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Sailors’ Society aids world’s wettest school run

Sailors’ Society aids world’s wettest school run
Children from seafaring communities on five islets in the Philippines will no longer have to wade or swim through the sea just to get to school, thanks to Sailors’ Society charity of the UK.

The Southampton-based organisation has funded two motorised boats each able to carry up to 30 children attending school in Sulangan, as part of its mission to help seafarers and their families.

Before the boats arrived the children would either have to wade or at high tide swim through the sea, be carried on their parents’ backs or miss school altogether unless a local fisherman’s boat was available to borrow.

“Thanks to these boats, the children of Sulangan Integrated School no longer face an exhausting, dangerous journey every morning,” said Sandra Welch, deputy ceo and director of programme for Sailors’ Society. “The worst thing most of us face on the school run is a bit of traffic, so it’s hard to believe that there are children who have to swim through the sea just to get an education.”

Sailors’ Society supports seafarers and their families around the world with everything from building new homes to providing computers for schools, and has more than 100 chaplains and ship visitors working across 87 ports.

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TAGS: Regions