Mental health and stress training upgraded for world’s biggest supplier of seafarers – as ITF expands global wellbeing programme.
Filipino seafarers will now benefit from enhanced mental health and wellbeing training from Philippine maritime faculties thanks to a new partnership with the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF).
The ITF and the Philippine Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA), a government agency of the Philippines, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) at the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in London, this week.
Under the partnership, maritime academies in the Philippines, the world’s biggest supplier of seafarers, will incorporate a new module into their curricula on “Mental Health and Stress: Understanding Early Managements and Coping”.
ITF General Secretary, Stephen Cotton, said: “We’re delighted to finalise this agreement with the Government of the Philippines. It will help ensure Filipino seafarers receive the critical mental health and stress management training we all now recognise as vital to wellbeing.
“Seafaring is immensely rewarding – not only for those who dedicate their lives to this vital work, but for the world they keep moving. Few nations contribute more to this than the Philippines. But, at the same time, seafaring can be an extraordinarily demanding job, and that’s exactly why the ITF is forging ground-breaking agreements like this with the world’s leading seafaring nations.”
Sonia B Malaluan, Administrator of MARINA, signed the new agreement alongside John Canias, Maritime Operations Coordinator at the ITF. The ITF’s seafarer union affiliates in the Philippines, the Associated Marine Officers’ and Seamen’s Union of the Philippines (AMOSUP), and the Associated Philippine Seafarers’ Union (APSU), are witnesses to the agreement.
She said the MoU – and parallel agreements the Philippines has struck with Georgia, Latvia, the International Chamber of Shipping and Lloyd’s Register – marks “the beginning of even stronger partnerships that will benefit not only the Filipino seafarers but the maritime industry as a whole”.
The Philippines has an estimated 800,000 seafarers. Last September, the Government passed the Magna Carta of Filipino Seafarers which strengthens the rights and protections of Filipino seafarers locally and globally.
Addressing the event, Teodoro Locsin Jr, Philippine Ambassador to the UK, said the Magna Carta “embodies the Philippines’ strong commitment to safeguarding the rights of our seafarers and promoting their wellbeing”.
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Media contact: Rosalyn Smith, smith_rosalyn@itf.org.uk, +44 7522 229623
Notes
- Under the terms of the MoU, the ITF and the Philippines will collaborate in training and capacity building to enhance the knowledge and skills of maritime faculties in areas related to seafarers’ mental health and wellbeing. They will also undertake collaborative research projects and initiatives focused on occupational health, safety and wellbeing within the Philippines maritime sector.
- It states that the two parties will “… establish cooperation in the training programs for faculty members of maritime academies in the Philippines. These programs will incorporate a module The Parties aimed to promote the wellbeing of Filipino seafarers through this initiative and other related activities.”
- The ITF–Philippines MoU builds on similar partnerships the ITF has developed with Indonesia, India and training undertaken in Romania for ten maritime universities from seven Black Sea countries (Albania, Bulgaria, Georgia, Montenegro, Romania, Turkey and Ukraine).
