Volunteers For Medical Vessel

YWAM Ships Newcastle is a Christian charity working with the Papua New Guinean (PNG) government to assist them to achieve their health and training outcome goals for the people of PNG. The nation’s Vision 2050 Strategic Plan aims to align their institutions and system to make ‘Papua New Guinea become a smart, wise, fair, healthy and happy society by 2050’.

Indeed the nation is facing major health and infrastructure challenges. Clearly delivering basic services in Papua New Guinea poses enormous challenges as communities are scattered over rugged terrain. There are more than 1300 islands in PNG and over 600 within the Milne Bay Province alone! Infrastructures are insufficient, especially regarding transport.

YWAM Ships Newcastle will partner with the PNG government to operate in PNG joining the common efforts of other YWAM entities successfully engaged within the nation for the last 8 years.

The vessel – the s/v Ruach, a 37 meters gaff-rigged schooner, with 2 masts, 24 berths and a 185 kW engine – is to be used to deliver medical supplies and services to the remoted islands of the Milne Bay Province. In addition, we build capacity through various training, including sail training.

We aim to see major, sustainable quality of life, health and education improvements in the rural and hard to reach places within the Province. Simultaneously we expect seeing relationships strengthened between Australia and PNG.

To achieve those goals and have a powerful impact into Papua New Guinean’s lives, we need more people to engage with us. Different opportunities are available: volunteering as Marine Professionals, donating old sails to our “Resails Program” or advocating and financially supporting our work. We would like to invite you to be part of our initiative!

Crew required to safely sail the vessel:

• Master - Master IV / STCW II/3 or equivalent
• First Mate - Master V/ STCW II/3 or equivalent
• Engineer - MED 3 / AEC or equivalent legally, but the engineering on the Ruach is actually quite technical so we think at least MED 2 will be more sufficient, unless there is prior mechanical/electrical background.
• 2 Deckhands - we need 2 crew with GPH or yacht rating qualifications

Interested to volunteer / get involved with us? We would like to meet with you to be able to share more about our vision, the different opportunities and sailing schedule!