The ITF Seafarers Trust is primarily a grant making organisation, working with organisations that support the welfare of seafarers and other maritime workers.
Our objectives include:
- Resourcing welfare organisations to provide port-based and onboard services, including access to communication facilities, shore leave and shore-based recreation and support services
- Building seafarers’ unions’ capacity to deliver member services specifically around welfare and wellbeing
- Supporting initiatives around occupational safety and health on board and in ports, and around medical services for seafarers, including mental health and wellbeing
- Supporting improvements to regulation and practice and building capacity to effectively implement maritime regulation
- Providing support to seafarers and their families in emergency situations
- Telling and sharing seafarers’ stories within and beyond the maritime sector, raising the profile of seafarers as key workers in the global economy
We achieve these objectives by:
- Making grants to organisations and working with partners who are providing frontline support to seafarers in ports, on board and at home
- Funding and commissioning research to support improvements in seafarers’ wellbeing, health and safety
- Funding scholarship programmes with the World Maritime University (WMU) and the International Maritime Law Institute (IMLI), and providing operational support to organisations such as Seafarers’ Rights International (SRI) and the International Seafarers Welfare Assistance Network (ISWAN)
- Working to enhance cooperation and coordination between organisations and individuals that share our goals.
- Initiating our own projects such as OSHports and Life At Sea.
For examples of projects funded by the Trust see News & Press