by Natasha Khairullah
Staff Writer
Thanks to the help of the Rotary Club of Jacksonville and numerous other local organizations, Mercy Ship’s newest hospital ship will be going to Africa.
The Rotary Club of Jacksonville recently has received a $150,000 grant from Rotary International to fund the Africa Mercy which contributed to a final total of more than $480,000 to support the Mercy Ship project, with contributions from the Meninak Club, Jessie Ball du Pont Fund and other local groups.
Mercy Ship, founded in 1978, is a global charity engaged in bringing humanitarian aid to developing nations and employs the world’s largest non-governmental fleet of hospital ships. The ships are staffed entirely by volunteers. Africa Mercy, commissioned in April of last year, is a nearly 500-foot ocean liner that will have six operating rooms and enough space to house a crew of 450. It’s expected to last 30-50 years.
In addition to ships like Africa Mercy, Mercy Ship also provides education to people about clean water and environmental and agricultural issues.
The local Rotary Club will work with Rotary clubs in Tema, Ghana and Monrovia, Liberia – the trip’s first port of call in West Africa – to continue Mercy ship’s mission of assisting those countries in need, according to Sharon Woodbery, Rotary Club of Jacksonville Volunteer and Mercy ship Liaison.
Both Woodbery’s husband Benson, and boss, Charlie Towers, are Rotary Club members and she became involved, partially through her association with them and partially because of her commitment to the mission of Mercy Ship.
“This grant is providing funds for an organization that for at least 30 more years, will be able to provide free medical care to those in need in third world countries,” she said.
Connections with both destinations were a key factor in the Jacksonville club being awarded the grant, said Woodbery.
“In order to receive a Rotary grant, you have to have a partner in the country that will benefit from it [the grant],” she said, “and since these funds are going to provide care in West African and other developing countries, they were the club that we worked with in order to secure these grants.”
The $150,000 grant marks the first time any club in District 6970 – made up of 57 clubs throughout Northeast Florida – has received such a large contribution, otherwise known as a noncompetitive grant.
According to David O’Connor, foundations manager for Mercy Ship, the grant money will be disbursed throughout three areas: IT equipment, all-terrain vehicles and deck equipment.
“It has been a joy working with the Jax Rotary,” said O’Connor. “Ghana’s Rotary has also been instrumental in helping with the grants. Everyone has really made a tremendous effort.”
The initiative between the Jacksonville Club and Mercy Ship began a year ago when Former British Prime Minister John Major told the Jacksonville club of the need for medical assistance in Africa. The local club was committed to raising funds to assist in equipping surgical suites on Mercy Ship’s newest ship. The ship is currently being refitted in England for the Voyage that is set to take off in the late Spring or early Summer of 2007, said O’Connor.