My mother was an inspiration to me, she never gave up in caring for me and my four siblings. I lost my father at a very young age. Life was tough for my mom and us and I could see the pain and worry in her eyes. Mom always said, “respect goes a long way” and I never understood it at that time.
In my family we had a long history of seafarers. The stories from my grandfather about the sea were: men were as tough as nails. They never flinched when it came to work. Conditions were so bad but they just went on with their daily tasks. The last saying of his story was: they took risks and a fraction of a percentage they lost a lot of tough men due to their lack of knowledge on safety.
My sea career started on a fishing vessel in 1996. Two weeks into my first voyage I was about to give up due to sea sickness and the time away from not socializing with people. All I said was: “don’t give up” and so my journey had begun. Safety on the vessel was a taboo. Lives were lost due to no respect for others. In the year 2000 I started working for De Beers Marine. In the beginning it was like “WOW”, normality at last. As my journey continued I notice we were lacking something,” knowledge on safety” but was too afraid to speak up.
Then something lit up in the company and that was mind blowing. A journey which involved everyone about safety. It was difficult at the time to understand what was going on and gradually information and training started. Since then, the year 2022, I can say I feel safer to work at sea.
Even though it is an on-going experience, it is embedded in me to search for better safety. Something as small as a ladder being placed in the walk way at a supermarket while customers are shopping, has triggered me to approach management. I am honored to be part of something this huge. At the end of the day it’s my duty to look out for my fellow colleagues and also my family whom are near and dear to me.