Africa Mercy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Africa Mercy is part of a fleet of ships from Mercy Ships, a fleet of hospital ships serving developing nations since 1978. The M/V Africa Mercy was commissioned in Newcastle, England in April 2006 and will make its way to Liberia for its first mission trip. It is currently the largest civilian floating hospital.

[edit] Development

The project started in March 1999. The former train-ferry named Dronning Ingrid (Queen Ingrid) was bought in Denmark. The ship was inspected by the volunteers to be working on the ship.

Four weeks later, the cabin bulkheads arrived and were placed in the ship.

The M/V Africa Mercy was also featured in the Scarborough rotary conference. The people involved with Africa Mercy were asked to set up a booth and speak at several seminars. As a result of this conference, Mercy Ships has been asked to speak at several other conferences as well as other individual clubs in 2005. The M/V Africa Mercy was also featured in the annual Lord Mayor's Show in London.

[edit] The ship

The size of the ship is 16,572 tons; she is 152 meter long and 23 meter wide.

[edit] Facilities

The M/V Africa Mercy has facilities to accommodate 26 families on board, many couples and more singles. The ship has 126 cabins, a school, a day care center, a library, a laundrette and an on-board hospital for the patients who come aboard for treatment. The hospital includes 6 ICUs , laboratories, an 86 bed recovery ward and operating theaters.