For general/ professional enquiries please contact info@saferwaves.org.
For confidential support, email our trained volunteers at:
Questions and Answers about our Email Support Service
Who is the email support service for?
The service is available to anyone who has experienced sexual harassment, gender discrimination or sexual violence while working at sea on merchant vessels. It is available to all seafarers regardless of nationality, gender or job role. You can contact us if your experience happened many years ago, or is happening right now.
Who will answer my email?
We have a team of volunteers from the UK who answer emails. Our volunteers come from a variety of professional backgrounds and have a wide range of experience between them.
What training have they had?
Our volunteers have had training in understanding the maritime industry, suicide prevention, and sexual violence.
When can I expect a reply?
We aim to answer emails within 3 working days.
How anonymous is the service?
Our service uses a software that anonymises incoming emails and assigns each email address a unique number. Your email address will not be available to the volunteers.
However, your email address will exist in our handling system. Your address will be stored for 5 days on an account that can only be accessed by senior management. Rest assured that we will only access this information if we have serious concerns about your safety.
If you are concerned about your email address being available in this way, you can set up an anonymous email address using a service such as Proton Mail, Yahoo or Hotmail, and use this to contact us.
We recommend that you do not use work email addresses to access this service, as they can often automatically send identifying information in the form of a signature, corporate branding etc.
Can you trace service users?
The only information we will hold about you is your email address, so we will not be able to trace you unless you provide us with identifying information such as your address, or the name of your ship. If these details are provided and we have serious concerns about your safety or the safety of a child, we are obliged to take further action. Please see our Confidentiality Policy and our Safeguarding Policies for more details:
What can I expect from this service?
This service provides a listening ear and emotional support. If you have experienced sexual harassment, discrimination based on your gender, or sexual violence while working in the maritime industry, you can share that with us.
In providing emotional support we aim to help service users gain a fresh perspective on what they have experienced, with the ultimate goal of reducing trauma, reducing feelings of isolation and aiding the healing process.
Due to the anonymous nature of the service, this is not a counselling service.
We are also unable to provide medical or legal advice but we can signpost to resources and organisations that may be able to assist you with this.
We hope that our service always meets your expectations, but if it does not, you can make a complaint by following our Complaints Procedure below:
