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A Celebration of Healing: The Dress Ceremony at Freedom from Fistula

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Recently I was fortunate enough to attend a weekly dress ceremony at the Freedom from Fistula Foundation in Tamatave, just a short drive from the ship.  Two Organisations, One Shared Mission Whilst Freedom from Fistula (FFF) and Mercy Ships are distinct organisations, they share a long-standing medical partnership. Back in 2015, both charities worked together to open a specialised obstetric fistula clinic in Tamatave, Madagascar.  The clinic is so successful that Mercy Ships' surgical plan no longer includes obstetric fistula surgeries, with FFF treating up to 800 women each year in Madagascar alone.  One of the wards at the Freedom from Fistula clinic The operating room The Post-Anaesthesia Care Unit (PACU) Two international surgeons - supported by Malagasy nurses trained by Mercy Ships - care for up to 90 women at a time. News of the clinic often spreads through word of mouth through the testimony of healed patients returning home. Some of the women have lived with a f...
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Weekend Escapes: Life Beyond the Ship

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On weekends off, I try to take the opportunity to leave the ship and join crew excursions to explore destinations near Tamatave.  Cruising the Historic Pangalanes Canal On one recent trip, I visited the famous Palmarium Reserve.  Getting there requires a 3-hour boat trip along the Pangalanes Canal, which stretches for more than 500 kilometres and links a series of freshwater and brackish lakes, rivers and man-made channels built in colonial times to provide a safe route for river traffic away from the rough Indian Ocean.  Today, the Pangalanes Canal is still an important transport corridor for the local communities living on its banks as well as a popular route for visitors and tourists who share the waterway with barges full of charcoal, timber and other goods being transported between villages and towns for sale in the markets. Transporting goods along the Pangalanes canal Fishing is the main economy for villagers living on the canal banks and tilapia is the main catch ...
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Location: Toamasina, Madagascar
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On Board the Africa Mercy

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Mercy Ships was founded in 1978 by Don & Deyon Stephens to  deliver life-changing surgeries and medical care to children and adults who would otherwise go without treatment.  The first ship, MV Anastasis, was purchased from a scrap yard in Greece for US$1 million before being transformed into a 40-bed hospital ship with 3 operating rooms. Almost 50 years and a total of 5 ships later, Mercy Ships now operates a 2-ship fleet: the Global Mercy currently in Ghana and the Africa Mercy docked in the coastal town of Tamatave, Madagascar, which is where I am.  A Historic Ferry Transformed The Africa Mercy (AFM) was  originally built in 1980 and called the   Dronning Ingrid (Queen Ingrid). It functioned as a  train and  passenger ferry operated by the Danish State Railways and for nearly 20 years c arried passengers across the Great Belt strait in  Denmark. Although heavily restored and fitted for its new purpose, there are still signs of the origina...
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Salama (hello) Madagascar

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As I start my 3-month volunteer placement as a pharmacist in Madagascar, I wanted to share some background on this incredible country and why Mercy Ships is needed.  The island and its people Madagascar is the world's fourth largest island - 2.4 times as big as the UK - located in the Indian ocean due east of Mozambique. The people of Madagascar are known as the Malagasy and the official languages are Malagasy and French following independence from France in 1960. The country is home to approx. 32 million.  The country is probably best known for its unique biodiversity and its amazing flora and fauna, 90% of which is found nowhere else on Earth. There are 100 species of lemurs alone, alongside lesser known endemic species like the fossa and the tomato frog.    The fossa: Madagascar's top predator The ring-tailed lemur Economy and daily life  The majority of Malagasy people earn their income through subsistence farming, supported by mineral mining, fishing and fo...
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