UAE Charity ship helps traumatized Pinoy seamen

Filipino seamen traumatized over incidents at sea in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are getting much wanted help from a Dubai charity headed by an Anglican priest. A result on UAE based Khaleej Times said the charity, “Angel Appeal," has helped many Filipino seamen, special those whose vessels are stranded off Fujairah.“It is an unnatural position, where they are concered onboard a ship with nothing to do and miles from their families. In many cases, people become lonely and depressed. It can be torture for them," said Stephen Miller, the Anglican priest who heads the charity, in the result. Some of the Filipino beneficiaries were crewmembers of the “Heredia Sea," whose Filipino chief engineer committed suicide last Christmas. Many of the crew had been at sea for nine months, detached from their families, with the compass of their daily lives limited by the amenities onboard the ship.“We all thought that we were to blame. I had to see a psychologist," said Jay Martin, a 29 year old sailor from the Philippines onboard the ship.The “Angel Appeal" operates the charity ship “Flying Angel," which provides Internet access and phones for sailors to call their loved ones back home.“Emotional exchanges on webcam or on the phone are commonplace on board the Angel, as sailors exchange tresured words of consolation with their wives and children," the report said.Among the ship’s more current beneficiaries were the mostly Filipino crewmembers of the “Taxiarchis 1," a Panamanian registered oil tanker operated by Greek firm AK Shipping and Trading.The mostly Filipino crew were visibly elated at being able to use the Internet, phone, and buy supplies from the shop onboard the charity ship.“When you become a seaman, you sacrifice your freedom for your family," said Captain Rene Maloto, who acknowledged that the “Flying Angel" plays a vital role in boosting morale of the crew.He said the ship is like a floating prison, particularly when there is no work and they cannot go out on shore.“You can become very depressed and very lonely. This is why this ship is important because it provides a place where sailors can get in touch with their families. Then we are reminded that the money we send back home is being used to pay for our children through college. It’s then that it looks worth it," he added. Maloto said that the average crew salary is around 3,600 dirham (P46,751) a month, most of which are sent home as sailors rarely had the chance to go ashore.Many of the other crew members visited by the “Flying Angel" had not been paid for months.Miller said that the worst case he had seen was of a crew who had not been paid for four years.“In cases like those, we provide the crew with food and water every day. However sometimes we have to get their passports back from their employers and buy them a plane ticket home," he said. Miller said that more than 10 percent of ships in the Middle East region were in a similar situation, as falling rates of shipping due to the financial crisis affected the ability of operators’ to pay their crews.“When they are cutting budgets, oftentimes the first thing to go is usually the salary of the crew," he said. Because the sailors do not have UAE visas, they are not protected by the country’s labor laws and often have little power to negotiate with their bosses, Miller said. The costs of maintaining the Flying Angel which runs 11 hours a day, seven days a week amounts to around 2,750 dirhams (P35,713) a day.To make ends meet, the charity arranges fundraising activities the latest which saw a group of 16 hike up to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa. Alexi Trenouth, a key fundraiser at the charity, said that they hoped to raise 1.5 dirhams (P19.48) million this year, but a lot would depend on the goodwill of UAE residents.“These people bring in 99.3 percent of the goods we have in this country. They provide the clothes we wear and the food we eat," she said.According to the Department of Foreign Affairs, there are about 350,000 Filipino seafarers deployed all over the world, most of them on board ships that transit African waters, specialy the Gulf of Aden in the Horn of Africa