
The Global Mercy, the newest hospital ship of the Texan NGO Mercy Ships (Ships of Hope), has been in the port of Granadilla for two weeks, where it will remain until the end of May when it will depart for Senegal on its first humanitarian campaign. “We are delighted that our new ship is docked in Granadilla, where we have the necessary peace of mind to prepare all the technical equipment and receive our volunteers for two months, before leaving for Africa,” said Gerardo Vangioni, president of Mercy Ships in Spain.
He reaffirms his commitment to Granadilla, because “in Santa Cruz we should be moving the ship and more during the cruise season”, adding that “in Granadilla we already have the experience with the Africa Mercy, when we spent two years of the pandemic”, he recalls.
The Global Mercy, which arrived in Tenerife from the port of Rotterdam, is currently the largest civil hospital ship in the world, and the first of the five Mercy Ships ships that, since 1983, it has built from scratch, when the previous ones have been reforms of old ferries. The project began in 2013 and the ship was delivered just a few months ago, being her maiden voyage to Senegal in May to accompany Africa Mercy there.

During its stay in Tenerife – it has six operating rooms, 202 beds, a laboratory, outpatient clinics and ophthalmological and dental clinics – it will continue to be equipped as a hospital and the crew of cooperating volunteers, coming from all over the world, will continue to be completed for its next humanitarian mission. Mercy Ships expects to perform more than 5,000 surgeries each year, more than 28,000 dental treatments and train more than 2,800 medical professionals, inside a ship that has 7,000 square meters of hospital area, distributed between decks 3 and 4, very similar to his ‘brother’ Africa Mercy. For the leisure of the 641 crew members that it can accommodate, the new Mercy Ships ship has an auditorium with 682 seats, a library, a swimming pool, cafes, shops and a gym.
In reality, Global Mercy continues to be, on a small scale, a town with representation of youth from all over the world and with the unwavering spirit of continuing to medically help the most depressed countries on the planet, as it has been doing for 40 years. when two young Texans, Don and Deyon Stephens, following the tragedy of a hurricane in the Caribbean, decided to buy a boat and bring medicine to the most needy and in other cases, where there was none.