The hospital ship USNS Burlington, of the United States Navy,
will visit Colombia in the middle of this year as part of the ‘Continuing Promise 2024’ mission which will be carried out in several countries in the Southern Command’s area of operations, the US embassy in Bogotá reported this Thursday.
“After several months of detailed planning, it is expected that USNS Burlington visits Jamaica, Costa Rica, Honduras, Colombia and Panama during missionwhich will last almost two months,” the embassy said in a statement.
The mission, which will take place between July and August, It is the fourteenth that has been done in the area since 2007 and it is the second to be done with the USNS Burlington.
There will be 30 professionals on board the ship US Navy doctors, including general practitioners, nurses, pharmacists, radiologists, dentists, optometrists, and biomedical technicians to serve the local population of the places where the ship arrives.
The crew also has a US Army veterinary team to “provide public health educationThere is direct animal care at local veterinary organizations.
“The focus during each mission stop will be to work alongside medical personnel from partner nations to provide direct patient care and technical expertise in community clinics to improve medical preparedness, strengthen partnerships, and improve combined capabilities (…) to respond to public health disasters and humanitarian crises,” the information added.
According to the commander of the United States Naval Forces Southern Command/Fourth Fleet, Rear Admiral Jim Aiken, Missions like this seek to maintain “lasting relationships” with associated countries.
“We gain a lot with this opportunity to serve alongside true professionals,” said the officer, quoted in the statement.
On the mission, whose dates in Colombia have not been detailed, experts from the Naval Mobile Construction Battalion No. 1 of the Navy will also participate, cknown as ‘seabees’, who will assist in community engineering projects led by host nations.
“It is a way to collaborate and work together with our partners in the Caribbean, Central and South America and have a positive impact on local communities at every stop,” said Captain Scott Maloney.commander of the Continuing Promise 2024 mission.
This mission will also offer seminars on violence prevention gender in support of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) program, a United Nations initiative.
