During 1912-1913, the famous South Pole explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, was busy recruiting a crew for his Endurance Exploration to Antarctica.  He published advertisements like the one above in UK newspapers.  Apparently over 3,000 people responded, including at least six women.

MEN WANTED for hazardous journey.  Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, and safe return doubtful.  Honor and recognition in case of success – Ernest Shackleton

Operation Mercy is not an Antarctic expedition (although, one expatriate staff in Kazakhstan report to me she was experiencing -50C temperatures after I started to complain about bitter -15C temperatures that we were experiencing in Sweden).  Like Shackleton, we are looking for people who are optimistic, professional, flexible, persevering, inwardly content, and prayerful.  Unlike Shackleton, almost all of our crew consists of volunteers. Each international staff member is required to raise his/her own funds to cover salary and expenses through their own network of family, friends, community organizations, etc.  We provide coaching and administrative support to help in this process.  We ask our volunteers for a minimum commitment of 2 years, most of our staff stay longer.  Currently we have around 100 expatriate staff representing every continent except Antarctica.

We are constantly on the lookout for qualified accountants, project managers, health professionals, communications specialists, community development workers, educators, engineers, IT professionals, etc.

There are many ways to volunteer. 

• Part-time fund-raiser (organize a fund rasing event)
• Part-time office staff Örebro, Sweden
• Full-time office  in Örebro, Sweden
• Full-time field staff (Central Asia, Middle East, North Africa)
• Internship
• Short-term project (2 weeks to 2 years)

If any of these sound interesting to you or perhaps you have your own ideas about becoming involved, please let us know by filling in a 'Contact Us' form.
We'd love to hear from you.