Angel Appeal receives US$ 200,000 grant from ITF

"Thanks to the ITF's grant - the largest donation so far to the Angel appeal - we now have 80 per cent of the cost and are working hard to find the other $200,000," said the Mission's Dubai chaplain Stephen Miller.

The "Angel", named after The Mission to Seafarers' flying angel emblem, is taking shape at the Albwardy Marine shipyard in Dubai. It is expected to go into service early next year. It will be used to visit many of the 140,000 seafarers on 6,500 ships that each year wait at anchorages off the east coast of the United Arab Emirates.

The "Angel" will have email and telephone facilities to enable seafarers to call home; a medical clinic with paramedic on board; a welfare officer able to help seafarers with problems and book and DVD libraries. "It will be a home-from-home for the seafarers who are unable to come ashore and whose ships may not have the facilities on board that we take for granted," says Stephen.

"Using a boat to reach seafarers on ships may not be a new idea but the way this project was planned and carried out was something special," said David Cockcroft, General Secretary of the ITF. "Seafarers here are now going to benefit from a whole range of services where before there was nothing."

Donors to the Mission's 150th anniversary "Angel" project, include the National Bank of Dubai and the Dubai branch of the Nautical Institute, as well as individuals and companies representing many nationalities and faiths in the UAE. Many maritime companies are making donations of equipment from engines to navigational aids and anti-fouling paint. To ensure the annual running costs of US$250,000, the Mission is asking 250 companies and individuals to each donate £1,000 a year.

Stephen said that the Angel project had "caught the imagination of both Islamic and Christian people in the Gulf" and had received widespread support in the United Arab Emirates. The Mission to Seafarers has recently become a legal entity in Dubai as a Free Zone Company in recognition of its work there over the last 40 years.