Bridgestone Keeps Charity Rolling with Tyre Donation

Bridgestone has donated a consignment of tyres to Mercy Ships, the international charity operating hospital ships that provide health care in some of the world’s poorest countries. A selection of Bridgestone’s rugged 4×4 Dueller tyres have been supplied, and these will see use on vehicles that travel into remote areas of the bush, across difficult terrain and dirt tracks to reach sick people that otherwise could not be treated.

For Des Collins, vice president Public Relations, Bridgestone Europe, this donation makes sense in several ways: “Bridgestone has a sister company in Liberia, Firestone Natural Rubber Company, which employs more than 6,000 people in the production of natural rubber. As a part of its commitment to employees and their families in Liberia, Firestone operates its own schools and hospitals there, and consequently knows well the local need for health care. Therefore, Bridgestone was attracted to helping Mercy Ships in their efforts in West Africa and we are confident that the Dueller 4×4 tyres will help them in their great work.”

Mercy Ships is a global charity providing developing countries with free medical and surgical services. It also helps local communities develop sustainable water, sanitation and education programmes. The charity operates the world’s largest non-governmental hospital ship – staffed with volunteer doctors, nurses, engineers and agriculturists – that visits ports in some of the world’s poorest countries. The strong need for help in West Africa has also led to the establishment of permanent land-based clinics and programmes, whose operation depends on reliable vehicle access.

“Our vehicles in Africa face some of the most difficult terrain on earth” comments Steve Cook, procurement manager (Gifts in Kind) Mercy Ships UK, “and they are only as good as the tyres they are fitted with.”