Health & Wellbeing Grantees

Berge Bulk’s holistic approach to the health and wellbeing of our employees is mirrored in our philanthropic focus on improving the lives of others.

The Marshall Foundation helps charities and organisations globally to support health and wellbeing. Assisting a broad range of projects — providing education, medicine and nutritional advice, as well as funding transformative community initiatives — we’re helping to create significant positive change to people’s lives.

These philanthropic partnerships are chosen mindfully, with sustainability and longevity being core — not only directly helping those in need, but also the communities that they are a part of.

Mercy Ships

Mercy Ships is an international NGO that runs modern hospital ships — bringing world-class volunteer medical professionals directly to the places they are needed the most. These floating hospitals are staffed almost entirely by volunteers, who give their expertise for free to help treat dental and eye problems, cleft lips and palates, tumours, club feet, childbirth injuries, burns, and other conditions.

The Marshall Foundation funded the cost of building four crew cabins on Mercy Ship’s newest vessel, the Global Mercy, and continues to support Mercy Ships through the Live Well + Give Well initiative.

In 2025, Mercy Ships’ two vessels provided medical services in Sierra Leone and Madagascar, performing around 4,600 surgical procedures. In addition, in 2025 Mercy Ships trained 838 medical professionals from 13 African countries through programmes aboard ship and in local hospitals, with participants completing more than 228,000 hours of hands-on training before returning to their communities equipped to lead and serve. These achievements were made possible through the work of over 3,240 volunteers from 75 countries and 2,120 dedicated national crew members.

Healing Little Hearts

Healing Little Hearts (HLH) is a UK charity that sends volunteer surgeons to some of the world’s poorest countries. These volunteers conduct cardiac, and other general surgical procedures, on babies, children and teenagers born with heart disease or suffering from other medical issues. The charity also trains and empowers local doctors and nurses in children’s cardiac care so that these professionals can conduct procedures in the future. Since being founded in 2007 HLH has worked in 23 countries on 4 continents and performed 3,325 cardiac procedures.

The Marshall Foundation has sponsored sixteen HLH missions to date in which 467 children have been provided with life-saving surgery in India, Pakistan, Kenya and Nigeria.

Water and Healthcare Foundation

The Water and Healthcare Foundation (WAH) is a Cambodian NGO whose mission is to improve the lives and conditions of rural communities in Cambodia, through the provision of sustainable clean water, healthcare and education. WAH works with and empowers local communities to ensure the long-term sustainability of its programmes.

WAH’s support includes providing cataract operations, midwifery and paediatric emergency care training. A major project is the provision of clean water systems, and WAH has developed a bicycle pump system that can produce up to 400 litres of clean water per hour. Water is pumped from a deep-water source through pedalling, and then cleaned through a high-performance filtration membrane, removing all viruses and bacteria. As of the end of 2025, WAH had installed clean water systems in 285 schools in Kampong Chhnang province, 161 of which have been sponsored by the Marshall Foundation.

CamKids

The Cambodian Children’s Charity (CamKids) is a grassroots charity which works to empower local communities in Cambodia to take control of their own future, by supporting their medical, education, nutrition and development needs.

The Marshall Foundation has been supporting CamKids since 2012, helping them provide medical and dental treatments to over 105,000 slum-dwellers and rural villagers in that time. 8,300 treatments were provided in 2025.

Fundatia Filantropica Metropolis

In 2025, the Marshall Foundation formed a new partnership with Fundatia Filantropica Metropolis — a Romanian charity recommended by Berge Bulk’s seafarers. The organisation supports vulnerable children by improving hospital facilities and delivering impactful social programmes.

To celebrate this collaboration, three of our Romanian colleagues — Marine Superintendent George Marcu, Vessel Manager Catalin Andrei, and Technical Superintendent Daniel Rosiu — attended the groundbreaking ceremony for a new Paediatric Psychiatry Clinic in Bucharest. Held on World Mental Health Day, the event was attended by prominent local leaders and marked a significant milestone in improving access to essential mental health services for children and families across Romania. Through this partnership, we are proud to support the communities where our people live and work, ensuring a lasting positive impact on the next generation.

SCI Ventures

In 2025 the Marshall Foundation made a substantial donation to SCI Ventures — a novel, evergreen fund created to catalyse innovative cures for paralysis. They do this by investing in early-stage companies that are developing cure-oriented therapies for spinal cord injury and related markets. The fund is a philanthropic vehicle, run with the rigour of a VC fund, backed by leading foundations for spinal cord injury in the US and Europe, and advised by world-leading neuroscientists.