Adopt A Ship. Please tell us what is the idea and what are your plans for the next year?
Am happy to share with you the amazing concept behind Adopt a Ship.
Adopt a Ship is the best educational (extra-curricular) program about life at sea and the shipping industry for children, running in its 4th school semester already and even thru the pandemic, quite successfully, in the nation’s Greek Elementary school system!
The concept, created by a Cypriot seafaring Captain, and running in Cyprus for over 12 years, is to pro- vide children with direct insight into the industry by connecting their classroom with a seagoing vessel. The children and their teacher compose e-mails in English that Captains enthusiastically respond reflecting their passion for their job and the trade.
Adopt a Ship offers the chance to children to recognize the importance of the shipping industry in their lives, empathy for the seafarer, commerce, English writing, team building, and geography (amongst many other) as they follow the ship and pin it on the large route map, we provide them.
Adopt a Ship is the best sustainability tool for our shipping industry, as captains directly plant the seed of maritime knowledge into the young minds and become their role models. Three little captains “wan- na be” already emerged from a Skype communication between a Sea Traders vessel and pupils from American Community School this year.
Our non-profit organization, PROJECT CONNECT, has been given the privilege to introduce it to the Hellenic Ministry of Education and we manage it with pride for our industry and within our scope to offer opportunities of knowledge to young people that we see as professionals in-the-making -- the next generation work-force that needs cultivating from now.
Endorsed by the IMO, this maritime education program is running worldwide and in Greece began with 7 vessels in 7 classrooms, in Piraeus, Spetses, Hydra in 2019.
Currently, we are managing 65 vessels for 65 classrooms, all over Greece. Our plans are to reach 500 classrooms, add Jr High School grades and take it abroad, in the coming years.
We are grateful to all the Founder Members for their support; and the ship owners, captains and crew, principals, teachers and pupils and parents who love this program! I thank my voluntary team and my employees who dedicated themselves to help me plant this concept in Greece.
We reap what we sow.
* Managing Director Prime’s Bunkersplus Services and Founder and Director of PROJECT CONNECT/Adopt a Ship Hellas.
The answer was provided for NAFS magazine issue 143 in its special report “WOMEN in SHEPPING”