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Local Dental Volunteer Travels to Africa

Friday, March 11, 2011

St. Cloud, FL native Leah Fiechter has just returned from the trip of a lifetime. Leah served as a dental sterilizer on the world's largest private hospital ship, the Africa Mercy. Operated by Mercy Ships, the floating hospital is currently sailing to Sierra Leone, West Africa. Leah served in many different roles during her 18 months of service. She served in Togo, West Africa and South Africa. Mercy Ships provides health care to thousands of people in need for free, including corrective surgeries like cleft lip and palate, tumor removal, and orthopedics.

Leah raised her own support to pay her way during this entire volunteer adventure. Her heart and mind are changed forever through this experience.

Since 1978 Mercy Ships has performed services valued more than $834 million, impacting about 2.9 million people. They have: performed more than 56,000 operations such as cleft lip and palate, cataract removal, straightening of crossed eyes, orthopedic and facial reconstruction; treated over 520,000 patients in village medical and dental clinics; educated about 29,000 local health care workers, who have in turn trained multiple thousands in primary health care; trained local medical professionals in modern health care techniques; completed over 1,095 community development projects focusing on water and sanitation, education, infrastructure development and agriculture; completed over 563 port visits in 53 developing nations and 17 developed nations.