This summer, Vine Trust will launch its fourth fully equipped medical ship, destined to provide primary health care to isolated communities on the Peruvian Amazon. MV Forth Hope, complete with a dental surgery, operating theatre, consultation rooms and a pharmacy will enable international medical and dental volunteers, alongside a team of local clinicians, to transform the lives of some of the world’s most vulnerable people.
Through its charitable work in Tanzania and Peru, Vine Trust has connected people from around the world to volunteer on life-changing projects, which support communities living in severe poverty. By the end of 2017, more than 3,217 volunteers will have helped to build 95 homes and have conducted more than 1.4m health care consultations and treatments through its medical, home-building and school expeditions.
From the ship’s official naming by HRH The Princess Royal, to its epic voyage across the Atlantic from Scotland to Peru, to the health care services it will provide, MV Forth Hope will help Vine Trust and its local partners to achieve extraordinary and sustainable development where it is needed most. According to Kenny Holt, medical programme manager, MV Forth Hope “will enable Vine Trust to significantly increase and enhance much needed primary health care services”. This relatively small vessel is expected to deliver more than two million consultations over the next 20 years, to communities who would otherwise be without access to primary health care.”
Including Vine Trust’s other Peru-based ship, Amazon Hope 2, Vine Trust’s Medical Programme in Peru will visit over 160 communities on the Amazon and its tributaries – a sustainable programme, which has been replicated by the trust to support communities on Lake Victoria, Tanzania.
Vine Trust’s Chief Executive, Willie McPherson, says that the impact of MV Forth Hope cannot be overestimated; he said, “Vine Trust has always sought to make a significant and lasting impact on the people we support, offering effective help to vulnerable and isolated communities living in poverty. Henry Schein’s generous contribution to Forth Hope will make a huge difference to the lives of vulnerable communities on the Amazon. The delivery of MV Forth Hope to the Amazon will double the current capacity of our Peru Medical Programme, enabling the provision of 200,000 consultations per annum, and deliver invaluable primary health care services to the remote riverine villages.”
Henry Schein’s donation is an initiative of Henry Schein Cares, the company’s global corporate social responsibility programme. Health care activities supported by Henry Schein Cares focus on three main areas: advancing wellness, building capacity in the delivery of health care services and assisting in emergency preparedness and relief.
“Vine Trust’s activities reach an enormous number of underserved people and are a perfect complement to the aim of Henry Schein Cares. By donating the needed products, we are able to increase access to health care, support dental professionals in the provision of desperately needed treatment and preventive care and contribute to the success of this worthwhile cause,” says John Maloney, equipment director of Henry Schein Dental in the United Kingdom.