Whitby nurse volunteers on hospital ship in Africa

Posted by Mercy Ships staff on Sep 15, 2011 at 11:39 am

Editor's Note: The following article appeared on durhamregion.com and is reposted with permission.

SIERRA LEONE — Whitby in Canada native Karin Zekveld headed to Africa in May and spent six weeks volunteering as an operating room nurse onboard the Africa Mercy.

The retrofitted ferry is a hospital ship that serves the west coast of Africa where residents may otherwise not have access to medical services.

Karin Zekveld grew up in Whitby and works as an operating room nurse at SickKids hospital in Toronto.

She said she's wanted to be a nurse since she was child and she heard about the Mercy Ships program in university.

"I've always wanted to do some sort of mission work and it just sounded like such an interesting and neat opportunity to be able to work on the hospital ship," she said.

The Mercy Ships are run by a Christian organization and the goal is to bring medical services to areas of the world that wouldn't otherwise have it.

"Basically their mission is to help the world's poorest, people who would not have access to health care."

Ms. Zekveld left Canada in May to spend six weeks on the Africa Mercy, a converted ferry, which makes stops along the west coast of Africa. The ship was anchored in Sierra Leone during her stay.

She arrived in the middle of the night in Lungi and had to take a ferry through a thunderstorm to Freetown, where the ship was docked.

Once there, like in Toronto, Ms. Zekveld worked as an operating room nurse. Many of the cases were for common operations such as cataracts, facial tumours and plastic surgery for burn scars.

"It was very different because a lot of the surgeries we do in Canada, we're able to catch things sooner... a lot of people in Africa have been living with cataracts for years and were completely blind," she said.

Having a facial tumour can also mean a lot of stigma.

"They were huge because no one in the country had the expertise to remove them, so they had very large tumours and they were ostracized," she said.

She recalls one patient, a little boy named Samuel.

"When we removed the tumour he was just so excited he was going to be able to play soccer again," she said.

When Ms. Zekveld wasn't working she got a chance to visit the city and to learn about the history of slavery in a visit to a nearby island.

"Just going into the city, it's very congested, you're walking through cars and people and the markets are very busy, but it was neat, because the people were very friendly and all they wanted to do was talk to us and tell us their stories," she said.

One thing that stood out to her was how little people had, but how happy they were with what they had.

"It really made me realize how much we have and how much we can be thankful for here in Canada," she said.

On the boat itself, there were about 430 crew members, some of whom were there for short stints like herself and some who were there for the long haul. She said one doctor had been there for 25 years. She described the ship as a self-contained community with a shop and even a hair salon on board.

Next year the ship is headed to Guinea and Ms. Zekveld said she's not sure if she'll be on it, but she's not ruling it out.

"I would love to go back."

To learn more about the Mercy Ships visit www.mercyships.ca

http://www.durhamregion.com/localprofile/article/1076177--whitby-nurse-volunteers-on-hospital-ship-in-africa

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