Agriculture & Small Livestock
All of the people in the communities into which Vessels of Mercy International works are dependent upon agriculture for their livelihoods. If a person does not farm themselves, then their customers do and so if the crops are poor there will not only be limited food in the country but limited wealth to pay those who work in other trades. Vessels of Mercy International is committed to working with the village communities to develop sustainable, organic agricultural and small livestock projects to alleviate dependence on expensive chemical fertilizers.
As part of our work we are always seeking to partner with other organizations who have greater expertise in this area as we recognize that it is neither effective nor efficient to reinvent the wheel. Accordingly we are currently exploring partnership opportunities with those involved in the farming community, agro forestry and other initiatives that seek to enrich the soil and improve crop yield organically.
Every agricultural program is linked closely with discipleship as this is the backbone of all of the work of Vessels of Mercy International. While training the village farmers in the alternative farming methods the team of Vessels of Mercy International also disciple them in the Word of God using applicable and relevant farming analogies that they will understand. We consider it important that people not only appreciate the greater crop yields that are generated by organic farming methods, but also that they appreciate why this is so and how God created the different ecosystems to hang in a fine balance. This enables us to talk with the beneficiaries about issues such as conservation, deforestation and other matters that affect their environment.
In all our work we seek to help communities initiate sustainable change and development for themselves rather than cultivating a culture of dependence. To this end much of the work revolves around people, relationships, education and locally available and accessible resources. If a community’s only resources are its land and people then it is only by helping them utilize these resources in more efficient and effective ways that their development can be self-sustained.
“Transforming communities through the implementation of programs which affect all areas of community life including: agriculture, education, economic empowerment, advocacy and discipleship, working through the community leaders.”
Stop Human Trafficking & Slavery
Join us in the fight against Human Trafficking and Slavery around the world!
Vessels of Mercy International has been in the fight against human trafficking and slavery since 1995 on an international level and over the last 10 years in our own country(USA). For too long this has been seen as just an international problem but it is happening right here in our backyard! No matter where it is happening we need to do all we can to put an end to it! Join us in the fight and help us take a stand!
Human trafficking is currently the fastest growing criminal industry in the world, but for everyone who partners with us, we are building a stronger, more formidable movement to abolish this injustice!
An estimated 250 thousand American children are at high risk for exploitation and trafficking into the sex industry each year. 800,000 — Number of people trafficked across international borders every year.
Our focus is Rescue, Restore, Prevent
We love like to express our deepest appreciation to everyone who has partnered with us, helping us to accomplish widespread prayer mobilization, awareness and prevention, and victim rescue, advocacy, and restoration. Your contributions have further enabled us to gain significant traction in combatting Human trafficking and slavery as we move forward in the days ahead.
Project Soar - Helping Women & Girls
Restoring Dignity and Soaring to New Heights!
Helping school-aged girls soar above their circumstances through menstrual hygiene management and education.
WHEN GIRLS WIN, WE ALL WIN!
Help a girl, and you help every member of her family, her community and her nation.
Girls who have sanitary hygiene are more confident in school and more likely to graduate. For every year of education, a girl receives her future income increases. When a girl has 7 or more years of education, she marries four years later and passes on her knowledge and strength. She will speak up for herself & others and contribute to her community.
Why Sustainable Kits?
If you have to choose between feeding your children and providing sanitary supplies, which would you choose? The answer is clear. Where do you dispose of soiled pads when there is no trash service? Littered pads only add to the stigma girls can face. A quality answer that she can count on month after month that is comfortable and effective AND discrete gives her back days of possibility, safety, and dignity.
What happens when girls go without the supplies she needs?
What if not having feminine supplies kept you isolated during menstruation? No study for days. No income for days. No access to hygiene… for days. It happens worldwide to women in impoverished communities. Young women and girls miss an average of five days of school per month, totaling eight months over three years. Now, these young ladies will be able to stay in school. This will have a significant effect on the rest of their lives. Girls use leaves, mattress stuffing, rocks, trash, bark, animal skins, newspaper, and corn cobs or husks; the list goes on… all to try to stay in school and all because suitable menstrual resources are not readily available. Some girls trade sexual favors in exchange for hygiene products. These often lead to a painful infection. Worse, girls are often exploited in exchange for hygiene to keep them in school. This also affects early marriage, as menstruating girls who are not in school are considered “eligible” regardless of age. It turns out this issue is one of the keys to social change. It’s hard to imagine, but it is true all over the world.
