GENERAL MEETINGS  

                            

We meet for two hours from 10.00am on the second Tuesday of each month at theWhitehorse Civic Centre, in the Willis Room.

This comprises a brief general meeting, outlining important club matters and a summary of the most recent Management Committee meeting.

Morning tea and socialising is followed by a guest speaker.

All are invited to a post meeting lunch at The Coach in Ringwood.

 

2025 Guest Speakers/ Entertainment.

June Meeting Speaker - Tammy Shepherd Mercy Ships - Chris Summers

Wow!!   What a wonderful speaker and everyone in attendance was rivetted with the information shared with us all. A pity the audience was so small compared to other meetings.

Tammy is a physiotherapist by profession and her husband is a doctor. Tammy uses her skills on the Mercy Ships and has done so for three ‘adventures’ and is going to the Democratic Republic of the Congo again very soon.  She does three month stints, all at her own expense and this also often means no salary while away. She has been to Guinea, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Madagascar.

There are two ships, Global Mercy and gfrica Mercy and was started by a husband and wife, Deyon and Don Stephens about 40 years ago.  The ships are crewed by volunteers – including all ‘housekeeping’ crew, (cooks, cleaners) nurses, surgeons, dentists, physios, radiologists, dieticians and teachers to train locals to continue the work of the ships on land.

There are 50 nationalities represented – Bringing hope and healing to the world’s forgotten poor for  more than 40 years. 

Some frightening stats – 2.7m beneficiaries; 100,000 free surgical procedures in Guinea in 2019; visit 56 developing countries; 18m people die each year due to no surgery being available; 2 out of 3 lack access to surgical care; 93% of Africa has no medical access; 6 operating theatres; malignant surgeries are not operated on although a tumor maybe removed and these patients would then have palliative care; ships are serviced in the Canary Islands. Senegal has 7 doctors per 100k people and one dentist for 100k people. Service on the ships is free, but interviewing the patients so staff can give the best results. The ships have hospital water and power, but supplies of water are replenished from local sources as required. 50% of world population lives within 160kms of the port. Each orthopeadic surgery requires a career for up to 3 months as the patient cannot return to the home village while ongoing physio etc is carried out. There are no births on the ship – if that did happen the baby would be Maltese as the ship is registered in Malta.  A crew of 5-600 volunteers. Thank you Volunteers.

Mercy Ships Head Office is in Texas USA but they do have large offices in Switzerland and Nederlands, and Australia’s office is in Caloundra NSW.

If you would like to support this wonderful program you can see more information or donate at:

www.mercyships.org.au 

 

Photos: Chris Summers and Glenn Ewing

Before and after photos.