Pushing the boat out

Charity ships out acts of mercy

Jim Paterson Construction has recently been completed on the first hospital ship that has been purpose-built for global health charity Mercy Ships. JIM PATERSON, who has been overseeing the project, explains the ship’s purpose and why he and other volunteers spend months docked up to help people in need

Interview by Sarah Olowofoyeku

THE world’s largest civilian hospital

ship has set sail. Global Mercy, the newest vessel and first purposebuilt ship belonging to international health charity Mercy Ships, is expected to facilitate surgery for more than 150,000 people over its 50-year lifespan.

Since Mercy Ships began in 1978, it has carried out medical missions in more than 50 nations, providing services worth £1.2 billion and helping 2.8 million people.

Global Mercy will enable Mercy Ships to increase its impact. Jim Paterson, marine executive consultant for the ship’s construction project, tells me how it came to be.

‘Our former ships have all been conversions – we’ve taken existing ships and built in a hospital. With conversions, there’s always a compromise. There are certain things you can’t move and you just have to live with them. In 2007, when we imposed. I couldn’t get back to China for a were finishing the conversion project of while, and once I did, I had to stay there for our current ship, Africa Mercy, a few of us 10 months until we were finished.’ started to dream of how it would be nice The construction of Global Mercy to build a hospital ship was completed in June this from scratch and make it the way we wanted it. We want to year, and it is due to dock in Senegal early next year to We started to sketch out make a country’s meet its first patients. The ideas and came up with a basic concept. healthcare 37,000-tonne ship has 12 decks and is equipped with ‘In 2010, the board decided to pursue the service better 6 operating theatres, hospital beds for 200 patients, a full idea.’ laboratory and simulation

A contract was signed with Swedish training areas. shipbuilders Stena RoRo in 2013, and Jim explains how the charity’s two construction began in China in 2016. ships, Africa Mercy and Global Mercy, will

‘We had a full site team on the ground operate. in China,’ says Jim. ‘I would travel back ‘Outside of the pandemic, we have been and forward for meetings. But then Covid working primarily in west Africa because struck, and I came back on the last flight that’s where the biggest need is. The into the US before restrictions were model is to spend 10 months in one nation. ‘We specialise in certain types of surgeries: cataracts, repair of cleft lips and palates – which are the third most common defect in the world – orthopaedic surgeries, tumours and fistula repair. The idea is that we have local health workers come and work with our teams for a few months to improve their skills too. We want to make a country’s healthcare services better. Our job is to work ourselves out of a job, but it’s going to take a while to do that.’ In the meantime, volunteers from all over the world travel to spend anything from a month to five years on a ship. Those on board are not only medical staff, but also schoolteachers, chefs, HR staff and engineers. While Jim now works on land, overseeing various operations, he also started out as a volunteer engineer on board. ‘I’ve been working on ships since 1973,’

Charity ships out acts of mercy

‘Global Mercy’ will sail to Senegal early next year to meet its first patients

he says. ‘I was an engineer, and went to sea after I left school. I was doing very well and was getting promoted fast, but there was something missing.

‘My girlfriend at the time – now my wife – became a Christian and told me about it. I thought she’d gone crazy, but shortly after that, I became a Christian. We both decided that we needed to do something different. So we ended up going to Bible college, and we heard about Mercy Ships while we were there. We thought it was an opportunity to put our faith and practical skills together to help other people. So my wife worked in the school on board and I worked in the engine room.’ Jim’s journey with Mercy Ships has taken him from the north of England to countries around the world, including Mexico and China, and now the US, where he lives. Along the way, he says, he has learnt more about the quality of compassion referenced in the charity’s name.

‘Mercy has changed my life,’ he says. ‘It continues to keep me aware of other people’s needs rather than focus on my

own, and the Lord takes care of my own needs in the process.

‘Everyone who volunteers has a motivation to help other people,’ he adds. ‘The majority of volunteers are Christian and have a desire to serve God in some way. I think that’s what makes it all work. We’re focused on helping people, rather than arguing about solving problems. Some people have said it’s a United Nations, because we have about 40 different nationalities at any one time, with a common purpose to help folks.

‘We use the gifts and talents God has given us to show love and compassion to the people we come across. We show mercy in practical ways.’