1. Findings The Congress finds the following: (1) Mercy Ships was founded in 1978 and has worked in more than 70 countries, providing services valued at more than $1.3 billion, treating more than 2.56 million direct beneficiaries. (2) Mercy Ships owns and operates the world’s largest private hospital ship, the Africa Mercy that has five state-of-the-art operating rooms and ward bed space for 82 patients. (3) Mercy Ships vessels are staffed by professional volunteer crew including surgeons, nurses, doctors, dentists, cooks, engineers, agriculturalists, teachers, and others. (4) Mercy Ships has performed more than 82,000 life-changing or life-saving operations such as cleft lip and palate repair, cataract removal, orthopedic procedures, facial reconstruction, obstetric fistula repair, and tumor removal. (5) Mercy Ships has treated over 147,000 dental patients including over 390,000 dental procedures. (6) Mercy Ships has trained more than 5,900 local professionals (including surgeons) who have in turn trained many others. (7) Mercy Ships has trained over 38,100 local professionals in their area of expertise including anesthesiology, midwifery, sterilization, orthopedic and reconstructive surgery, and leadership, thereby increasing medical capacity in the host nation. (8) Mercy Ships has taught over 198,000 local people in basic health care. (9) Mercy Ships has completed over 1,100 infrastructure development projects focusing on water and sanitation education, agriculture and construction projects which improve local health care delivery systems. (10) Annually, Mercy Ships has over 1,600 volunteers who help in locations around the world, 900 of which serve in Africa. At any given time, there are more than 400 crew from 40 nations onboard the Africa Mercy. (11) The Africa Mercy alone has had over 4,900 crew from 74 countries serve onboard since its inception in 2007. In addition, more than 950 local Day Workers from 12 different countries have served alongside since it first docked in Africa. (12) Mercy Ships has