Offering a healing touch with engineering

Before we sailed, the ship was in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, for maintenance. During that time, I had to work with engineers from all over the world to complete special jobs while it was docked at the shipyard. We also had to secure everything for the journey, including more than 40 service vehicles!

Before the five-day sail to our destination, Conakry, Guinea, an advance team made arrangements with the local authorities, service providers and port staff. They refurbished a number of buildings to be used for the Guinea mission, such as an eye-clinic, a dental clinic and an outpatient recovery centre. That was how our mission began. 

There was always something to be done as an engineering storeman.

Each person who completes a technical task needs parts and tools to do the job, which was where we came in. However, there were times when we needed parts that were not available and we had to order them in advance from the USA or the Netherlands. For parts that were required for urgent tasks, we sourced for local suppliers and Joseph Lelano our Guinean stores assistant, came in very handy on numerous occasions.

Parts that were sourced had to be catalogued, properly labelled and stowed in one of our numerous storerooms on board. We performed continual stock-takes on board to ensure that we had enough nuts and bolts to keep us going until the next shipment.

Nothing was as simple as it seems. We had many days where power or water was restricted during the shipyard period and weeks went by without air-conditioning.  

The scale of the ship’s operations was massive. The African Mercy was a self-sufficient city with its own generators, firefighting, fuel and oil systems, sewage treatment plants and heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, all of which must function to support a crew of over 400. The ship also needed to power hospital facilities, such as X-ray machines, CT scanners, labs and five operating theatres. Supporting such as immense engineering challenge is something I love!

Working for Rolls-Royce on Australian naval vessels has made me familiar with ship operations as well as many aspects of the marine industry. I learnt the importance of asset management and ship maintenance, which I could transfer to the non-governmental hospital ship.

While I was in a support role in the engineering department, I also took on additional opportunities that helped me to connect directly with those in need.

During the hospital visiting hours, I went to the wards and interacted with the patients.  I would chat with them and play board games with a few. I loved entertaining the kids and enjoyed pushing them up and down the hospital corridors on their plastic trikes.

There are many individuals and it is hard to name them all.

I worked closely with Robert Randriamanantena from Madagascar, my direct boss. Having several years’ experience in various roles, including plumber and stores assistant, he knows everything about the stores on board the ship and kept me sharp on our operational readiness.  

My fellow volunteer was Joseph Lelano who was our engineering store assistant. He had an incredible work ethic and worked tirelessly to keep the engine room clean and tidy. He is a keen learner and is always willing to lend a hand. I learnt a lot from his discipline.  

I also worked closely with Miguel Santiago Zambrano from Peru and Denise Ngum from Cameroon. They are from the electrical team. Despite the intensive nature of maintenance and repairs, Miguel was always cheerful and grateful for the opportunity to help those in need. Denise is very capable at fixing all things on the ship, from the generators and elevators to appliances such as washing machines, galley equipment and lighting.

It was amazing being part of something bigger. The smiles from the people of Conakry were the best reward for what we were doing. It is an incredible working environment, where people from different cultures and backgrounds came together to do something worthwhile. We could see the fruit of our labours every day when patients were discharged, and their lives changed because of what we were doing below decks.

It was a fantastic experience to work on a ship for four months. These are the kinds of vessels which we maintain day-to-day in Australia and I have a better understanding of maintenance and planning on a ship.

You can change the world one day at a time. Seek opportunities to work in a developing country which allow you to impact lives while enriching your professional career. You can also work for companies such as Rolls-Royce that champion such empowering behaviour and sponsor such humanitarian initiatives.

There is so much work to be done in improving the lives of others through engineering ventures and R&D where Rolls-Royce is and has always been a pioneer.