Singapore Maritime Officers Union celebrates 70th anniversary

The 70^th anniversary of SMOU fell in 2021, however, celebrations were delayed until 2022 due to the pandemic, with a dinner held on Saturday and graced by guest-of-honour Singapore President, Madam Halimah Yacob, with special guest National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) Secretary-General, Ng Chee Meng.  

The dinner was themed “because of you” around the union’s members and partners.

In a welcome address Mary Liew, Secretary-General of SMOU said, “Today at our Gala Dinner celebration, we want to acknowledge that it is Because of You, our members, and tripartite, shipping and international partners, that we have been able to come this long way from 1951.”

The SMOU took the occasion to launch the WeCare programme for seafarers’ mental health. Under the programme SMOU is partnering with the Mission to Seafarers (MTS) to offer two mental wellbeing courses to members.

“The pandemic had tremendous impact on workers, especially our seafarers. The reality of mental health became more apparent and prominent amongst our sea-going workers, where many had to fight the battle of the mind,” Liew said.

“Stigma surrounding mental health has been reduced in recent times, and there is an increasing need to address this issue amongst seafarers.”

The courses will be available remotely enabling access for seafarers at any time and location.

Related:Mission to Seafarers re-opens Singapore drop-in centre

SMOU also presented cheques of SGD170,000 each to the Mission to Seafarers Singapore and NTUC health.

The funds donated to MTSS will go towards supporting its local operations in Singapore including two drop-in centres.

The generous donation that SMOU has made will enable MTSS to reach out to more seafarers at our ports, so that MTSS can continue to cater welfare services at our drop-in centres, extend help to sea-going workers at our ports and be a refuge and safe haven for them,” said MTSS chairman Rob Walker.

The donation to NTUC Health will go towards the recently completed renovation of the Senior Activity Centre (Bukit Merah View) part of the Henderson Senior Citizen Home adopted by SMOU since the 1980s.

Some SGD210,000 will also be disbursed to members of SMOU to help cushion the effects of inflation.