Seafarers need your help 

For over 10 years Great Yarmouth Port has been without a seafarers centre and, with an expected growth in vessels visiting the port, crewed by all nationalities, there is now a need for a new centre to act as a base to complement the Port Chaplain’s work, but more importantly to be known as somewhere seafarers can visit for information, use technology to contact home or for use as a meeting place

To that end a trust has been formed with a few likeminded people from industry as well as the community to start that process and they are very fortunate to have been offered premises on the quayside by EastPort at a peppercorn rent.  There is a requirement to carry out some significant refurbishment and, whilst EastPort have kindly offered to take responsibility for the works to the exterior of the building, the trust has to completely refurbish the interior

They have been in discussion with the Great Yarmouth College of Further Education who has offered to use their apprentices and trainees from the building and construction side to carry out the design and repairs at no cost for labour, however the trust will have to pay for the materials and fitting out, etc and the estimate for this is £10,000 and have to raise this money before they can commit to making a start

It is on this point, they are asking you to help through this initial stage by supporting this new project which will not only provide a base for the 1,000’s of seafarers that are expected to come through the port in the coming years but will also provide a real project for construction students from the local college

Time is of the essence and they remain confident that they will end up with a facility that will be welcomed by many of the 1.3 million seafarers who crew the merchant fleet.  Please please do give this your urgent consideration

If you are inspired by this project and are able to donate, please make cheques payable to Great Yarmouth Seafarers Centre and send to Rev Peter Paine, Port Chaplain, c/o First Move Furnishaid Ltd, Artillery Square, Great Yarmouth, NR30 2LR

Please also make contact if you are able to help as a volunteer - there are so many roles needed, your skills will certainly be needed to  enable this valuable centre to function