MtS Sydney recognised for acclaimed crew vaccination program

MISSION to Seafarers Sydney has been recognised for its contribution to the crew vaccination program that earned DCN’s Seafarers Welfare Award last year.

The award itself was presented to Peter Ernst, head of regional ports at Port Authority of New South Wales and Wayne Ashton, port operations manager at NSW Ports at the 2021 DCN Australian Shipping & Maritime Industry Awards (held in February of this year).

The award recognised the work of Mr Ernst and Mr Ashton in developing a state-wide, co-ordinated approach to vaccinating international seafarers across New South Wales ports, a model that was soon replicated in Victoria and elsewhere in Australia.

But the award recipients promptly requested the prize money be passed along to the charity they felt deserved the praise for the initiative.

Reverend Un Tay, principal chaplain and CEO of Mission to Seafarers Sydney, accepted the cheque at the Sydney mission centre on Monday 19 September.

The project involved converting a 25-seater bus into a mobile clinic to deliver COVID-19 vaccinations to seafarers in port.

Rev Tay told DCN Mission to Seafarers Sydney is still providing crew vaccinations even as the pandemic situation improves.

“We continue to roll out vaccinations for them even though [demand] is slowing down,” he said.

“During the period before April and May we had vaccinated over 2000 seafarers … when [seafarers request vaccinations] we continue to roll out the vaccinations for them, and we think we will continue until the end of the year.”

Rev Tay said demand has been slowing down in recent months as many visiting seafarers have now received the full dose of vaccine.

On receiving the award earlier this year, Peter Ernst told DCN several parties were involved in the program, such as NSW Health and other port stakeholders.

Mission to Seafarers Sydney was a highly commended runner up for the Seafarers Welfare Award along with Mission to Seafarers Melbourne and Daphne Colefax, who spent countless hours knitting more than 1000 beanies to keep seafarers warm at sea.

The 2022 Seafarers Welfare Award was sponsored by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority and the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications.

Nominations are now open for the 27^th annual DCN Australian Shipping & Maritime Industry Awards. Head to the DCN Awards webpage for detailed information on how to nominate and for a list of categories.