Around a third of the world’s seafarers are from the Philippines, far more than any other maritime nation. Imagine being thousands of miles away when the storm hit. Imagine not knowing if your wife, your husband, your children or your parents made it out alive. This is the reality for a huge number of people from the Philippines, who find themselves in foreign ports, or on foreign waters, without access to communication facilities and with no-one to turn to in their fear and worry.

Sailors’ Society's global Chaplains are on the ground helping to connect Filipino seafarers to their loved ones back at home. Ailton de Souza, our chaplain in Brazil, helped one ship’s crew to call home: After I had managed to connect one seafarer with his wife back in the Philippines, he said that despite the fact he had lost his house, he felt better. He had learned that his wife and daughters were in a safe place. He said: “Lives are more important. As for the house, we can build another"