Project HOPE (USA)
Encyclopedia
SS Hope
The SS Hope was a hospital ship operated by Project HOPE .The Hope was originally built as a US Navy hospital ship, USS Consolation . The Consolation was donated to Project Hope in 1958, and served from 1960 until 1974, when she was retired...
, the first peacetime hospital ship
Hospital ship
A hospital ship is a ship designated for primary function as a floating medical treatment facility or hospital; most are operated by the military forces of various countries, as they are intended to be used in or near war zones....
(converted from the USS Consolation (AH-15)
USS Consolation (AH-15)
USS Consolation was a Haven-class hospital ship originally in service with the United States Navy from 1945 to 1955. In 1960 she was chartered to the People to People Health Foundation and renamed and served for another 14 years until being scrapped in 1975.The USS Consolation was built as...
). The SS HOPE was retired in 1974, after sailing to Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
, South Vietnam
South Vietnam
South Vietnam was a state which governed southern Vietnam until 1975. It received international recognition in 1950 as the "State of Vietnam" and later as the "Republic of Vietnam" . Its capital was Saigon...
, Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
, Ecuador
Ecuador
Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
, Guinea
Guinea
Guinea , officially the Republic of Guinea , is a country in West Africa. Formerly known as French Guinea , it is today sometimes called Guinea-Conakry to distinguish it from its neighbour Guinea-Bissau. Guinea is divided into eight administrative regions and subdivided into thirty-three prefectures...
, Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
, Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
, Ceylon (Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
), Tunisia
Tunisia
Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...
, Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
, and Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
. On these voyages doctors, nurses, and technical staff provided medical care and training to people in each country visited. The SS HOPE was not replaced, and emphasis switched entirely to land-based operations. Today there are organizations in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, in addition to the original organization in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Project HOPE helps different developing countries in efforts to eradicate infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS, and tuberculosis. They also help educate parents on how to prevent and treat diseases for their children and themselves, and also train health professionals.
Project HOPE also sets up village health banks, which give small loans to women so they can improve their health and family's health. The village health banks also educate women on health.
Mission
Project HOPE works to achieve sustainable advances in health care around the world by implementing health education programs and providing humanitarian assistance in areas of need. Project HOPE is unique among international organizations in that we have always worked across the health spectrum in a wide variety of settings, from the family and community levels to the tertiary care level, training traditional birth attendants and community health volunteers where resources are limited and cardiac surgeons and biomedical engineers where technology is appropriate. Project HOPE addresses infectious diseases, health professional education, women's and children's health, humanitarian assistance, and the need for health systems and facilities.
Latin America and the Caribbean
- Dominican Republic
- El Salvador
- Guatemala
- Haiti
- Honduras
- Mexico
- Nicaragua
- Peru
Central and Eastern Europe
- Bosnia
- Czech Republic
- Georgia
- Hungary
- Lithuania
- Macedonia
- Poland
- Romania
- Ukraine
Russia/Eurasia
- Armenia
- Kazakhstan
- Kyrgyzstan
- Russia
- Tajikistan
- Turkmenistan
- Uzbekistan
Navy Missions 2009
- Antigua
- Colombia
- Dominican Republic
- El Salvador
- Ghana
- Haiti
- Kiribati
- Liberia
- Marshall Islands
- Nicaragua
- Panama
- Tonga
- Solomon Islands
- Western Samoa
- Vietnam
Recent events
- 2005 — When Hurricane KatrinaHurricane KatrinaHurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
hit the Gulf Coast, HOPE sent volunteer medical response teams to the area, where they provided nursing care to people in need. - 2006 — HOPE continues to provide aid to the people on the Gulf Coast who were hit by Hurricane Katrina. In the spring of 2006, they helped staff the U.S. Navy hospital ship, known as the MercyUSNS Mercy (T-AH-19)The third USNS Mercy is the lead ship of her class of hospital ships in the United States Navy. Her sister ship is the USNS Comfort . She was named for the virtue of compassion. In accordance with the Geneva Conventions, USNS Mercy and her crew do not carry any offensive weapons, though...
, with volunteer physicians and nurses to South Asia. - 2008 — Project HOPE's Chief Operations Officer, C. William Fox Jr., BG, USA (Ret.), was injured by an IEDImprovised explosive deviceAn improvised explosive device , also known as a roadside bomb, is a homemade bomb constructed and deployed in ways other than in conventional military action...
in BasraBasraBasra is the capital of Basra Governorate, in southern Iraq near Kuwait and Iran. It had an estimated population of two million as of 2009...
where the organization was assisting in building a new Children's Hospital. - 2010 — In response to the January earthquake in Haiti2010 Haiti earthquakeThe 2010 Haiti earthquake was a catastrophic magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake, with an epicentre near the town of Léogâne, approximately west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital. The earthquake occurred at 16:53 local time on Tuesday, 12 January 2010.By 24 January, at least 52 aftershocks...
, Project HOPE helped to coordinate volunteer medical staffers to fill out the complement of the USNS Comfort.