A SHIP CALLED HOPE

Hope (Health Opportunity for People Everywhere) is the name of a disused Navy hospital ship with a threefold humanitarian mission -- to teach, to heal and to be pilot ship for an envisioned great white fleet of hospital ships. The first ship set sail in 1960, bound for the Far East, to offer free aid and also show that Americans were not necessarily money monsters. The conditions they faced in Indonesia were more than appalling: Indonesia has 1500 doctors for a scattered island population of 90,000,000. The workload of the ship's staff of medical personnel was literally beyond reader comprehension. Local doctors were being introduced to new techniques while, for instance, one eye surgeon found he had time to operate on only one eye of each cataract patient. HOPE has since made journeys to South America and the next trip is planned for Africa...A phenomenal story which should move the stoniest-hearted readers with its demonstrable human and inspirational interest.