March 2022

Shaun is the founder/managing director of  5 Star Marine, a private speedboat tour company in Phuket that has been generously helping to feed the locals hit hard by the pandemic. He started out helping his crew who had no means of earning money as tourism had evaporated. It wasn't long before Shaun saw how great the need extended. 

This March, our company will pass a 2-year milestone of continuous efforts, helping vulnerable communities of Phuket and surrounding islands through a charity initiative we devised. Since the pandemic began in 2020, we have purchased, packaged, and delivered ‘Life Bags’ to local communities. Each Life Bag contains staple items such as eggs, oil, noodles, sauces, and rice, among other essential household items. Each Life Bag can feed a family of four people for up to 4 days. As of this month, our team has delivered more than 900,000 of these packs to those in need. 

5 Star Marine, with our fleet of luxury, custom-built speedboats, specializing in private tours of Phuket’s stunning seascapes, lush tropical islands, unique limestone karsts, and hidden bays. We arrange single-day or multi-day trips for families, couples, and groups of friends wishing to kayak through caves, relax on deserted white beaches, or snorkel among exotic marine life.

Over the years we’ve been in business, 5 Star Marine built long standing, trusted relationships with local community leaders and local government administrators. These connections enabled us to get valuable insights into the real needs of these communities once we began our support work. They are able to identify the highest priority villagers, and where we need to focus our efforts several times a week.

Everyone in our company has worked actively with the local communities on a consistent basis to make these deliveries possible. We feel we have made a huge difference to those that are the most in need. We focused on targeting some of the most remote and the most at-risk areas and islands by utilizing our fleet of speedboats that otherwise would have remained docked and unused during the pandemic. 

With the entire staff getting involved, they have kept busy throughout some difficult periods. The staff are motivated and actively working for the benefit of the community and themselves. The safety of volunteers, beneficiaries, and staff has remained paramount; and all our donation activities have adhered to Covid-19 guidelines. All the company’s support efforts have been overseen by public health officers and local government administrators.

Two years later, we fully understand the necessity for these Life Bags, which is sadly greater than ever, even today. On November 1st, 2021, I founded Living Waters Phuket as a natural extension to, and a strategic transition from the first 20 months’ worth of emergency food relief efforts that we had accomplished. This is a first-of-its-kind Foundation in Phuket, which will now provide a more long-term and sustainable means to continue providing relief via funding for community projects.
 
When Living Waters Phuket officially launched it did so with an unparalleled financial grant for a sizeable collaborative food donation program. The donation consisted of more than 8,700 ‘Super Life Packs’ to help families in need. This funded project marked the largest single food bag donation to date. Funding was provided thanks to a collaborative effort from Living Waters Phuket, 5 Star Marine, the Phuket Red Cross, Phuket Has Been Good To Us as well as various government departments.
 
Living Waters Phuket continues to facilitate new partnerships and projects, bringing individuals and organizations together to work on existing projects as well as helping to identify new areas where help is needed most. Naturally, 5 Star Marine will continue being a driving force for ordering, packing, and delivering these Life Bags. As we see communities build and work together for a more strategic response to the challenges being faced, it gives us the strength in numbers to help keep this emergency food relief initiative going.

As travel resumes, we are revisiting some of the best images from years past.  Please #planethoppers your Instagram photos so we may follow all your future journeys!