United States Transportation Command

NAPLES, Italy (USTCNS) --- For homeless children in tiny Sao Vicente, an island in the Cape Verde archipelago, it was a Christmas holiday season they won’t soon forget.

Neither will staff members from Maritime Prepositioning Ship Squadron One, or MPSRON ONE, and the merchant mariners of MV 2nd Lt. John P. Bobo—a prepositioning ship belonging to the U.S. Navy’s Military Sealift Command.

A mid-December port visit to Mindelo, capital of Sao Vicente and one of ten islands making up the Republic of Cape Verde—some 500 miles off the West African coast—became anything but routine when the U.S. Embassy asked Bobo if the crew could help out a local homeless shelter.

The answer came swiftly from ship’s master Capt. Don Piggot and Lt.Cmdr Scott Gover, chief staff officer of MPSRON ONE … of course! “The project provided an excellent environment to spread some Christmas cheer to needy children, and took our minds off the absence of family and friends over the holidays,” Gover said.

Located in the heart of Mindola, the shelter is run by Rev. Daniel D. Monteiro and local volunteers, feeding more than 50 children daily. The shelter provides schooling, as well as a bed for the night, showers, and a sitting room where the kids can watch a little television.

Crewmembers helped out by serving meals and re-painting the shelter in this impoverished country of 500,000 people, mostly of Portuguese descent. Cape Verde was uninhabited until the 15th century when it was colonized by Portugal.

So, 15 U.S. Navy and merchant mariners started to work on Dec. 18. The ship donated seven gallons of red and white deck paint, rollers, brushes, and painted a dining room and recreation room in about two hours.

The crew was not done, however, as COMPSRON ONE staff members returned to the shelter on Dec. 21, to help serve meals to 75 hungry children.

Dressed in t-shirts and soccer jerseys, and with broad smiles, children waited patiently for their turn in the ‘chow line.’ “The cheerful faces and excitement shown by the children made it a very rewarding and pleasant afternoon,” said Gover. “We give children, who have no one to care for them, a better life by providing one good meal a day,” Monteiro said.

On Christmas eve, Bobo’s merchant mariners returned to the center to take their turn at serving the daily meal, at which time the Bobo presented Monteiro with donated clothing and about $450 U.S. dollars, collected from the ship’s crew and staff of MPSRON ONE.

Bobo is one of six ships assigned to MPSRON ONE, which carry military equipment and supplies for the U.S. Marines and U.S. Air Force. With no assigned homeport, these contracted commercial cargo ships visit numerous ports for supplies, maintenance and recreation, in the Mediterranean Sea or eastern Atlantic Ocean. Bobo is 673 ft. in length and weighs about 47,000 long tons.

Bobo gives Africa’s children a holiday to remember

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