Former Hamilton Grammar pupil returns from three month African adventure

Mar 18 2008 By Richard Mooney

FORMER Hamilton Grammar pupil Katy Nicolson has just returned from a three month volunteer stint on a charity ship in Liberia.

Katy, 28, now a Pharmacist  living in Aberdeen, worked on the Africa Mercy as a volunteer while it was docked in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia.

Mercy Ships, is an international non-profit organisation based in Texas and has offices all around the world.

Katy, who also attended Chatelherault Primary School, took three months unpaid leave and raised over three thousand pounds to provide medicines on board the ship.

She said:  “I’ve always wanted to do voluntary work somewhere. They (Mercy Ships) actually came to speak at one of my mum’s church groups about it.

“She said to me about it and I thought this sounds like a great idea.

“It was excellent to get a taster of that kind of life. It was a really wonderful thing to do.”

The Africa Mercy is working in the mainly in the west coast of Africa currently, where volunteers provide free health care and community health education to locals.

The ship has currently has a crew of 420 staff, most of which are volunteers.

Katy said: “I met some amazing people. Mercy Ships is a Christian charity and most of the people on board are Christian, so it was lovely being around so many people who share the same beliefs as you.

“There is just so many people who work together to keep the ship going.”

She added: “Another amazing thing was to see a country like Liberia, which has been at civil war for years, working hard towards getting back onto their feet.”

Katy says she would love to do go back to do more voluntary work and would urge people to do the same.

She said: “I would love to go back to do community health education and HIV & AIDS education because then I would be involved in the community within the country and not just on the ship.

“It’s really worthwhile. Even if you only go for a short period of time it makes you realise how lucky we are.”

“We complain about our own health system, but at least we’ve got the National Health Service.”

For more information on Mercy Ships you can visit their official website here.