''My Mercy Box'' is a Norwegian documentary series for children and families, produced by the Norwegian production company TV Inter. The original title in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

is ''Fride på Skipet'', and the series was aired at the children's network

NRK Super NRK Super is a Norwegian TV & radio channel aimed at children, run by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation. The TV channel is broadcast on the digital terrestrial network, on the same frequency as NRK3 from 7am to 7pm, and was launched 1 Decem ...

, spring 2010. The first of ten episodes was broadcast 8 April 2010. It is about eight-year-old Fride Tvedt, living on the

hospital ship A hospital ship is a ship designated for primary function as a floating medical treatment facility or hospital. Most are operated by the military forces (mostly navies) of various countries, as they are intended to be used in or near war zones. ...

MS '' Africa Mercy''. The ship sails along the coast of

West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Mau ...

in a

humanitarian Humanitarianism is an active belief in the value of human life, whereby humans practice benevolent treatment and provide assistance to other humans to reduce suffering and improve the conditions of humanity for moral, altruistic, and emotiona ...

effort for the Christian organization

Mercy Ships Mercy Ships is an international charity that operates the largest non-governmental hospital ships in the world, providing humanitarian aid like free health care, community development projects, community health education, mental health programs ...

. Fride's father is a

dentist A dentist, also known as a dental surgeon, is a health care professional who specializes in dentistry (the diagnosis, prevention, management, and treatment of diseases and conditions of the oral cavity and other aspects of the craniofacial co ...

and her mother is a

nurse Nursing is a profession within the health care sector focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life. Nurses may be differentiated from other health ...

. Fride's older brother and sister also live on board. Over ten episodes, the audience can follow Fride and her family on board the ship and on trips within

Benin Benin ( , ; french: Bénin , ff, Benen), officially the Republic of Benin (french: République du Bénin), and formerly Dahomey, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the nort ...

. Each episode ends with Fride writing a

postcard A postcard or post card is a piece of thick paper or thin cardboard, typically rectangular, intended for writing and mailing without an envelope. Non-rectangular shapes may also be used but are rare. There are novelty exceptions, such as wood ...

to her grandmother in Norway, as she goes to bed. In the final episode she goes home to see Grandma. The show had excellent ratings in Norway and was among the most popular children's TV series of spring 2010, with ratings up to 80% of all viewers between the age of 2–12. It was also one of the most watched programs on NRK Supers web site spring 2010. 1 November 2010 the series premiered on

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

KRO KRO, or (Catholic Radio Broadcasting), was a Dutch public broadcasting organization founded on 23 April 1925. Broadly Catholic in its spiritual outlook, KRO broadcast the bulk of its television output on the NPO 1 channel. KRO was also respo ...

television, with 112,000 viewers. The local title is Fride op het schip. It was also shown at the children's

film festival A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors. Films may be of recent date and, depending up ...

Cinekid The Cinekid Festival is the largest international film, television and new media festival for children aged 4 to 14 held at the Westergasfabriek in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It started as a small children's film festival and has now grown into a lar ...

(Cinekid.nl) in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

on 29 October 2010. 17 November 2010 the

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

was released in the Norwegian market. It can at present be preordered at Nordic World, who is also presently selling the series to networks worldwide, by the international title ''My Mercy Box''. Fride came up with that name herself, as she thinks the ship, ''Africa Mercy'', looks like a box. The series is produced by TV Inter Norway in coproduction with NRK Super Norway (Gitte Calmeyer) and KRO Youth Netherlands (Jan-Willem Bult). Director and producer: Thomas Dubourcqwww.vl.no kultur

References

{{Reflist 2010 Dutch television series debuts NRK original programming Dutch documentary television series Dutch-language television shows