This is the third year in a row that Stena Line have launched a donation campaign in favour of the non-profit organisation Mercy Ships life-changing work, bringing free medical care to where it’s needed the most with their floating hospital Africa Mercy.

During the month of October guests travelling onboard Stena Line ferries are given the opportunity to donate by rounding up every purchase. All donations during the campaign will be matched by the UK Government.

The campaign “Round Up for Charity” will be live onboard the operators fleet of 37 ferries in Europe during the month of October.

Guests travelling are given the opportunity to round up every onboard purchase in restaurants, bars, cafés and shops. To round off the campaign, Stena Line will round up the donated amount as well. The full amount will be donated to the life-changing work of Mercy Ships, bringing free medical care to some of the poorest countries in the world.

“In October more than 500,000 people are travelling onboard Stena Line’s ferries in Europe and if everyone contributes with something, we will easily exceed last year’s donation of 200,000 Swedish kronor (SEK)”, says Erik Lewenhaupt, Head of Sustainability, Brand & Communication at Stena Line.

This year the Stena Line and Mercy Ship campaign is part of the UK Aid Match initiative #changetheodds and all donations during the campaign will be matched by the UK government*.

Mercy Ships floating hospital the Africa Mercy is currently in the port of Dakar, Senegal. The ship arrived in August 2019 and will stay throughout June 2020. Every donation will make a great difference and an example of this is that less than 1,500 SEK is enough to give one person their eyesight back with a simple cataract eye-operation.

Since the start in 1976 Mercy Ships have provided close to 50,000 eye operations. One of the patients is Monique from Cameroon who lost her sight from cataract at six years of age, stopping her from attending school. At the age of nine a simple eye-operation onboard Mercy Ships changed her life in less than 20 minutes, and she got her eyesight back. Soon she could return to school and her future is bright, in more than one way.

To read more about Monique's story click here. 

A successful partnership

Stena Line and the non-governmental organisation Mercy Ships initiated a partnership in 2017 and have since then run several donation campaigns together onboard the ferry fleet raising more than 350,000 SEK in total. The operator has also initiated their own volunteer programme, offering employees the opportunity to apply for volunteer positions onboard Africa Mercy for a period of 2-6 months. The Stena Line volunteers are guaranteed leave of absence and the cost for transportation and vaccinations is covered by the company.

“The partnership with Mercy Ships is an important part of Stena Line’s corporate social responsibility and engages everyone from the management to our employees working onboard, but also our guests and partners which we a proud of” adds Lewenhaupt.

*Donations received between the 1st of October and the 31st of December will be matched by the UK government.

For further information visit the MercyShips website here. 

#ferry - During a month-long, fleet-wide donation campaign, Round Up for Charity, Stena Line and its customers raised an impressive €20,000 for the charity organisation Mercy Ships. The funds will enable Mercy Ship to help 133 people to get their sight back on board the hospital ship Africa Mercy.

The campaign which took place in November, involved customers across the Stena fleet of 38 vessels, who were encouraged to round up their onboard purchases and make a donation to Mercy Ships – a charity organisation sailing around the world bringing free, life-saving medical care to where it’s needed the most. There was also an impressive number of employee-initiatives to raise even more money for the charity. Some Stena Line employees rowed and cycling on board crossing the Irish Sea while others arranging quiz walks a shore and cake sales on board.

“An essential part of our partnership with Mercy Ships is to raise awareness about the organisation and this campaign has not only resulted in a generous monetary contribution from our customers, but also that more people are aware of Mercy Ships and their inspiring work. Many thanks to our employees for their engagement with the charity and their wonderful initiatives all across Europe”, says Niclas Mårtensson, CEO at Stena Line.

Stena Line’s customers donated €17,532, beating the result from last year’s donation campaign which ran for twice as long. With the additional contribution from the ferry operator, rounding up as well, the total amount of €20,000 will enable Mercy Ships help 133 people to get their sight back on board the hospital ship Africa Mercy.

“Because everyone on board Africa Mercy is there on a volunteer basis, we have managed to reduce the cost of an eye surgery to approximately €150. We are grateful so many of Stena Line’s customers chose to support our work and by doing so this has helped to change many lives. It has also been great to see the enthusiasm and engagement among the employees at Stena Line during the campaign,” said Tomas Fransson, National Director for Mercy Ships, Sweden.

The Round Up for Charity campaign was launched on all the ferries from 1 November. It ran for almost four weeks ending on Tuesday 27 November, a date which marked this year’s #GivingTuesday – a charity equivalent to Black Friday and Cyber Monday where instead of shopping people were encouraged to make a charity donation.

The humanitarian non-governmental organisation and Stena Line became partners in February 2017. The aim of the partnership is to raise awareness of Mercy Ships, increase the interest for donations among ferry customers and partners, as well as promote volunteering with their employees to share their unique technical and naval competence.

“In Mercy Ships, we have found a partner that is committed to helping those who need it the most, and like us see the benefits and the flexibility of having the ocean and ships as your workplace. This partnership is the most important part of our social sustainability initiatives, as it gives us an exciting opportunity to involve our employees, customers and partners in helping to make a difference. It also embodies our core value – care”, says Niclas Mårtensson, CEO at Stena Line.