"MERCY SHIP" TO TAKE RELIEF AID TO CRIPPLED COMMUNIST COUNTRY
THE CARIBBEAN MERCY, part of Youth With A Mission's Mercy Ships fleet, is to make an historic visit to Communist North Korea, later this year.
The 2,265-ton ship will deliver desperately needed medical supplies to help some of those suffering from the effects of the famine that has devastated the country and left untold numbers dead. Medical crew will also perform eye and orthopedic surgeries during the two-week stay.
The remarkable invitation from a country that severely restricts religious activity has been named Operation Life by Mercy Ships leaders who are hoping to raise $200,000 to fill the Caribbean Mercy's holds with relief supplies.
"We see this journey as a unique opportunity to bring life to an area gripped by death and to demonstrate the Easter message of new life," said Mercy Ships founder and chief executive officer Don Stephens. "Reports we have seen coming out of North Korea can only speculate how many millions of people may have already died."
The Caribbean Mercy is due to arrive in Namp'o on July 5, and will be in North Korea for 12 days. Crew will be allowed ashore to carry out operations at a city hospital, and also deliver food, clothing and toys to an orphanage.
After completing her relief voyage, the Caribbean Mercy visits four ports in neighboring South Korea during a two-month goodwill visit. The first visit by a Mercy Ships vessel to the country is intended to help raise support for efforts to add a fifth ship to the fleet, to serve the Asia region.
The Caribbean Mercy sails to the Korean Peninsula next month, after visiting ports on America's West Coast, where she reported on her most recent outreach, to El Salvador. Last November she interrupted a West Coast tour to rush $2 million of relief aid to the Hurricane Mitch disaster area.
"Adjusting our schedule to respond to the North Koreans' cry for help is a privilege," said ship's director Brett Curtis. "Within days of the announcement, calls of assistance came in just as they did for Hurricane Mitch a few months ago."
Mercy Ships was founded in 1978, since when the fleet has made 450 port visits in 75 countries and delivered relief and medical aid worth $15 million. In March a fourth ship was added to the fleet with the purchase of a former Danish ferry by Mercy Ships UK.
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