UKP&I has a long history of supporting maritime charities, particularly those that help to improve the health and wellbeing of seafarers. Many of these charitable initiatives link with our own work in support of crew health.

Details of some of the charities we support are set out here. To find out more, please contact our Sustainability Director.

The Club has a long relationship with the Mission to Seafarers. We partnered with the charity to launch its WeCare programme to promote seafarer wellbeing, both on board and at home, through a mix of online and face-to-face training courses. We have funded this programme since 2019 and almost 100,000 seafarers and their families can now access the programme.

We also helped fund the Mission’s Flying Angels campaign, which aimed to mitigate the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on seafarers.

The Club has funded several Sailors’ Society projects over the years. We currently support the charity’s Crisis Response Network, a network of trained crisis responders who counsel seafarers and their families after a traumatic event such as piracy. The network also assists ship owners and crew managers in designing and implementing response plans for different types of crises to limit the mental harm experienced by crews and their families.

Stella Maris chaplains and volunteers typically make over 500 visits a year to our Members’ ships to provide practical and pastoral support to seafarers of all nationalities and faiths. We are currently supporting the charity’s newly established centre in Poland for Ukrainian seafarers and their families seeking refuge from the Ukraine war.

The Club is a supporting member of the International Seafarers’ Welfare and Assistance Network (ISWAN). The charity focuses on promoting and supporting the welfare of seafarers. We have provided both financial and practical support to ISWAN, including through sponsorship and support for crew seminars.

The Club has made significant donations to medical charity Mercy Ships over recent years, primarily for fitting out its new hospital ship Global Mercy. Our contributions included a crew social lounge, medical beds and eye-care clinics for what is the world’s largest civilian hospital ship. Together with its sister ship Africa Mercy, Global Mercy is now delivering free healthcare around the world to people most in need.

Named after the year of the first America’s Cup race, the 1851 Trust aims to engage young people with the cutting-edge technologies developed in sailing, and how these technologies can contribute to real-world challenges. We contributed to the charity’s maritime roadshows for girls, an initiative to inspire young women into science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers.