After more than three years of work to transform a passenger ship of the Amazon into a hospital boat, Saint John 23 will be launched on December 7, offering healthcare services to riverside communities of the Amazonas state in Brazil.

It is the third vessel of a fleet of hospital ships built and operated by the Franciscan-inspired Association and Fraternity of St. Francis of Assisi in the Providence of God – a congregation that runs dozens of hospitals and clinics in Brazil.

The first ship, named Pope Francis, was launched five years ago, operating in Pará state, also in the Amazon region. Later, the hospital boat Saint John Paul 2 joined it.

The idea is to provide medical attention to communities that live by the many Amazonian rivers and don’t have access to healthcare infrastructure.

“We want to serve those communities where they are located. Those are the people who preserve the Amazon and take care of our common home. They should be healthy without needing to leave their original regions,” Fr. Francisco Belotti, who founded the institute, said.

The project was first conceived when Pope Francis visited Brazil in 2013 and asked Fr. Belotti if his association was operating in the Amazon, adding that it “should be there.”

The boats ended up playing a central role in combating the second wave of COVID-19, which hit hard in the Amazon region. At some point, all professionals and crew members were infected by the coronavirus at the same time and had to take a break from work. Several communities were helped by the ships.

Beyond the pandemic, the boats have taken care of people with numerous health problems, amounting to more than half a million medical appointments.

“People who had never done any kind of examination and test, people who had never been to a dentist had a first opportunity to do so,” Fr. Belotti said.

The focus of the fleet is on medium-complexity medical attention. The boats have hospital equipment to do several kinds of tests and surgery rooms, where doctors usually operate on hernias, cataracts, haemorrhoids, and perform caesarean sections.