Tainan's first "New Immigrant Care Hotline" to assist their fellow new immigrants in their native language to relieve homesickness

During the COVID-19 epidemic, it is difficult for new immigrants in Taiwan to return to their home country. Tainan Family Education Center (臺南市家庭教育中心) pioneered the "New Immigrant Family Education and Care Hotline" (新住民家庭教育關懷專線), providing dedicated phone hotline services. The center expands with the recruitment of three new immigrants, namely Fan Cheng Jui-ling (范鄭瑞綾), Tong Shi-jung (童氏容) and Pan Yu-shan (潘羽姍), who are all qualified for interpreting and teaching in the native language of new immigrants. They are there to assist and to show care for the new immigrants living in Tainan, since both parties can speak in their own language and freely express their emotions, which help relieve the stress of life and promotes friendship.

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Tainan Education Center provides dedicated information hotline services. Photo/Provided by Tainan Education Center

The Tainan Family Education Center has been providing information hotline services for some time already. During the epidemic prevention period, a dedicated care and consultation hotline was added. Now the "New Immigrant Language Service" (新住民語服務) has been updated to provide emotional support, family education, training for new immigrants, and government information to help new immigrants. Many new immigrants planned to bring their children to visit their home country during the summer vacation, but due to the epidemic situation, they were not able to go see their families. By calling the care hotline service, the fellow new immigrants from the same hometown can encourage and cheer each other up.

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New immigrants use their native language to help relieve the homesickness of their fellow sisters. Photo/Provided by Tainan Education Center

The director of Tainan Family Education Center, Chang Ping-mao (張冰嫈) said that due to the epidemic, in person classes in schools were suspended for three months. Aside from taking care of their family members, many new immigrants also have to take care of their children’s schoolwork. In response to the needs of different family situations, the center set up special care hotlines to directly assist new immigrants using their own language. This kind of service relieves stress and provides education information. In the future, more Southeast Asian languages will be added to serve more new immigrants.