Day and night, the Mission is on call for seafarers in over 200 ports worldwide. Seafarers seek our assistance because all too often they have nowhere else to turn. Our chaplains send in stories about the seafarers they meet every day, and each one gives a snapshot of the kinds of challenges and trauma seafarers face, and how our teams around the world support them.
In 2017 the Mission made 65,000 ship visits, encountering approximately 325,000 seafarers on board their ships. 580,000 seafarers visited our 121 seafarers’ centres. Our chaplains transported 430,000 seafarers from ship to shore locations and we worked on 895 justice, welfare and medical cases.
Our top priority is that seafarers and their families feel 100% safe in our care, and they are confident that our professional port chaplaincy teams are highly skilled at bringing help when needed.
For the Mission and our centres, the Seafarers Happiness Index provides a great opportunity to ensure that we are giving seafarers what they want and need. It also means we can measure effectiveness, and continue to deliver the life changing and supporting services which we have do in so many ports, for so many seafarers over so many years.