Devon woman runs school on board hospital ship

A teacher from Devon has described her experience teaching 38 students from different nations on board a hospital ship.

Ruth Cooper, 47, from Exeter, volunteered to be head teacher of the school for children who live on board the Africa Mercy ship, which is docked in Madagascar.

The Africa Mercy is one of two hospital ships run by international health charity Mercy Ships, and partners with African nations to provide free surgery to people in need.

The ship is home to about 400 volunteer crew members, including 15 families with children, from three to 18 years old, who need to be educated.

Ms Cooper, who has more than 25 years' experience in teaching, said she first heard about the charity nine years ago.

She said: "I thought you needed to be a doctor or a nurse, but they have a school on board.

"I thought why not give it a go."

The teacher, who has worked in schools in Exeter as well as London and Kenya, went to Senegal with the ship in 2021.

Now she is onboard again in Madagascar, and said it is a “huge privilege to serve".

She added: “Only 50 per cent of the crew are medical, the rest of us are here to support the life-saving work. We have every role on board that you need to run a small city."

Ms Cooper said in her job she also hears stories of the patients who are treated and said they "advocate for themselves and fight for themselves".

"We hear people walking for days to be able to be able to get to a centre to be looked at," she said.

"We're able to send them back with changed lives.

"It's an amazing thing, it's a hard thing sometimes, but it's amazing."

The children being taught on board live in family cabins on the ship, and Ms Cooper said their "world view is so much more open wide than what I think I had at school."

She added: “In some ways, you give up a lot to be here, away from family and friends. But it’s such a huge privilege to be welcomed into countries and see lives changed.”

Ms Cooper is signed up on board the ship until June 2025 and said she will "see what comes next" when her current journey ends.

Follow BBC Devon on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].