MEDICAL
BOAT
BRINGING HEALING TO THE FORGOTTEN
While medical and health care is readily accessible to those with financial means or living in developed cities, people from poor, rural areas are often left out from such essential services.
We desire to bring hope and healing - physical, emotional and even spiritual, to these forgotten communities. Through affordable, basic health and medical care, the Medical Boat is our platform for love to be put into action.
WHAT WE DO
The River is home to 8,000 to 12,000 people living along it, where medical and health services are limited. Every month, the Medical Boat travels up and down the river for 2 weeks, stopping at different villages along the river. It is equipped with 2 consultation rooms and a pharmacy.
Every individual who visits us is valued and loved. Therefore, we desire to treat every patient with the best care and attention we can offer.
These are some of the services we provide on board the Medical Boat:
- low-cost medical and dental checkups
- basic health education programs
- fun childrens/youth programs
Early in 2012, the leadership of Mercy Centre(MC) felt led to explore the provision of medical services through a river-going vessel. A few months later, in July 2012, MC was directed to a foundation that operated a vessel providing medical services to villages along a major river in SEA. It had run for 5 years before halting operations.
Within a year, 2,600 patients from 5 different villages were treated. We have seen miraculous and encouraging healings take place.
From a man with a severe spinal cord injury (told by doctors he would never walk again), being healed and hugging us in joy. To a 50-plus-year-old lady who was bedridden for 7 years from a stroke, later being able to sit up with tears in her eyes, she shook our hands and thanked us. The work became more than just physical healing for us; it was about lives being transformed.