Filipino community celebrates Migrants Day

The Philippine Consulate General in Macau celebrated its annual Migrants Day yesterday, honoring the overseas Filipino workers in the region.

The event is aimed at strengthening the bond between these workers, as well as disseminating important announcements from the consulate’s several offices.

“Just to honor them for having sacrificed and continuing to sacrifice in providing a good life to their families and relatives back home,” said Consul General Lilybeth Deapera.

“Representatives from different organizations came together and coordinated [the event]. They had their own responsibilities like physical arrangement[s], identifying their place, some prepared food and some encouraged their members to come over,” she added.

According to the consulate’s data, over 300 migrants were present at yesterday’s event, coming from various Filipino organizations.

Several participants expressed that participation in the event aims to promote unity and camaraderie.  “These events are helpful for us because it’s a time where we meet the community and bond with them. Eventually, to communicate [and have] one goal as migrant workers in Macau, and that is unity,” said Brenda Embien, representative of the Hong Kong-Macau Alliance.

According to Embien, the group is conducting a project whereby it collects used clothes and groceries to be sent to victims of the recent typhoon in Tuguegarao, one of the areas that was badly hit by the recent typhoon Mangkhut.

Yesterday’s event was co-organized with WelAnser Center.

Secretary general of Caritas Macau, Paul Pun, noted that gatherings targeting the migrant groups can be significant to the wellbeing of these non-residents, particularly domestic workers.

“The overseas workers, [particularly the domestic workers] have different work places. Some work by themselves and they can’t easily find friends so it’s good to have activities organized,” said Pun.

“I believe that by having this cooperation [with the consulate], we can magnify the impact. We can reach out to more overseas workers. A few of them may encounter difficulty and they need to find channels to seek assistance; at least they know where to turn to,” said Pun.

Paul Pun hopes to commence migrants’ clinic soon

The social clinic targeting the SAR’s low-income earners was supposed to commence operations last month. Yet, the clinic was affected by typhoon Mangkhut, thus its commencement of operations has been rescheduled. 

According to secretary general of Caritas Macau, Paul Pun, the clinic is still lacking volunteers yet have already found two volunteer-doctors.

“So we have two doctors. Hopefully it’s a way to serve the population who need support. I think it’s not good to wait [any] longer; we have to save some time to serve the targeted population, which is the domestic worker,” said Pun.

Although there is still no scheduled date, the secretary general has assured that the clinic will commence operations soon.

“This is a common concern amongst themselves, regarding the basic healthcare system. For domestic workers, they [call on] some stronger support for the salary system, and I believe that something [very] important is the healthcare. Psychological support is also important,” he noted.

Pun added that if the center acquires further resources, it will establish a mental health section in the center.