The Face Of Maritime International (FOMI) is a maritime industry pageantry of international standards which uses beauty queens as role models to advocate greater participation of women in maritime professions. FOMI is a brand of Girls Go-To-Sea Campaign Initiative, a non-governmental and non-profit making organisation championing gender advocacy, gender equality and gender balance in the maritime sector. FOMI as a brand was birthed in July 2016.
Queen Adaeze Charlyn Udom, Winner, Face Of Maritime International 2022.
GOALS: FOMI exists to achieve the following goals:
a. To give meaning to beauty by helping young ladies discover the true essence of their beauty.
b. To raise leading young women who are passionate about social impact and are ready to lead by serving
c. To motivate, uplift and give voice & platforms to young ladies who have the courage to stand out as beauty queens.
Queen Temitope Ogunkanmi, Winner – Face Of Maritime International 2021
OBJECTIVES: The aims and objectives of FOMI are built on four pillars; namely:
I. to change the perception that maritime is all for men.
II. to champion Girls-Go-To-Sea Campaign.
III. to promote Nigeria’s maritime tourism potentials.
IV. to mentor and empower young women in maritime career path.
FOMI FOUR PILLARS:
1. Perception Changing: FOMI aims to change the wrong public perception that maritime is all for men. A lot of people out there believe that maritime professionals/careers are meant for the male folks only. This fallacy and wrong perception accounts for the low participation of women in the maritime sector.
Queen Adaeze Obodozie, Queen Tourism – Face Of Maritime International 2019
According to 2015 research by the International Transport Workers Federation, “only 2% of the world’s Maritime workforce is made up of women”. Worried by this fact, FOMI exists to create massive global awareness to raise the consciousness of women globally about career opportunities available for women in the maritime industry.
To also prove to the public that maritime is not only for men, and that what a man can do, a woman can also do, the organisers of Face Of Maritime International adopted a tradition of using FOMI Grand Finale each year to honour and celebrate one outstanding female maritime professional who has distinguished herself in her maritime career. A woman so chosen is honoured as FOMI Role Model Ambassador, and she serves as a mentor and role model to FOMI winners/queens during their one year reign.
Queen Roselyn Olanisimi, Winner – Face Of Maritime International 2024
2. Go-To-Sea Campaign: FOMI is in tune with the Go-To-Sea campaign initiative launched some years back by the International Maritime Organization (IMO). Seeing the dearth of manpower in seafaring profession, IMO launched the Go-To- Sea Campaign, and urged member nations to encourage the youth to take up career at sea.
Worried by the fact that only 2% of the world’s Maritime workforce is made up of women, the organisers of Face Of Maritime International aptly decided to launch Girls Go-To-Sea Campaign (GGOTS) as the pet-project of Winners of Face Of Maritime International. GGOTS is basically a catch-them-young campaign project designed to attract, sensitize and encourage secondary school girls to take maritime careers by choosing to study Maritime related courses at their tertiary education level.
This requires the FOMI queens together with other female maritime resource persons to visit secondary schools across the Federation to sensitize and enlighten secondary school girls about different career opportunities for females in the maritime industry.
3. Maritime Tourism Promotion: The tourism aspect of the blue economy seems to have been neglected in Nigeria if not abandoned. FOMI aims to promote Nigeria Maritime tourism potential by organising excursions for interested schools, groups and organisations to visit various maritime tourism centres and facilities in Nigeria. Organising boat or ship cruise programs are areas of maritime tourism potentials that FOMI also hopes to explore.
4. Mentorship & Women Empowerment: Above all, FOMI is designed to positively affect the lives of young females to enable them achieve their personal and career dreams. Through the maritime skills Faculty Trainings and the knowledge -based Camping classes organised for the contestants, FOMI participants gain lots of life-changing information and mentoring training designed to empower and position them for success in life endeavours.
FOMI also provides empowerment to the winners by way of Cash Prizes. Each year, the winner gets One Million Naira (N1,000,000:) cash prize. Whereas the 1st Runner up gets Six Hundred Thousand Naira (N600,000). While the 2nd Runner up gets the sum of Four Hundred Thousand Naira (N400,000). This is in addition to other consolation prizes and fringe benefits. In view of this, FOMI exists to add great value to the development of maritime sector both locally and globally.
For more information about Face Of Maritime International, visit: www.fomi.platforms.ng. For enquiries, call: +2348146289698, Email: faceofmaritime@gmail.com. Office Address: 501, Ikorodu Road, Ketu, Lagos.
