The aid organization Mercy Ships was active in Sierra Leone and Madagascar this year, where the hospital ships provided important medical care.
The international aid organization Mercy Ships was able to expand its activities in 2025. With the ships “Global Mercy” and “Africa Mercy”, it was deployed in two countries at the same time and treated more than 2,850 patients.
According to Mercy Ships, more than 3,060 operations were completed by the end of 2025. Volunteers performed 4,630 surgical procedures. People who would otherwise not have had access to vital care were “given back their mobility, sight, dignity and health”, it says. The medical specialties on board include oral and maxillofacial surgery, surgical orthopaedics, plastic reconstructive surgery, general surgery, ophthalmology, dentistry and surgical gynaecology.
The organization was able to strengthen its strategic partnerships. The aim is to continue to build sustainable surgical capacities across the entire African continent. In total, more than 3,240 volunteers from over 75 nations and more than 2,120 local support staff work on Mercy Ships’ hospital ships. Around 100 volunteers from Germany and Austria alone took part this year. The professional fields represented included surgery, nursing and dentistry, but cooks and engineers also contributed to Mercy Ships’ goal.
“Both the direct medical aid and the sustainable improvement of the healthcare systems that we achieve in our African countries of operation are simply fantastic and make me return on board with enthusiasm every time,” said facial surgeon Martin Bierc from Stuttgart. He has been on board four times this year, making it his fourteenth mission for Mercy Ships.
In addition to providing direct medical aid, the organization also continued its long-term commitment to strengthening healthcare systems. The focus was particularly on education and training programs. More than 800 medical professionals from 13 African countries took part in Mercy Ships’ programs – the total duration was almost 230,000 hours. The organization highlighted the cooperation with the Université Gamal Abdel Nasser de Conakry in Guinea. This has improved access to basic dental care by training local specialists. The result: around 2,040 patients received almost 15,300 treatments.
The “Africa Mercy”, built in Denmark in 1980 as the railroad ferry “Dronning Ingrid” and acquired by Mercy Ships through donations in 1999, has been operating off Africa since 2007 following a lengthy refit. The 152 m long ship has 474 beds and the hospital occupies the largest part of the former ferry deck with 1,200 m2. The “Africa Mercy” will begin an extended annual maintenance phase and is scheduled to return to Tamatave, Madagascar, in May 2026 for its third consecutive deployment. “During this maintenance phase, the ship will be brought into dry dock and additional upgrades will be made to the hospital equipment and ship systems,” Mercy Ships announced.
At 174 meters in length, the “Global Mercy” is the largest hospital ship in the world and the first in the fleet to be designed for this purpose and built at the Tianjin Xingang Shipyard (CSSC). It will complete its current deployment in Sierra Leone in May 2026 before entering the maintenance phase. In August, she will continue her aid mission in Ghana, where Mercy Ships is active for the fifth time. With the support of the MSC Foundation and the MSC Group, another hospital ship based on the “Global Mercy” is also to be built.
Mercy Ships is always looking for volunteers from various professional fields for its missions. Anyone interested in working for Mercy Ships can contact the German office based in Landsberg am Lech or support the organization’s work with a donation. Further information at mercyships.org
