Mercy Ships Topic at Rotary Club Meeting
by Bob Augustin Jr.
Sean McCune, Regional Development Manager with Mercy Ships, was the guest speaker at the October 30, 2009 regular meeting of the Lawrenceburg Rotary Club. Mercy Ships is a global charity that has operated a fleet of hospital ships in developing nations since 1978. Following the example of Jesus, Mercy Ships brings hope and healing to the poor, mobilizing people and resources around the world. Mercy Ships serve all people without regard to race, gender, or religion.
The crew of Mercy Ships is comprised of both professional medical and non-medical skilled workers with a common vision of helping the poor and needy. The staff members volunteer their time and talents to help the poor onboard the ships or at land-based offices. Volunteers can serve from two weeks to a year with Mercy Ships or on a longer term capacity.
Rotary International is one of the many donors who allow Mercy Ships to provide free health care to the underpriviledged people of the world. To date Mercy Ships as performed services impacting 2.16 million people; performed more than 41,000 operations such as cleft lip and palate, cataract removal, straightening of crossed eyes, orthopaedic and facial reconstruction; treated over 361,000 patients in village clinics with more than 408,000 medical procedures performed; treated over 79,000 dental patiens, educated 14,900 local health care workers who in turn trained multiple thousands in primary health care; completed over 1,058 community development projects focusing on water and sanitation, education, infrasturcture development, and agriculture; and completed over 560 port visits in 53 developing nations and 17 developed nations.
For more information on Mercy Ships, go to its web site at www.mercyships.org.
Pictured above are Jack Grinnell, Rotary Club President, Sean McCune, Regional Development Manager Mercy Ships, and Rotarian Ben Methvin.
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