Maritime
Credits : ilo.org
Typhoon Haiyan aftermath
in Tacloban, Philippines,
Nov. 2013
ISWAN Award winner:
"The Maritime Labour
Convention is essential
to prevent abuses"
J
Chaplain Jasper del Rosario
asper del Rosario is one of the winners of this year’s ISWAN
2018 Awards recognizing the work of those offering outstanding
welfare services to seafarers. Before receiving his prize at the
ILO headquarters, he talked to ILO News about his actions to
promote seafarers’ welfare in the Philippines.
Chaplain Jasper del Rosario, 41, had nothing in his back-
ground that was supposed to lead him to get involved in the
welfare of seafarers.
“I always thought I would be a minister in a traditional way,
except for one thing. I am Filipino and about one third of the seafarers worldwide
happen to come from the Philippines,” he told us as he was waiting to receive the
2018 International Seafarers’ Welfare Awards in the “Dr Dierk Lindemann Welfare
Personality of the Year” category.
An international jury selected del Rosario among other individuals, companies,
and organizations offering exceptional levels of welfare services and facilities to
seafarers. The annual event is organized by the International Seafarers Welfare and
Assistance Network (ISWAN). He received his Award from ILO Deputy Director-General
Greg Vines on the sidelines of the Third Meeting of the Special Tripartite Committee
of the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 (MLC, 2006).
Del Rosario’s involvement with seafarers began when he started to work for
the Christian NGO “Sailors’ Society” in the major port of Subic Bay, 100 km north of
Manila.
“I quickly came to know the difficult working conditions many seafarers face.
They usually go into this career because of family tradition, for the prospect of
getting a regular salary to support their families and send their children to school,”
he explains.
“It means not only a lot of hard work, but also enduring loneliness and separa-
tion from their loved ones for six or nine months, or longer.”
Supporting Haiyan’s victims
Filipino seafarers are used to living away from their families. However, when
natural disasters strike the Philippines, they are also particularly affected. This was
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the case when typhoon Haiyan hit the area of Tacloban in November 2013, killing
more than 6,000 people and leaving millions without food, shelter or livelihoods.
Typhoon Haiyan aftermath in Tacloban, Philippines, Nov. 2013 “As soon as it
became possible to reach the city, I travelled to Tacloban to provide support to the
seafarers’ community,” del Rosario explains.
This was a huge task since he and his team had to take care of three different
categories of people.
“First, we had to provide immediate support to the wives and children of seafarers
who were at work on ships miles away from the Philippines and sometimes even
not aware of the tragic events affecting their hometown,” he recalls.
The problem was also to locate the families since there was no local record of
seafarers’ families. So del Rosario had to go door to door asking people if they had
neighbours who were seafarers.
Then, together with other local NGOs, he helped them rebuilt their homes,
provided them with emergency cash to buy food, and gave them business grants
to help them start a new life. In some cases, small fishing boats were also provided
to those in need.
As news of the disaster spread, del Rosario’s global NGO network also provided
psychosocial support to Filipino seafarers from the Tacloban area who sometimes
did not even know if their families were still alive. They were given free phone
cards to call home as telecommunications started working again.
Del Rosario also had to help seafarers from mainly domestic vessels which had
been destroyed by the powerful storm, sometimes pushed to the shore and ending
up in the middle of the streets. Some died, and many of the survivors, needed
basic support after losing their homes to the storm.
Reuniting families
Since then, life slowly went back to normal in Tacloban. So del Rosario went
back to his usual activities for Filipino seafarers whose ships dock at the Port of
Subic Bay.
“We set up counselling sessions on different topics. We also try to reunite them
with their loved ones by arranging free transportation for their families as they do
not necessarily have the money to travel to Subic Bay especially if their families
live far away,” he explains.
More recently, del Rosario also provided support to Filipino seafarers on an
abandoned ship in Malta, by helping their families, sending them some money
and giving scholarship grants for their children.
Part of the community
Del Rosario now feels fully part of the Filipino seafarers’ community.
When asked about the ILO’s Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 that entered
into force in 2013, he says it has become an essential legal instrument to prevent
abuses and promote a better life for seafarers.
The MLC, 2006 sets out seafarers’ rights to decent conditions of work and helps
to create conditions of fair competition for shipowners.
Other winners of the ISWAN 2018 Awards included the Port of Rotterdam (Port of
the Year), Mission to Seafarers Brisbane, Australia (Seafarers’ Centre of the Year),Wallem
(Shipping Company of the Year). A Posthumous Award for Outstanding Service to
Seafarers’ Welfare was also given to Joseph Chacko and Leena Joseph. ilo.org