What Can You Do?
The Plan: Speak up. Every girl in the world deserves an education, safety, and dignity. We further this goal by helping girls who would otherwise go without to have access to quality sustainable feminine hygiene and awareness. We accomplish this through both direct distributions on the field, by raising awareness. It’s working!
We need your financial support!
Your donation of:
$15 will help sponsor one complete feminine hygiene (SOAR) kit lasting three years *
$25 will buy 25 washcloths
$50 will provide 100 bars of soap
$100 will purchase underwear for 50 kits
$250 will provide moisture barrier fabric to make 1,000 shields
*Sponsoring a kit can include but is not limited to helping cover the cost of administering the program, underwear, purchase of soap in the country we serve, and cost of transportation to the international field service area.
Your financial donation will help sustain and expand our program to young ladies and women around the world.
Will you make the difference in the life of a young girl today?
Teams
LET GO of the predictable and be astonished by the extraordinary.
Vessels of Mercy International Missions gives you the opportunity to serve thousands around the globe who are in desperate need both physically and spiritually. Vessels of Mercy International is a faith-based multi-denominational, intergenerational relief & development organization, recognized by many as the leader in custom and pre-planned short term mission trips for individuals and groups. From mobile medical, dental and vision clinics and work relief projects, Disaster Relief and personal evangelism and ministry presentations. Vessels of Mercy International Missions will show you how changing the world will change you forever.
LET GO of the mundane and grab hold of what’s meaningful. It’s time to face a new challenge, dare new risks, and reach for a higher peak. Reach out, meet needs, give of yourself, and make a difference.
A Vessels of Mercy International missions trip includes Airfare from Richmond Intl. Airport, lodging (hotel/camp or guesthouse with beds & water), ground transportation, meals, insurance, visas, free day costs-entrance fees, and all ministry costs. All inclusive from the time of arrival to time of departure. Departures from other airports can be arranged for an additional charge.
Vessels of Mercy International has a simple goal…
We want to shatter the way you think about the world. We want to transform the way you see people, and the way people see God. We want to see hearts healed, minds changed, and bodies mended on a global scale. It’s that simple.
Join other individuals as they REACH OUT to the nations!
Experience matters
Since 1995 we have trained and mobilized thousands of short-term missionaries and leaders and traveled to more than 150 countries.
We’ve learned a few things in over the years. Like how to help people have the best missions experience anywhere. That requires a delicate balance between personal challenge, unique service and of course, recreation.
Missions is an investment of time, talent, and treasure. From your first contact with us, we are committed to you in a big way. You can rest assured knowing you will have established and seasoned leadership assisting you every step of the way.
Vessels of Mercy International can COME TO YOU
Planning a church retreat, conference, or youth event?
God is using us to propel people into a passionate, whole-hearted relationship with Jesus. We also love to help coach and develop ministries and churches in reaching their next level. Our heart is to help you serve others, whether it’s motivating people to get out on the mission field, or challenging people right at home to help their neighbor or to consider how relentlessly God loves them. Vessels of Mercy International wants to serve you and your ministry. For more details, contact us at info@vesselsofmercy.org or call 1.804.740.4575.
![](https://vesselsofmercy.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Haiti-Earthquake-Relief-2-2010-194-min-300x225.jpg")
Vessels of Mercy International is a faith-based organization, providing healthcare services to those affected by disaster, conflict, and poverty. We deliver medical and dental care, humanitarian aid, and holistic development programs to all people in need, regardless of religion, nationality, sex, or race. We respond to disasters around the world—and here at home—by sending teams of volunteer medical professionals and medical supplies to care for the sick and injured. We also mobilize long-term health promotion initiatives, collaborating with established partners within each community to ensure that our programs have a sustainable impact.
