Calais Seamen's Club

Did you know there is a club for seamen in Calais, open to all seafarers, from the crew of the luxury yacht to the crew of the cargo ship? Of course, there are more of the latter in the port of Calais. These seamen come from all over the world, some have 2 year contracts and so don't see their families for extensive periods. At the club we try to make things a little easier for them - they can telephone home, connect to Internet, relax in the bar, play billiards, watch TV, use our library and - especially - get away from the confines of their ship, meet other people and crews and also get to know more about Calais and France.

The club is run by volunteers (of whom we never have enough), is non-political and non-sectarian. It's a good place to practise your English (the common language of seamen) and to meet people over 45 nationalities.

Like to know more - I'd be happy to tell you about the club, its members, how it works
and the rewards it brings.
Send me a message,
JillS

Hello Jill
I would like to know exactly what is expected from somebody who wants to help as a volonteer apart from his language skills ?

At present, through lack of volunteers, the club is open to seafarers on Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings only (with more volunteers we would hope to open from Mondays to Fridays as we did until last year). We need two people on duty per evening, one to transport the seamen - this means driving our minibus to the different ships in port, picking up those seamen who wish to come to the club and, during the evening, driving them back to their ships. The other person remains at the club, helps the seamen to use our facilities: Internet, billiard room, TV, telephone, currency exchange, etc., and runs the small bar. But the most important task for both volunteers is to try and make the seamen feel at home, chat with them, provide them with any information they may require, tell them about Calais. The seamen are usually delighted to talk about their own countries and to show pictures of their families "back home". Their level of English is very variable which can influence the depth of discussion but it's amazing how fluent one can become in sign language. Among our present volunteers we have fluent French, German, English, Spanish, Urdu and Scandinavian speakers as well as words and phrases in a multitude of languages (we've had seafarers from 45 different nations passing through Calais over the years).
JillS.

Thank you for the information
Muriel