The principle of “giving back to the community” provides the essential framework for Port Akdeniz’s sense of social responsibility. Port Akdeniz engages in activities to contribute towards the social development of the nation through the social responsibility projects that it carries out.
In keeping with the growing public awareness of the significance of the sea and maritime industries to the region’s economic well-being, greater attention has been given to education and training in such matters in recent years. Port Akdeniz believes that such issues will become even more crucial as time goes by and for this reason, training and education make up an important part of its social responsibility projects. Foremost among these activities are programs aimed at primary school children in Antalya that are designed to familiarize them with the port and maritime industries and to show them the employment and career opportunities that exist in a country that is surrounded by the sea on three sides.
One of these programs is the “Mediterranean Lighthouse Project” undertaken jointly with the Olimpos Rotary Club. This program, which has been running since 2003, is designed for children in grades six through eight. Its aims are to familiarize children with the sea and seafaring and increase their love of both and to encourage forms of behavior that are mindful and protective of the sea and nature in general.
Under the Mediterranean Lighthouse Project, primary school children are taken on field trips where they are given opportunities to observe and gain first-hand experience about people at work in a variety of sea-related activities and occupations. These trips are designed to inculcate a lasting awareness of the ways in which the sea can be used intelligently for industry, trade, and sport.
For one field trip, the pupils are picked up from school and taken on a tour of the Marina under the supervision of their teachers and Rotary Club members. Among the activities taking place during this trip, children are introduced to marina and nautical terminology through visual demonstrations. Another excursion under this program takes the pupils through Port Akdeniz, where they learn about port operation and shipping. What is learned during these field trips is reinforced and other matters are introduced in the classroom through multimedia applications. Since 2003, more than 1.600 primary school pupils have taken part in the Mediterranean Lighthouse Project.
Another social responsibility project is carried out in collaboration with the Social Services and Child Protection Agency in which children are taken on a boat tour on July 1st, which is “Maritime and Cabotage Day” in Turkey. Like “Mediterranean Lighthouse” field trips, this annual event gives participants a chance to experience and enjoy the sea first-hand.
During 2008 Port Akdeniz undertook a project jointly with the Turkish Education Association to create an unforgettable experience for passengers aboard Poesia, a giant MSC Cruises-owned cruise liner that calls at Antalya on its regular runs. Under this project, Port Akdeniz agreed to pay the education expenses of twenty needy children for a one-year period in the name of the passengers of the Poesia, who were given certificates documenting this the first time they disembarked in Antalya.
Passengers receiving the certificate notifying them that Port Akdeniz had “provided one-year financial support for the education of 20 needy children on the occasion of your visit to Antalya” said that they were greatly touched by the gesture. They also added that they were very pleased to be in Antalya.
Port Akdeniz serves Antalya and its neighboring provinces and makes an increasingly greater contribution to the role that they play on behalf of the Turkish economy in the eastern Mediterranean. Completed investments, a modern approach to management, and measures that give the utmost importance to occupational and environmental health and safety make Port Akdeniz a seaport at which vessels and cargoes of every type may be easily handled. Port Akdeniz devotes particular attention to ongoing efforts to promote Antalya as a regular port of call for the fast-growing Mediterranean cruise industry.
