Helping Out Half a World Away

This week, Canadian volunteer nurse Kim Marlatt was featured in The Chatham Voice, speaking about her recent service with Mercy Ships.

Marlatt, an OR nurse with the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance, recently returned after two weeks onboard the Africa Mercy in Conakry, Guinea. She spent her two-week vacation from work to donate her time and professional skills to the Ophthalmic Program.

“It was such a life-changing experience for me. One of the weeks I was there, I was doing cataracts on five-month-old babies who were born blind,” she said. “We were giving the gift of sight. The next day, I’d go see the babies in this ward and they were reaching for your face and seeing their moms for the first time.”

Since the Africa Mercy arrived in Guinea last August, volunteers like Kim in our Ophthalmic Program have helped give over 1,000 free eye surgeries for people in need.

Read the full article from The Chatham Voice here.

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