Why Sight? Can you imagine trying to function daily through life without eyesight? Go ahead–close your eyes for a moment to get a better understanding. Okay…you gave it a minute, but imagine living in a blur or in darkness for years or for a lifetime. Well, one thing you couldn’t do would be read e-mail, the newspaper, road signs, or perform many simple tasks required to carry out certain jobs or tasks of everyday life. The World Health Organization reports that around the world every 5 seconds a person goes blind and every minute a child goes blind. 90% of the blind or those with poor vision live in the developing world. Fortunately, 75% of blindness is treatable and/or preventable and people with poor vision can often get significant improvement through a pair of glasses.
Our Vision care teams give the gift of eyesight by providing simple vision screenings (over 1 billion people in our world have never had a simple vision test). We also provide health education on eye care that will help prevent blindness. And to those who need glasses, we provide them with their own pair of glasses. The cost is surprisingly low. While we have helped hundreds, thousands still suffer from poor eye care.
Vessels of Mercy International has been given the amazing honor of putting new or recycled glasses on people around the world. We have recognized the incredible power of Giving the Gift of Sight, and have come to a startling conclusion: with so many different needs around the world, we felt Vessels of Mercy Intl. had an obligation to try to improve as many lives as possible.
Sight is a fundamental need. The loss of sight has a dramatic impact on a person’s life – and on his or her family and community. Vessels of Mercy International gives to address this need because:
- 1. This is a Solvable Crisis Blindness and visual impairment is the seventh-largest health disability in the world. But in most cases, it can be prevented or treated. In fact, available solutions, including medical treatment, prescription eyeglasses or 15-minute cataract surgery, could impact 80% of people afflicted with vision impairment and blindness.
- 2. We Can Help Break the Poverty Trap of the nearly 284 million people in the world who are visually impaired, almost 90% live in developing countries. It’s a vicious cycle — poverty and disease can lead to vision loss. And blindness and poor vision keep people trapped in poverty.
- 3. Sight Means Education and Opportunity. More than 18 million children around the world suffer from blindness or impaired vision. Children who have trouble seeing are often unable to go to or succeed in school and have fewer chances to achieve a productive and successful life.
- 4. Women Have an Equal Right to Sight. Two-thirds of people who are blind are women, in part because many families in developing countries are more likely to pay for eye care for male family members. By providing easy to access local eye care, we can help more women and girls around the world get sight-saving and restoring services.
- 5. There is an Immediate Impact. Many of the solutions to blindness and visual impairment can be immediate. If it’s a pair of eyeglasses or medical treatment that’s needed, patients are treated on the spot. Those needing eye surgery are referred immediately so their vision can be restored.
- 6. We Can Create a Better Tomorrow. Regaining sight and preventing loss of sight transforms lives. Children can go to school the next day, and many adults return to work within a week and are once again able to provide for their families. When more people are able to lead healthy, productive lives, entire communities have a chance at a better future.
With our vision care clinics is more than just giving eyeglasses. While prescription eyeglasses are a part of the holistic eye care Vessels of Mercy Intl. supports, we have learned that people’s needs can be quite different. We’ve set up our approach to be able to address the most widespread needs. So we offer sponsorship so that one person can buy a pair of glasses, and one person receives the eye care that he or she needs.
We deliver that care through partnerships with eye care organizations and through the In-Focus training for lay health care workers. We organize screenings right in the community to identify the people who need care. Vessels of Mercy International then helps to provide care in one of three ways:
Medical Treatment: Treat a person’s sight-threatening condition such as infection, injury or disease, by administering medical treatment such as prescription medications and removal of foreign objects from the eye.
Prescription Eyeglasses: Determine the corrective lenses a person needs and provide the right pair of eyeglasses. The patient gets to choose new frames and even check out their new look in a mirror.
Sight-Saving Surgery: We refer patients to a local hospital to perform a commonly needed operation, such as cataract surgery, which can be a 15-minute procedure. Cataract surgery is particularly impactful as cataract is a leading cause of blindness in the world.
Where We Give
Our goal is to help to give sight to people in need all around the world, to date we have held clinics in Haiti, Honduras, Guatemala, and Nicaragua.
Statistical sources: vision2020.org & who.int