Marco Carvalho
Biscuits, rice, vegetable oil, different types of noodles and canned goods. For the fourth consecutive year, Sands China has teamed up with Caritas to fight hunger and food insecurity in Macau. The tourism and leisure enterprise offered the Catholic relief and development agency a total of three thousand food hampers, containing 16 different food items.
Three thousand food hampers will be offered to families and people in need over the coming weeks. Sands China and Caritas joined hands once again with the aim of tackling food insecurity in Macau and helping disadvantaged groups – such as the elderly, people with disabilities, underprivileged families and Food Bank beneficiaries – give hunger a miss.
The gaming operator collected thirty tons of groceries, worth 880 thousand patacas. Last week, more than three hundred volunteers assembled three thousand food baskets, as part of the company’s fourth annual Sands Cares Global Food Kit Build. Sands Cares ambassadors were joined by volunteers from the Caritas “Longevity” Special Care Center and the Macau Polytechnic University. The food staples, Sands China told the media in a press release, were acquired from local Small and Medium Enterprises and social service organizations such as Tung Sin Tong and the Fuhong Society of Macau. The gaming operator bought reusable kit bags from Fuhong and purchased soup packs from Tung Sing Tong.
Held for the very first time in 2022, the “Sands Cares Global Food Kit Build” program has ever since distributed more than eleven thousand food hampers to individuals and families in need. The hunger relief effort, Wilfred Wong claims, is a good way to offer concrete support to those who need it most: “We have held the Sands Cares Global Food Kit for four consecutive years and assembled 11,600 kits since 2022, practicing our corporate social responsibility with practical actions that help disadvantaged communities”, the executive vice-chairman of Sands China told the press.
Assembled last week at the Cotai Expo by a group of more than three thousand volunteers, the food hampers will be delivered to the beneficiaries starting from next week. The distribution process will be coordinated by Caritas, but Sands Cares Ambassadors will, nonetheless, assist with deliveries. Food distribution is expected to be completed in August.
Weighing thirty kilograms each, the food baskets are expected to help alleviate the economic burden of underprivileged families in Macau. The Secretary-general of Caritas Macau, Paul Pun Chi Meng, considers the relief effort a valuable demonstration of affection by Macau’s civil society towards the most vulnerable: “We would like to thank Sands China for its generous donation of 3,000 food kits to Caritas’ service recipients this year, including the elderly, people recovering from illness and low-income families”, Mr. Pun explains. “This kind gesture is not only about material support, but also a manifestation of society’s care for the most vulnerable”, the secretary-general of Caritas adds.
Caritas addresses environmental concerns
Food security is one of the many predicaments that affect modern society to which Caritas Macau pays particular attention, but it is not, by all means, the only one. The non-profit organization held, late last month, a community-based initiative to raise awareness of environmental issues in Macau and to instill a sense of individual and collective responsibility for preserving local resources.
Held on June 21st at the Fai Chi Kei leisure area, the “Green Path Together Promotion Day” was officially opened by Ieong Kin Si, the head of the Department of Environmental Awareness, Education and Cooperation at the Environmental Protection Bureau. The primary goal of the initiative, Paul Pun Chi Meng told “O Clarim”, was to inform and educate people about the increasingly severe effects of extreme weather events impacting Macau and several other regions of the globe and, at the same time, to promote sustainable choices and lifestyles: “The essential aim of this event is to educate the public on the importance of environmental protection. This is an initiative that Caritas intends to host every year to encourage eco-friendly choices and sustainable practices. I hope the community understood the message we aimed to share, so that, in the future, people may boost their respect for the environment and adopt sustainable and environmentally friendly practices”, the secretary-general of Caritas Macau asserts.
To effectively convey the message, the Catholic-inspired solidarity organization arranged a variety of entertaining and informative activities, conceived to motivate citizens to incorporate environmental protection practices and principles into their everyday lives. Additionally, during the event, the organization introduced the “Green Office Program”. With the aim of minimizing the waste of energy and resources in the charity’s daily operations, the initiative has been embraced by more than a thousand Caritas employees and collaborators since it was launched.
Through the games, stage activities and workshops organized by Caritas Macau, participants had the opportunity to learn effective methods for waste reduction and recycling. Caritas received technical assistance and guidance from the Environmental Protection Bureau, which dispatched technicians to Fai Chi Kei to elucidate the public about the importance of recycling and waste elimination and mitigation. Under the leadership of Paul Pun Chi Meng, Caritas also carried out a survey during the event to assess the level of environmental knowledge among local residents. The purpose of the questionnaire was to gather data that can inform the development of more focused environmental education and awareness initiatives in the forthcoming future.
Ecological concern was one of the cornerstones of Pope Francis 12-year papacy. The Argentinian pontiff positioned care of creation as a nonnegotiable pillar of the Christian faith, an essential trait “of a life of virtue”.
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