 01, 2017 Mercy ShipsNo Comments 