This year, as always, the annual Day of the Seafarer (DotS) will be celebrated on 25 June. Throughout 2019 there will be a strong emphasis on the importance and value of women within the professional ranks.
Much of this is being driven by the World Maritime Day theme: Empowering Women in the Maritime Community, which has a very strong and far-reaching resonance.
It provides an opportunity to highlight opportunities for women (as well as the contributions they are already making) in a wide range of maritime careers and professions, but the focus will be very firmly on one aspect of that community – seafarers.
IMO said.
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As in previous years, the campaign will be centred on social media. All IMO’s social media platforms are likely to feature, with Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounting for most activity. This year, the campaign hashtag is: #IAmOnBoard. The hashtag can be used by anyone taking part in the campaign, male or female, to show their solidarity for gender equality in seafaring.
IMO will also have downloadable cards bearing the hashtag, the SDG 5 icon and the Day of the Seafarer logo. It will also invite all campaign supporters to take selfies or other photographs which include the card and to post them on social media with the hashtag.
In addition, a more specific and targeted element of the overall campaign will be ‘Make one change’.
Namely, IMO will invite campaign participants to think about what they would do if they were able to make just one change to improve diversity in seafaring.
We will develop an interactive on-line space in which participants’ responses can be submitted and captured
IMO explained.
