Floating African hospital soon to start operations in Tanzania

Scottish charity group Vine Trust’s ambitious plan for an African floating hospital has finally reached the African shores. The hospital vessel called Jubilee Hope left Glasgow on January 22, 2014, for East Africa (Mombasa port) arrived in South Africa.

The ship is a former Royal Navy fleet tender that was refitted at a cost of pound sterling one million by BAE systems at its yard in Greenock.

The 8,585-mile journey from Glasgow to Mombasa is estimated to cost about 45,000 pound sterling. On April 16, 2014 (Day 85), Jubilee Hope reached East London, South Africa. From there, the Jubilee Hope has some 1,861 miles more mile to go before it reaches its destination, Mombasa port in Kenya.

It is being transported with the help of Aberdeen oil company, the Wood Group, which operates in Africa and has donated technical know-how to move the boat. “Partnering local health professionals and NGOs we aim to build a quarterly Primary Care service which will 100,000 patients a year,” Mr. Willie McPherson, Vine Trust chairman, said. “But first we have to get our 160 ton ship there: via South Africa to Mombasa and then 520 miles overland – in as few pieces as possible!”

From Mombasa, such pieces would be transported by road to Mwanza port, Tanzania for reassembling.

“We have sent two ships to Peru that between them have helped treat one million people. We felt that as a charity we had now grown, and the next stage is to replicate the success we have had in Peru in another country, and that country is going to be Tanzania,” the Chairman said.

On Lake Victoria there are over 150 island communities with over 500,000 people in the Tanzanian sector alone, with little or no access to a meaningful health service.

Fitted with examinations rooms, a dentist’s surgery and a laboratory Jubilee Hope will provide basic medical care to thousands of people living in and around Lake Victoria on the Tanzanian side.

It will be staffed by a core team of Tanzanians including three doctors and also volunteers from the charity.

Vine Trust is making the dream of medical care for some of the most marginalized in Tanzania a reality. The islands on Lake Victoria are among the most marginalized places in terms of medical care.

The Vine Trust was established in 1985 as a local community response to the famine in Ethiopia and Sudan by churches in Bo’ness, Scotland.