Marco Carvalho
Around 70,000 people – more than 10 percent of Macau’s population – speak English as their first language, or use “Shakespeare’s proverbial tongue” as a working and communication tool. The assessment is to be made by Caritas Macau. Until the end of June, the organization will survey the SAR’s English-language speakers with the aim to better understand their needs and expectations.
Speaking to O Clarim, Paul Pun Chi Men, Secretary General of Caritas Macau, said that the survey’s purpose is to provide a better service to a part of the population that, more often than not, lacks representation. “Caritas realized that there are many people in Macau who have no way of expressing their opinions and needs. There are currently around 180,000 migrant workers in Macau. If we exclude those who express themselves in Chinese, most of the remaining 70,000 communicate in English. And these people have their own needs,” the Secretary General of Caritas Macau declared. He added, “By organizing this survey, we want to know what kind of needs we should address, in case we organize something to help them out. Our aim is to understand what kind service can help them the most.”
The findings of what the local Caritas head calls a “relatively simple survey,” will help the organization to define its priorities in terms of social service. The data, which is intended to be used exclusively by Caritas, should also provide Caritas with the most up-to-date portrait of the foreign communities living in Macau.
“In the meantime, we want to know what the main concerns that they are facing are. We also want to obtain some structural data to understand why they are in Macau – if it is because of their employment or due to something else. The main purpose of the survey, nevertheless, is to see how we can serve them better,” Paul Pun reiterated.
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