Mercy Ship to visit again

The international Christian relief ocean vessel, Mercy Ship MV Anastasis, is to visit The Gambia for the second time on 17 March, bringing medical personnel to provide free surgical and dental operations, sanitation and health training over three months. The visit, The Daily Observer reported on Monday, was at the invitation of President Yahya Jammeh. Personnel aboard the ship are expected to perform operations on patients with facial problems, children with club feet and bowed legs, and women suffering from complications resulting from difficult child birth, the paper quoted sources at the Department of State for Health as saying. Mercy Ship, is an organisation that uses ocean going vessels to bring 'hope and healing' to the needy, by offering surgical and dental care, relief and development work as well as training in water, sanitation projects and primary health care. Between January and May 2000, a Mercy ship docked at Banjul port in The Gambia, and its medical personnel performed eye surgery on 628 adults and children, and treated 2020 patients including 427 operations on the jaw bones, the newspaper reported. The ship has also offered free treatment, relief and development aid to thousands of needy patients during a four-month stay in Sierra Leone, from where it is due to sail on 14 March. Its medical personnel also assisted community health teams in vaccination programmes targeting over 2,000 adults and children.