Continuing its journey spreading knowledge to countries around the world, the Logos Hope made its way to the Cruise Ship Complex in Port of Spain, where members of the public can visit until January 26th next year.
The ship made its way to Trinidad from Tobago, where it spent approximately two weeks docked at the Scarborough Port.
According to the Managing Director of the Logos Hope, Edward David, the Logos Hope is the largest floating book fair in the world with over 5,000 titles.
The Malaysian native said that while docked in Tobago, approximately 1,000 people visited each day.
“In total, we had about over 17,000 visitors during our time there. Of course, it’s the Christmas period, and we were expecting less crowds. So we were really nicely surprised to see so a lot of people coming. But the number of people coming every day actually helped. Talking to some of the customers that were coming on board, they felt there was space on the ship. Otherwise, it was so crowded they can’t really take the time to browse around the book fair that we have.”
According to the Ministry of Education’s School Supervisor for the Port of Spain Education District, Daryl Fortune, the Ministry has placed immense value on literacy as one of the main ingredients for national development.
“The MV Logos Hope’s mission aligns seamlessly with our commitment to promoting education that is equitable, inclusive, and transformative. Our policies and programmes, such as the strengthening of literacy and numeracy through remediation, curriculum enhancement, seek to ensure that every child, every young adult, and every citizen has access to empowering tools of literacy.”
Alumni crew member and Trinidadian Nicholas Constantine sailed on board the Logos Hope for five and a half years. He said before joining the Logos and having his encounter with God’s love, he was homeless – two factors that changed his life forever.
“When I joined Logos, to see an international community that could work together, I didn’t know much, but being on board, it helped me so much to expand my view of the world and to see different cultures. You know, and also to teach people how to eat roti with their hands without a knife and a fork. Stuff like that. So it impacted my life personally with the knowledge, help, and hope aspect of it that we could help others as well.”
Trinidad and Tobago had the special honour of hosting the Logos Hope’s one millionth visitor for 2024. Mr. David explained that this is the first year celebrating this milestone since the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Logos Hope will be open to the public from Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 10pm, and on Sundays from 1pm to 10pm.