The Panama Maritime Authority (AMP) received the visit of the Secretary General of the Mission to Seafarers (MtS) and the Secretary General of the Deutsche Seemannsmission (DSM) Rev. Canon Andrew Wright as well as Rev. Matthias Ristau, respectively, in order to discuss future joint projects to improve the well-being and conditions of seafarers.
The Director of the General Directorate for Seafarers (DGGM) of the AMP, Captain Juan Maltez, was in charge of receiving this important international delegation in his office, in which the DSM port Chaplain, Andrea Meenken, the Chaplain MtS port manager as well as MtS Regional Director for Latin America, Father Ian Hutchinson Cervantes, participated.
Captain Maltez pointed out that the DGGM feels honored for the collaboration, camaraderie, friendship, and mutual commitment shown toward these important international organizations that ensure the well-being and pastoral care of seafarers, reinforced during the most difficult months of the COVID -19 pandemic, the institution's commitment to continue working hand in hand, always offering a comprehensive vision, not only of the physical well-being but also the emotional, psychological and spiritual well-being of seafarers.
At the end of 2019, an Agreement Renewal was carried out, reinforcing the links established between both entities where a support framework is set, through which help is provided, encouraging and promoting the provision of welfare services for seafarers.
In this regard, the request of both organizations was met, to add a Filipino priest to their team in order to provide support to Asian seamen, who represent an important crew on ships that transit through the Canal and ports of Panama, whose interoceanic highway unites more than 140 maritime routes, connecting 1,700 ports and 160 countries.
“Mission to Seafarers (MtS) and Deutsche Seemannsmission (DSM) are 2 sister mission agencies that share with AMP the common interest of working for the welfare and care of seafarers, who are the people who work on ships and makes international trade possible. That is why we want to deepen our relations with the AMP, where we already have an MOU and during the COVID-19 pandemic they helped us manage the needs of seafarers, such as safe-conduct for port facilities, health care, vaccines and above all, their support for seafarers so that they could carry out crew changes in Panama, being one of the first countries where this could be achieved”, indicated Father Ian Hutchinson Cervantes.
The Mission to Seafarers is a global charity, whose objectives and goals are to provide for the moral, physical and spiritual well-being of seafarers and their families throughout the world while operating in two hundred (200) ports in fifty (50) countries, offering a range of services, among which are, visiting seafarers on their ships to offer them assistance, access to communication, transport from the ship to the city, counseling services, spiritual support and well-being.
The German Seamen's Mission (DSM) with its international office in Hamburg is one of the oldest organizations of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD). Since the mid-19th century, the DSM has provided pastoral care and social work to seafarers from around the world on ships, seamens' clubs, and sailors' houses on various continents. The work is carried out regardless of the origin and religion of the ship's crews.
