The Columbia Group is taking its humanitarian assistance programme for Ukraine one step further, launching a long-term scheme to assist traumatised seafarers and their families.
“We’re here for the long term not for the short term,” the company’s chief executive officer Mark O’Neil told the TradeWinds Shipowners Forum in Athens on Tuesday.
Columbia already spent $1m last year on immediate Ukraine relief, setting up two sanctuary hotels in Poland and Romania to host seafarer refugees and their families.
As that program expired and refugees moved on to their countries of choice, however, that programme wound down, leaving Columbia wondering what to do next.
“I said, ‘I don’t care what we do, but we have to do something worthwhile’,” O’Neil told TradeWinds on the sidelines of the conference.
The answer was an idea to set up an International Maritime Rehabilitation Centre. “This will be for all seafarers, not just Columbia seafarers,” O’Neil said.
Columbia will spend $500,000 to get the scheme rolling.
In cooperation with longstanding partners Mental Health Support Solutions (MHSS), Columbia plans to set up treatment infrastructure in Germany, Poland and Ukraine.
Initially, children and their families will be financially assisted to see the doctors. The hope is that as other companies chip in, more permanent structures can be set up to help seafarers and their families overcome their traumas.
“This will not be just a visit and a counsel session,” O’Neil said.
“Watch this space and all of you please, support this work,” he added.
