Samantha Clarke

Mercy Ships: Restoring Hope and Healing Through Surgery

Our guest speaker for our lunch meeting is Samantha Clarke, an Ambassador with Mercy Ships Australia and based in Bayside Melbourne. Samantha began her career in hairdressing before a strong desire to make the world a better place led her into federal politics, advocacy, and community focused work. Since then, her work has spanned philanthropy, impact investing, stakeholder engagement, and bringing people together around causes that matter. Samantha is especially passionate about sharing stories that make complex global challenges feel personal, hopeful, and deeply human.

The presentation will share the story of Mercy Ships and the extraordinary impact of bringing free surgery, volunteer expertise, and training for local healthcare professionals to communities with little or no access to safe surgical care. I will speak about the scale of the global need, the human side of the work through powerful patient stories, and the way Australians are helping make this possible through generosity, advocacy, volunteering, and long term investment in local capacity.