Child development center may not open due to lack of support

Eliana Calderon (left)

The Macau Child Development Association (MCDA) is accusing the local government of creating difficulties for the association’s operations (helping children with developmental disorders in Macau), MCDA president Eliana Calderon declared yesterday during a press conference.

According to the MCDA president, her association has been preparing to run a new facility named the Macau Child Development Center (MCDC). This center, whose construction and other arrangements have already been completed, is now incapable of opening due to  lack of money, in particular, because of the sudden reductions made to the subsidies which the Social Welfare Bureau (IAS) granted to the organization.

MCDA, which currently holds an approval to provide services only to children under the age of three, expects their new center, MCDC, to expand their services to help older children , including youth, and provide a wider variety of services to additional families in need.

However, according to Eliana Calderon, the subsidies which the IAS has promised to offer the association can only cover costs associated with services for children up to the age of three. These subsidies do not cover the construction work done to the MCDA center and the other expenses incurred by MCDA.

Under these conditions, to keep their headquarters running as usual, the new center (MCDC) was deemed unable to initiate its operations, they are currently stalled at the recruitment stage.

“The association does not have funds to cover the Administration and Services’ Operation Costs in the headquarters,”  as per a  report where MCDA elaborated on their urgent financial circumstances, further adding that, “the negative responses to our fundraising is driven by major gaming corporations, the IAS termination of the support program, the entrapment situation support only for the MCDC center and the annual sponsorship from the Macau Foundation (the results of the sponsorship can only be received as early as April).”

“MCDC, the association’s subsidiary center, is complete and recruiting, but the association itself cannot continue operations due to the lack of funds,” the association reported.

During the press conference, it was revealed that IAS had granted a monthly subsidy of MOP350,000 to MCDC.

However, as Calderon once again affirmed, that amount does not cover all costs, including the salaries for therapists. Indeed, according to MCDA, “when hiring people from overseas or Hong Kong, [they] expected salaries [for therapists to be] over MOP50,000, but the current sponsorship can only offer a maximum of MOP31,200.”

“MCDA has been trying to request sponsorships from local private businesses, but we keep receiving negative responses. Presently, we are not even able to afford the current expenses, including the rent of our headquarters, to continue the association’s operation, and, of course, we are not able to provide services to our 800 users,” the MCDA head said.

“Macau has the financial means. If we were in Africa or in other territory where the finances were not as healthy as they are in Macau… we would expect the government to do accordingly with its means. But the Macau government could be a role model for all Asia in this area,” Calderon said during the press conference.

In 2016 and 2017, through a governmental sponsorship (Macau Foundation and the IAS), MCDA was able to provide subsidized services to 128 children from the association’s waiting list, and reach out to the community through social and recreational activities, attended by 200 children and their families.

IAS pledges to double the support

FOLLOWING THE press conference, the Social Welfare Bureau reacted to MCDA’s claiming saying that it has always provided support to the association. Wilson Hon Wai, IAS deputy director, said that more support is expected in the future. “What we must do is wait and hope that the center starts operating as soon as possible. We must say that the IAS has made a large investment to open this center. The subsidy conceded to MCDA is for operations prior to the center’s opening. After the center opens, there will be a raise [in the subsidy]… we can say it will be double [the current amount].