Dohle Seafront Family Programme
Döhle Seafront Crewing (Manila) Inc.
INTRODUCTION
The Family Programme of Dohle Seafront rests on the fact that the underlying reason for a seafarer’s choice of a maritime career overseas is the welfare of his family. Conversely, family separation is one of the highest onboard stressor for the seafarers. Anchored strongly in fostering the well-being of the seafarers and their family, the programme has taken off successfully with its strong emphasis on family, health, and financial management.Introduced in 2014, the programme is a key pillar in seafarer engagement. It strategically pushes to equip the seafarer and his spouse with marriage and parenting skills that will empower them to become effective parents despite the seafarer’s work condition of prolonged separation from family, constant high stress, and high risk. Invariably, Dohle Seafront attempts to address the gap in training to assist seafarers to better function within their family structures while separated from loved ones back home.
FRAMEWORK AND STRATEGY
Dohle Seafront partnered with their collaborative partner Pinoy Educhild, which employs the case method of instruction based upon the belief that parenting is an acquired skill rather than a collection of techniques and concepts. The best way to learn these skills is to experience it through simulation of real family situation. Very much like a ship bridge or engine simulator, the objective of the case method is to present as many different “real life scenarios” to the participants.Dohle Seafront managed to expand the Family Programme into the following strategies: Beyond I Do, a 2-night seminar for husband and wife to take a closer look at their marriage; increasing access by holding the programme in different venues in the Philippines; including key topics and workshops on financial management, health and wellness.
ACHIEVEMENT AND IMPACT
The management has been continuously working on measuring the impact of the Family Programme on the seafarer’s families by taking note of attendees’ feedbacks, including what topics and areas they want to learn more about, and implementing developed improvements on the project. Since its inception, the Family Programme has had approximately 2,800 attendees in all seminars and workshop conducted with an average of 96% in satisfaction rating.Collated feedbacks have been very encouraging with topics centered on the importance of trust, communication and managing one’s family when the other half of the parent is away. The programme should be continued and should add more related topics not tackled or considered during its pilot run and these suggestions are used in strategic programme planning for the following year. Dohle Seafront received the Asia CEO Award for Heart for Overseas Filipino Workers Company of the Year in 2018 for having produced a positive and significant effect to Filipino overseas foreign workers and their families.
FUTURE DIRECTION
The trainings and activities under the Family Programme have managed to garner such positive response from all those who were able to participate, thus the company vowed to continue developing more related projects and undertakings to be able to strengthen the bond not just with the seafarers, but also with the families who benefit greatly from the courses and seminars. For its future activities, Dohle Seafront will be working closely with Pinoy EduChild; expanding its parenting modules from 6 to 8 modules with focus on seeing children as future adults and important members of the society. The Family Programme also started its strong focus on health management to prevent lifestyle illnesses and to focus on mental health in support of the company’s loss prevention campaign in partnership with Didoy Lubaton, MD.
Dohle Seafront Crewing (Manila) Inc. is a maritime manning agency providing excellent and quality crewing services to Peter Dohle Companies and directly to other international ship owners and ship managers globally.
