The Mission to Seafarers (MTS), Lagos, an international non-governmental organisation, has assisted over 200 seafarer in the last one year.
Chief Adebayo Sarumi, Chairman, Mission to Seafarers, said this on Sunday at the 2023 Annual Sea Sunday Service of the mission held in Lagos.
The service had the theme: “The Importance of Seafarers to our Well-being and Global Economy.”
Sarumi said that the seafarers centre was undergoing renovation at the moment but needed more attention, modification and innovation to be able to receive seafarers.
He listed the services rendered by the MTS to the seafarers as: legal advocacy, spiritual, physical, psychological support and other.
Sarumi stated that the services helped to calm the storm in the seafarers’ lives.
“The mission to seafarers is open to all religious beliefs, all nations, gender and colour and they need assistance due to the type of environment they operate in.
“In addition to physical danger due to travel by sea, they are also in danger of suicide, long voyage without shore leaves, psychological illness, piracy and armed attack and others.
“We provide home from home for seafarers or a safe transit point when they leave the vessel, attend to their welfare so that they can maintain our way of life and needs.
“With over 3,000 ships visiting Lagos, the centre is strategic to seafarers support and so the need to pay attention to upgrading the centre,” he said.
He called for support in providing vehicles to visit the ship and bringing the seafarers out of their enclaves, provide them means of communication with their families, relief when stranded in foreign countries.
Contributing, Rev. Bimbo Aduroja, Chaplain, MTS, said that between last year and this year, they were able to go for regular ship visiting, meeting the seafarers, going on board and asking after their wellbeing.
According to Aduroja, when they go on-board, their major target are foreign seafarers visiting the country from different part of the world such as China, Australia and others.
He noted that the ongoing renovation work at the centre was through the intervention of their chairman and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).
“Between two to three months, the centre will be ready. This is the first stage, renovation of the building, swimming pool. We still have empty lands that we want to work on,” he said.
Also, Rev. Emmanuel Ilori, the Assistant Chaplain, MTS, said that the issue of shore leave was a global problem.
Ilori noted that it was the reason they bring them ashore to have a change, break from the stressful environment where they live.
“The shore leave is a serious and global problem because we find out that some nations do not allow seafarers to go ashore.
“You can imagine working in that stressful environment and you just want to take a break from the ship and you are not allowed to.
“In Nigeria, we make sure we go to see them and there is an advocacy with government to ensure that Nigeria is a leading nation that attend to visiting seafarers.
“With the upgrading at our centre, it will ensure that Nigeria plays a major role in attending to challenges of seafarers,” he said.
Earlier, Rt. Rev. Olusola Odedeji, Supervising Bishop, Diocese of Lagos, Church of Nigeria Anglican Communion, in his sermon urged the Lagos State Government to ensure that the mission to seafarers get the needed assistance, support in carrying out their mandate.
Odedeji noted that caring for seafarers had to do with preaching and proclaiming the word of God and live out the life of Christ so that more souls would be cared for.
According to Odedeji, mission is the heartbeat of God and has to do with touching lives, reaching the unreachable and others.
“It is of necessity to care for seafarers because it’s a command from God to go and teach all nations, a crown will be won and God will ask one what he did with his life,” Odedeji said.
Also speaking, Mrs Vicky Haastrup, the Executive Vice Chairman ENL Consortium, operators of Terminal C and D in Apapa, appealed to terminal operators to assist the Mission to Seafarers (MTS) in the renovation of its centre.
Haastrup, also Chairman, Seaport Terminal Operators Association of Nigeria said terminal operators’ help in the restructuring of the MTS office in Lagos would ensure that seafarers coming into the country had a conducive environment to stay.
“This call is a noble one, it’s a cause that all of us terminal operators must rise up to support. It’s fair to support the mission to seafarers.
“This is a day the Anglican Church worldwide remembers seafarers.
“This is a very noble cause because everybody forget that there are people who suffer day and night to bring cargo to different ports of the world.
“Without import, there cannot be infrastructure development and these are people who spend as long as three months at sea, away from their families, some of them six months as the case may be,” she said.
Haastrup noted that seafarers suffer a lot.
“Sometimes, they fall sick, and suffer piracy attack. We know how it was when some of us are away from our families and you are at sea, with turbulence, day-in day-out.
“It is really very good to have a programme like this, a day set aside where they are remembered for the wonderful work they are doing across the port of the world, bringing cargo to various ports, more than 50 destinations of the world.
“People do forget that these people make a lot of sacrifices, so this is a day they are remembered, they are prayed for,” she said.
Haastrup noted that there are countries where seafarers well-being are carterred for, they get help, get off the ship and go into the city, get to places they could unwind.
She said that this would make them come alive, as most times, they are mentally affected with the longer period they stay on board a vessel.
“This is a call to duty, port operators across the world, Nigeria for example should be sensitised on the need to support this mission.
“The mission needs money to survive, give the seafarers the support both psychologically or otherwise. And so I want to appeal to my colleagues to stand up to this call and support this mission,” she said.
