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The Napier Seafarers Welfare Centre has been a feature of Napier’s waterfront for almost 40 years.
Apart from the past few years, seafarers have been able to treat the Centre as a home away from home throughout that time.
The Marine Parade-based centre is now back in business on limited days after closing in March 2020.
The Napier Seafarers Centre chairman Buster Harvey says they decided to close the Centre at that time because marine border entry was very restrictive as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We were also concerned for our volunteers being exposed to Covid infection and port management suggested we could unwittingly pass it on to seafarers.”
While most port towns have a seafarers’ centre, the idea for one in Napier centre cranked up in 1980. That was when three independent Napier-based church ministries combined to form a new co-operative, the Hawke’s Bay Seafarers Welfare Society Inc.
“The new group fundraised and during 1983, then-Mayor of Napier, Dave Prebensen opened the building we continue to use,” Harvey says.
The aim of the centre is to promote the welfare and well-being of visiting seafarers through a church-based Christian ministry philosophy.
Source
- NZ Herald
- Apostleship of the Sea NZ was invited to contribute to the story.
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