They admitted that their lives will be "in a way similar" — just on the water instead
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(jpeg)/mercy-ships-7226-f28b189e3c7f4acf8c78c12d1a3b16d8.jpg "The Global Mercy arriving into the Port of Antwerp in Belgium.")
Credit: @mercyships.org
NEED TO KNOW
- A couple will move with their kids to volunteer with Mercy Ships in Ghana, providing free healthcare for 11 months
- Amelia and Richard Bilson’s three children, ages 5, 12 and 13, are excited about life aboard the medical ship
- Mercy Ships offers specialized surgeries, and it is returning to Ghana for the first time in 19 years
One family is moving across the world to help volunteer in Africa.
Amelia and Richard Bilson, who live in Stoke-on-Trent, U.K., with their three children, have always been passionate about helping others, even before they decided to make the leap to go work on a hospital ship in a different country.
The family will be providing aid to the Mercy Ships charity for 11 months. The organization aims to provide free healthcare by bringing volunteer ships to countries across the globe where "resources are scarce," per its official website.
Credit: Laudes Martial Mbon/AFP via Getty
Amelia first discovered the Mercy Ships charity after hearing about a family who helped in Sierra Leone, while she was working as a radio producer, according to the BBC.
Amelia admitted to BBC Radio Stoke that hearing the story "opened my mind," as she didn't know that "a family like ours, who were not medical," could be of assistance to the charity.
"I never thought it was possible that someone like us could support that ministry," she explained.
Now, Amelia — who founded a community trust called Middleport Matters — is leaving her work behind to help others.
The mom-of-three is bringing her entire family with her on the ship, and she said her children, who are ages 5, 12 and 13, are "all really excited" about the new journey.
"Life will be in a way similar, in the sense of a routine — but on the ocean, most of the time," Amelia said. The kids will spend their time enjoying the ship's pool and trampoline, along with other child-friendly amenities.
Richard agreed, and he told BBC Radio Stoke that it felt like it "just seemed to fit really well with our calling, our life, and professionally as well."
He further described the charity as "floating hospitals" that help "people of nations that wouldn't be able to access it normally."
The ship will be stationed off the coast of Ghana. This marks Mercy Ships' return to Ghana for the first time in 19 years, per its website.
The ship, called Global Mercy, will set sail in August and provide patients with "specialized surgeries that include tumor removal, cleft lip and palate repair, pediatric orthopedic surgery, surgery for cataracts, reconstructive plastic surgery, obstetric fistula repair, and general and pediatric surgeries."
“It comes to augment the services that the government, and for that matter the Ministry of Health is giving to the people of Ghana,” Dr. Hafez Adam Taher, Director for Technical Coordination at the Ministry of Health of Ghana, said in a press release.
“The aim is to provide free, safe surgical care to the Ghanian people. Whilst we're taking care of the immediate needs in surgeries, we're also looking at where we can provide or improve capacity,” Mercy Ships' Country Director in Ghana, Michael Nkeze, added.
Richard said that it can be a "highly pressured" environment, between "elements of trauma" and the fact that "relationships begin and end on the ship."
"It's an entire village crammed into a small metal tin, and the diversity of cultures is a melting pot, and lots of things happen," he further explained. "They've got to navigate all those thoughts and feelings and emotions [while] also volunteering on a ship."
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Overall, though, Richard feels it is a "wonderful partnership."
He added, "The countries are always excited when the [Mercy Ships] are coming."