International
If you are reading this note, you must have accessed this page directly through a bookmark or an external link. Please be advised that www.mnnetherlands.com recently underwent a re-structuring and that this page has been renamed and moved to a new directory, and will eventually be phased out. Click the SEARCH button below to locate this page's upgraded version.


Seafarers' welfare programme in South East Asia launched

October 10, 2007
 
 
Over 100 delegates from 26 countries gathered in Singapore from September 17-20 to discuss and promote seafarers' welfare in South East Asia. At the end of the meeting, a programme to strengthen seafarers' welfare structures and services in the region was adopted. The chief beneficiaries of the regional programme are all the seafarers sailing in the region, especially Filipino seafarers who make up the majority of the shipboard crews in the world today.
Click to enlarge image.Philippine delegates in Singapore: (back L-R) - Atty. Chester Quintal, ISAN London; Fr. Jack Walsh, AOS Davao; Dir. Albert Valenciano, OWWA Manila; Fr. Perpetuo Conception, AOS La Union; Fr. Vic Labao, AOS Cebu; Joy Diaz, AOS Davao; Fr. Savino Bernardi, AOS Manila; Carmelita Jamay, AOS Davao; (front R-L) - Atty. Dennis Gorecho, AOS Manila; Dr. Peter Payoyo, ICSW/PSAP.
 

The seminar was organized by the London-based International Committee on Seafarers Welfare (ICSW: www.seafarerswelfare.org), an umbrella organization whose members include government agencies, the International Shipping Federation, the International Transport Federation workers union, the International Christian Maritime Association as well as faith-based seafarers missions, the International Maritime Health Association, the International Ship Managers Association, and numerous civil society foundations and NGOs. Atty. Peter Payoyo of the Philippine Seafarers Assistance Programme in Rotterdam, who is presently the ICSW Vice-chairman, represents Filipino seafarers' interests in this global organization.

The ICSW seafarers' welfare programme for South East Asia, to be financed by the ITF Seafarers' Trust, covers 7 countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. Similar regional development programmes are currently in place in Eastern Europe, Africa, South Asia, and Latin America.

At the national level, the Philippine programme will be implemented alongside the regional project. During the Singapore seminar, delegates from the Philippines already proposed a strategy to fulfill the ICSW mission in the country as soon as possible. (PSAP press release, September 2007: www.psap-parola.org)