Hello from somewhere off the coast of Africa as we are sailing. This field service, for every surgery performed onboard the Africa Mercy, roughly one West African medical professional received a form of advanced training from the ship.
1,793 people benefited from a free operation, and thousands of others will have the chance at better care under the hands of 1,962 medical professionals who’ve trained with our Medical Capacity Building Team.
Plus the breakdown on children and adults + gender percents also.
Reporting our statistics on a weekly and monthly basis is part of my responsibility as Programs Administration Manager.
After all of our ‘Thank you – Merci’ to our partners, friends, and day crew in Benin, we set sail for the shipyard phase in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, Spain. While on the journey, I have been working on 34 official final project reports on our hospital and medical capacity building projects + another 10 for our Mercy Ministries partners. Each report needing to be in a set format, correct English, updated statistics, photos with captions and photo file names and finances with our budget vs. expense and explanation when greater than 10% variance. So the sail has been a busy time, thankfully it has been smooth for the most part as my office is in the bow of the ship.
National Geographic’s eight episode special on ‘the Surgery Ship’ continues to be aired in countries around the world, though there is no announcement yet on when it will be shown in the United States and Canada, though I will keep you posted. As the crew of the Africa Mercy, we received special permission to view the episodes and I think they have done a great job.
Prayer Requests: My nephew Jeremy was released from the hospital on Sunday after his fourth major surgery – they removed the cancer and were able to save 90% of his upper lobe of his left lung. He has returned home for his continued recovery and rehabilitation.
My Mom has been moved to another nursing home with higher dependency care for her as she suffers with Alzheimer’s Disease.
All of our patients in Benin for their complete recovery.
Our preparations for the field service in Cameroon, through a new patient screening process, we already have over 11,000 registered as potential patients.
Serving Together, Keith