Members of Youth with a Mission (YWAM) New Zealand are working tirelessly to raise funds for their medical aid ship YWAM Koha, currently stranded in Fiji.
Managing director Marty Emmett told The Fiji Times they were waiting to go out onto a dry dock in Lautoka so the ship could be fixed as there was an issue with the tail shaft.
The vessel has been instrumental in providing healthcare to some of Fiji’s most far-flung maritime communities, and over the course of five months, Mr Emmett and his team of volunteer medical personnel and crew (including Fijians) had served more than 3900 people.
He said the aim was to continue medical clinics in maritime areas.
“It’s an old ship, it’s 75 years old and there’s always some issue but we finished the five-month outreach in Fiji about a month ago,” he said.
“Our engineers had been monitoring an issue the whole season we were in Fiji, but we hoped we would patch it and get it home and fixed in New Zealand, but when we finished the outreach, they discovered that it was a more significant issue than we had hoped.
“The ship was not allowed to be driven anymore so it has to come out of the water and the tail shaft taken out, new bearings put in so that has to be done at a dry dock in Fiji so that’s our situation.
“We’re just trying to raise the money we need to cover the $NZ300,000 ($F408,833) cost of the dry dock and repairs.”
A website has been set up, called saveourship.nz, where donations can be made towards repairing the ship. About $200,000 has been collected towards the repair, with contributions from YWAM and NZ-based philanthropic trust Trinity Lands, and donations were steadily flowing in to make up the remaining amount.
“We have not asked (for help) in Fiji. The New Zealand High Commission in Suva has reached out this week to make sure the crew was okay during the cyclone, which I really appreciate but we have not reached out to the Fiji Government or Ministry of Health to ask for help.
“We would love it, if Fiji Government would help us, but we’ve not asked.
“We just want to serve and bring basic healthcare to the beautiful people of the maritime islands of Fiji.”
