Mercy Ships UK
Bringing Hope & Healing. Changing Lives.
About the Charity
Mercy Ships is a faith-based international development organisation that deploys hospital ships to some of the poorest countries in the world, delivering vital, free healthcare to people in desperate need.
Conditions requiring surgical treatment kill more people in low-income countries than HIV/Aids, TB and malaria combined. Globally, five billion people have no access to safe, affordable surgery when they need it.
Partnering with host nations
To achieve this, Mercy Ships delivers a customised five-year partnership model with every country it is invited to support. Relationships are built with the national government and ministry of health, so that the needs of each country are met.
In this way, Mercy Ships doesn’t just address the immediate need on the ground, but also works to strengthen the country’s healthcare systems and drive policy change. The aim is to tackle the root causes of the problems rather than just the consequences.
Why hospital ships?
Worldwide, 5 billion people lack access to safe, affordable, timely surgery. Many of them live in developing countries where healthcare infrastructure is limited or nonexistent, or where there’s a shortage of trained healthcare providers.
Fortunately, more than 44% of the world’s population lives within 100 miles of a coast — which is why Mercy Ships uses modern hospital ships to bring world-class volunteer medical professionals directly to the places they’re needed most.
