– Marco Carvalho
Along with the “Walk for a Million,” organized by Ou Mun Iat Pou, it is the charity event that mobilizes the largest number of people and institutions in Macau and this year should be no exception. The Nam Van Lake Nautical Center welcomes tomorrow and Sunday the 50th edition of the Caritas Charity Bazaar. The fund-raising initiative provides the organization with part of the money with which it finances the different kind of social services it provides during the rest of the year.
Paul Pun Chi Meng, the Secretary General of Caritas Macau, hopes that more than ninety public and private entities join the event and help the non-governmental organization to raise the eight million patacas that it aims to obtain. The money, the head of Caritas says, will help fund several of the projects that the organization promotes. Among them is the extension of the operating hours of the “Good Take Express,” a service that helps residents in wheelchairs to regain some independence: “Usually, we only provide this service during day time, but we want to extend our working hours until later in the evening, so that people can use the Good Take Express until later,”, Paul Pun told O Clarim. “Our goal is to provide Good Take Express until 9:30 or 10 PM. It will depend on our financial capacity. Possibly, we will have to hire extra drivers. This project is rooted in solidarity. It will allow these people to join activities, to go out for dinner. We don’t want them to be hindered by the fact that they use wheelchairs,” the head of Caritas sustains.
The non-governmental organization currently provides the “Good Take Express” service to about fifty people everyday, with the help of a dozen vehicles, eight of which are equipped with wheelchair platform lifts.
The money raised in the 50th edition of the Charity Bazaar, says Paul Pun, will also be used to fund the construction of a new nursing home on a plot of land that was granted to Caritas one year ago: “One of the purposes of the bazaar is to finance our new nursing home. We were offered a piece of land near Kun Iam Temple. We have a small piece of land there. It is about 600 square meters. It is good to provide some services to senior citizens,” the Secretary-General of Caritas says. “We didn’t pay for the land, but we have to find big money to build this project. This will take sometime. We already have one million, but this is a project to cost many millions,” acknowledges Paul Pun.
The fact that the Charity Bazaar celebrates this year a landmark 50th anniversary makes the Secretary General of Caritas hopeful that the target of eight million patacas can be surpassed. For several generations of Macau residents, the initiative constitutes a good opportunity to gather the family around a noble mission: “This year is the 50th anniversary of the bazaar and I expect more people to come, because we are celebrating such a special occasion. Usually people pay special attention to these special celebrations and we are expecting them to come and to play some games. It is a good opportunity for a family gathering,” Mr. Pun says.
To cook for the community
In addition to build a new nursing home and to extend the working hours of the “Good Take Express,” Caritas Macau intends to launch a brand project next year. The non-governmental organization led by Paul Pun Chi Meng wants to offer several dozen seniors the opportunity to stay active. How exactly? Cooking for other seniors that live alone, or already face some difficulties performing functional activities.
Caritas has already rented a space in an industrial building and has also submitted to the Government an application requesting a license to create what Paul Pun calls a “central kitchen”: “It is a project aimed at the elderly. We will hire elderly. Fifty percent will be taken over by elderly and, then, the food will be delivered to those elderly that live alone,” the Secretary General of Caritas explains. “These seniors will prepare meals and other staff will be in charge of taking them home to seniors who live alone. We hope to launch this project as soon as possible, but it all depends on how quickly the government responds to legal procedures,” Mr. Pun adds.
In a first phase, after opening the central kitchen, Caritas wants to provide daily meals to about two hundred senior citizens. Later – depending on the success of the enterprise – the organization might reinforce both the nature and the number of meals served: “If we have the financial capacity to hire more people, we can prepare more meals – both for lunch and dinner – and that way we can serve more people,” Paul Pun Chi Meng admits.
The Secretary-General of Caritas Macau explained to O Clarim that although the organization has not yet launched any fundraising campaign, a benefactor who was told about the initiative offered 100,000 patacas in order to fund the project.
Caritas also aims to open a second clinic to offer health care both for non-resident workers and residents in an underprivileged economic situation, but the project is currently stalled. With the opening of the first clinic, Paul Pun claims, Caritas partially fulfilled its intended objectives by giving access to health care for those who had none: “We still remain waiting for the approval from the Government. We already have the architectural plans, but we have to get the Government’s approval. We are still in this part of the process. The name of our first clinic, nevertheless, already changed to Caritas. It is already called Clínica Caritas, Pun Chi Meng explains. “We didn’t attracted as many users as we were expecting, but the message spread. At least migrant workers are already coming to us for medical check ups and blood tests. We offer them the possibility to know what’s wrong with their body. They have the opportunity to seek medical attention whenever they need it,” the Secretary General of Caritas recalls.
In addition to hosting more than 90 gaming, food and product stalls, the 50th edition of Caritas Charity Bazaar will also include musical and artistic performances organized by public and private institutions, schools and local businesses.
Follow
