Listen: MtS Lagos opens 2022 with seafarers’ welfare project

The Mission to Seafarers (MtS) Lagos has begun its project to making visiting seafarers have a memorable and rewarding experiencing when they come to Lagos ports.

At the Centre in Lagos, the Mission tells “At The Marina Today” in a chat that 13 priests of the Anglican Communion (Lagos Diocese) have been trained on requisite knowledge to enable them support seafarers who would be coming Lagos port and may want to experience the city.

Marine engineer, Reverend Emmanuel Ilori, who is the Assistant Chaplain of the management committee, Mission to Seafarers Lagos, said the priests have been well equipped to give the kind of friendship that would warm the hearts of seafarers they would be visiting while at the ports in Lagos.

“Seafarers generally need this support physically, spiritually and emotionally, considering the difficult environment in which they work. And these people have been trained to go there, be their friend and identify with them and understand some of the challenges they may be having.

“And when the challenges are serious, they would be able to seek for help for them. It may not necessarily be readily available, but they would be able to tap into other resources that would ensure that seafarers who come into Nigeria have a positive experience of coming to Nigeria,” Iloro said.

Also speaking, Rev. Canon Bimbo Aduroja, Chaplain of the management committee, MtS Lagos, added “Majorly, the MtS is a charity organisation to seafarers who come to our ports in Lagos. Now, as a committee, we have decided to do only the things that would directly be beneficial to the seafarers positively, as far as their welfare is concerned.

“In that regard, we are working on ship and centre visit for the seafarers…that is why we now have people who have been trained for sea visiting. They would be going on board to meet with the seafarers and seek after their wellbeing. And if they need to come out of the port, we bring them to the centre.”

The chat ‘At The Marina Today’

Reverend Emmanuel Ilori

The Mission is dedicated to the welfare of the seafarers. As part of our efforts to be able to deliver this service, and with about a minimum of 3000 vessels calling at the ports in Lagos every year, we should be able to train specialised people who would be providing specialised the seafarers welfare, including visits to the ships or be able to receive them at the Mission to Seafarer’s Centre or to be able to provide online support to the seafarers.

So, what we have done is to look for specialised trained people, who the Diocese of Lagos has been kind enough to give us priests… they understand the issue of support to people. In addition to that, because of the skillsets that they are bringing, and giving then specialised training in ship welfare visitors, done by the UK Authorities. So, 13 of them have finished that training in ship visitors’ welfare. The next thing is for them to go and experience going to the vessel. So, what we have done today is to give them the second aspect of that training, to prepare them to begin to visit vessels…they have been trained comprehensively.

What would they be doing during the visits, essentially?

Seafarers generally need this support physically, spiritually and emotionally, considering the difficult environment in which they work. And these people have been trained to go there, be their friend and identify with them and understand some of the challenges they may be having. And when the challenges are serious, they would be able to seek for help for them. It may not necessarily be readily available, but they would be able to tap into other resources that would ensure that seafarers who come into Nigeria have a positive experience of coming to Nigeria. We want these seafarers to have a positive experience of coming here. Some of them, their perception of coming to Nigeria is not very good, but Nigeria is not a bad environment.

The bottom-line here is that when seafarers come to Nigeria and want to go out to places they would be able to go out in company of trustworthy people. With the centre of Mission to Seafarers here, somebody can bring them to the centre to just come and have a nice time.

The centre is being developed now and there is still a lot of work to do and we need support to provide more services here…the swimming pool and play area will be ready very soon.

Reverend Bimbo Aduroja

Majorly, the MtS is a charity organisation to seafarers who come to our ports in Lagos. Now, as a committee, we have decided to do only the things that would directly be beneficial to the seafarers positively, as far as their welfare is concerned . In that regard, we are working on ship and centre visit for the seafarers…that is why we now have people who have been trained for sea visiting. They would be going on board to meet with the seafarers and seek after their wellbeing. And if they need to come out of the port, we bring them to the centre. So, we need to fix this centre and put all the facilities in place that would be good for the centre and make the seafarers feel at home before they go back.

We are planning on regular ship visit. We have started with physical training and 13 priests have been trained for the purpose.

Our plan is to ensure we go on board every week. There would be a roster to ensure we are able to meet up with a weekly activity.

As volunteer ship visitors, we have planned to train those who are ordained priests and those who are Laity and not ordained. We started with the ordained priests because they are always available for the call to service. We know that seafarers go through a lot spiritually, physically, psychologically. So they need prayers and support… they need people to support them and just listen to them. As far as they are seafarers, we do not think of whatever religion they practice, we give them the support that they need.