The Organization
Mercy Ships was founded in 1978 by Americans Don and Deyon Stephens, who bought a retired Italian ocean liner and spent years converting it into the organization's first hospital ship, the Anastasis. Over nearly five decades, the organization has brought free surgical and medical care to more than two million people, entirely powered by volunteers. The current fleet includes the Africa Mercy and the Global Mercy, the largest civilian hospital ship in the world, which carries 650 crew members and has space for 200 hospital patients.
The Mission
Roughly half the world's population lives within about 100 miles of a coastline, so a ship can reach billions of people. It's portable infrastructure that can move wherever the need is greatest. The impact extends beyond surgery. It includes training local surgeons and equipping host-country medical facilities, so the country can continue changing lives after the ship departs.
The HOPE Center
The HOPE Center (Hospital Out-Patient Extension) is Mercy Ships' land-based facility, separate from the ship itself. Up to 300 patients stay there before surgery and again while recovering afterward, anywhere from a few days to several months. This frees up bed space on the ship, and for patients who've often traveled far from home and lived isolated because of their condition, it becomes a place where they can meet others going through the same thing and heal together, in community.
My Role, HOPE Center Facilitator
I'll be serving aboard the Global Mercy, stationed in Tema, Ghana, from August 2026 to June 2027, as a HOPE Center Facilitator, one of a six-person team running the day-to-day operations of the HOPE Center. That means scheduling, transportation, and supply management, along with supervising the local day crew who help keep the Center running.