It is hard to reflect favourably on 2021, yet its very turmoil has given us an opportunity to look at our lives, our communities and our world through new lenses – those of compassion, inclusion and sustainability – and now that a troublesome year has waned into 2022 businesses must consciously come together such that every leader, team and entity becomes a constituent force for good.
We are totally committed to making sustainable practices and community development key tenets of Synergy Marine Group’s strategy, as we continue along a journey that we started with great enthusiasm over two years ago.
We partnered with the Mauna Dhwani Foundation to set up sustainable livelihood centres in Odisha, which (on a reciprocal basis) leverage tribal wisdom and craft to create enduring and eco-friendly products for global ship managers.
What began as a subsistence initiative for 20 women weavers in a remote district of Northern Odisha has, in just one year, scaled up so that it impacts over 150 families across 5 tribal villages. The goal is to take this enterprise to 300 families over the next two years, enabling their craftswomen to create and maintain a sustainable livelihood, tackling extreme malnutrition with midday meals and supporting education for the children of these communities through an after-school programme.
Also, some 1,300 miles distant, for the 300 rural and tribal students at the Malleeswara Vidyanikethan school in Attappady (a tribal hamlet in the southern state of Kerala), structured education is a very great deal more than just a key to a better future – it is a lifeline.
Synergy is further supporting the Swami Vivekananda Medical Mission Trust through UNESCO’s own “Learning Never Stops” campaign, which seeks to ensure that every child can return to the classroom, highlighting and reinforcing our long-term commitment to active support and involvement.
We must all help, and for that we must first be aware.
And on that forward-looking and collaborative note, a big thank you to our customers, partners and seafarers for another year in which, increasingly, the big are helping the small and the strong the weak.
Let this be a positive legacy of 2021, and we hope that 2022 will prove less disruptive for everyone in shipping, and especially for our seafarers, who are central to everything we do.
We look forward to all that we can accomplish together in the new year.
Captain Rajesh Unni
