By Irene Chen, Moon Lei, Kara Lei, Catherine Lau

In Macao, there is a tiny group, which is the most easily forgettable in society. We called them “mentally challenged”. Even they are always neglected and stereotyped as lacking self-care abilities, they have tried their best in contributing to this society. Wong Hoi Man is one of the examples.

Wong Hoi Man, 26-year-old, was trained in Sam Meng Chi Café (SMC) from 2008 to 2010 and now works in the housekeeping department of one of the biggest casinos in Macau.

When she was six months old, a terrible fever left a permanent mark on her, a mild mental impairment. “I was very lucky that I had a chance to be part of SMC,” Wong said. Through the shop, she obtained some basic adaptive skills which enabled her to enter society. “I learned how to make sandwiches, how to deliver food to customers and how to communicate with others,” Wong said. “I used to be very afraid that people might look at me differently, but now I grow more confident and independent.” 

Sport is another important part of Wong’s life. As an athlete of the Macau Special Olympics (MSO), Wong was in tracks at the beginning and later switched to swimming. She became an athlete when the MSO was recruiting new members. “At first, I was not willing to join the training, but I felt better when getting praises from coaches,” said Wong. “I changed to swimming when I was 12, and now I have been swimming for 15 years,” Wong said. Wong has won 15 awards in domestic and even international swimming competitions.

“Wong is an active girl and she likes to share her story with others,” said Siu Yu Ning, the coach of Wong. “Now Wong understands that she can make progress only if she works harder,” said Siu. “I always tell her that today you can take part in the game, but there is no guarantee that you can also swim in the next game. Just keep up the hard work.”

Wong said, “In fact, I really want to thank my families, my friends and also my coach for their support for me. I would not have succeeded without them.”

Another girl, Lau Chi Ian impressed us most with her bright smile, “I like working in SMC because I can learn a lot of things here,” said Lau. 

Lau, 23 years old, graduated from a special education school, has been one of the trainees in SMC since August 2012. It took her only a few months to learn all the skills that trainers taught her. Lau said that she is grateful to work here because SMC gave her the chance to convert her abilities to contribution.

Lau likes making desserts a lot. “I feel accomplished when people say that I make good desserts,” said the girl with a big smile on her face. She wanted to be a clerk in the future because she likes working with documents.

Sam Meng Chi, heart of happiness

Have you ever heard of “Sam Meng Chi”? It’s a café which has gathered a group of happiness and the innocent. They serve every customer with their childlike smile. It is the happiest place of Macao.

In 2002, Sam Meng Chi Café (SMC) was first launched in Macao by the Macao Association for the Mentally Challenged and is subsidized by the Social Welfare Bureau (SWB). This special café is a training shop for the mildly and moderately mentally challenged between ages of 16-45, who are recommended by the SWB. Currently it has nine students led by one training consultant and one social worker. 

“The mentally challenged are students of SMC, we are the teachers, teaching them how to work and the most important, the attitudes toward life,” said Tsui Siu Yuk, the training consultant of SMC. Students can learn and practice working skills through training in the café. At the beginning, they will learn how to clean. Later they will learn how to make sandwiches and hot drinks, finally they will learn how to deal with money. The training will last for two years; the length may vary for students with various levels of disability. Students will also discover their own strength and interest by working in SMC. Sooner they will apply jobs and work outside. According to Grace Lao, the manager and social worker of SMC, since 2002, there have been 49 graduated students and more than 30 students successfully found a job. 

SMC has provided a great platform for mentally challenged. In this small place, working skills and experience are not the only things they can earn, but also sociability. Tsui said that most of the students are passive and not willing to communicate with others at first, but after training, they become more active and optimistic. Students and graduates often have a gathering to share their daily life and working status. Tsui and Lao both thought they are so glad to have an opportunity to work with them. “We have learned a lot from them,” Tsui stated. If you haven’t been to SMC, you should give yourself a chance to feel this happiest place.

Mental retardation

Mental retardation (MR) is a generalized disorder appearing before adulthood, characterized by significantly impaired cognitive functioning and deficits in two or more adaptive behaviors, such as daily living skills, communication skills, and social skills. A person with IQ below 70 is considered MR. MR is a permanent disability unlike diseases that might heal. People with MR can see you clearly, hear you well and walk as you do. However, they might have some trouble understanding the world. 

Their intelligence may be limited, but with proper training they can still contribute to the society. Maybe what they really need is not an extra attention but being treated as normal people, and given a job like everyone else.

Mandy Chan, the staff of the SWB of Macao SAR Government, estimates that there are around 3,000 people who are mentally impaired. The government issues a yearly allowance of MOP6, 000 to 12,000 to people with disabilities. As basic living costs have increased dramatically, the money is no longer adequate to support a family with a mentally handicapped member. The financial situation is even tighter for some families if a family member might not be able to work outside in order to take care of a MR person.

Although the Social Welfare Bureau has helped setting up some non-profit organizations that provide people with mental handicap occupational training such as making sandwiches and doing laundry, the future of these organizations does not seem promising if their support only comes from the government.

In order to have a better understanding of the difficulties that the intellectually challenged face when finding a job, our reporters interviewed 50 local business owners of restaurants and stores. Among all the interviewees, only five of them would consider hiring an intellectually challenged person and would offer them the same salary as a normal worker.

Most of those who said that they would refuse to hire an intellectually challenged were concerned about their ability to understand demands, to communicate with coworkers. A big obstacle to the job hunting of the intellectually challenged is a worry of their work performance since most storeowners assumed that they would not perform as well as normal workers. Also, business owners worried that their fragile mental condition might bring unnecessary problems during work. Only 2% of the interviewees would choose an intellectually challenged worker with better attitude over a normal worker with an equal ability but not as good attitude.

In other words, our society stereotypes these people as incapable of working as a normal person. As mentioned above, if trained properly in areas not intellectually challenging as law or medicine, they can definitely work as a cook or even an office assistant. Besides financial assistance and material subsidy, one thing that they long for is to be acknowledged. They are more than willing to work if they were given a chance.

How to refer to a person with mental retardation? 

The terms mental retardation and mentally retarded were invented in the middle of the 20th century to replace the previous set of terms, which were deemed to have become offensive. By the end of the 20th century, these terms themselves have come to be widely seen as disparaging and politically incorrect and in need of replacement. The term intellectual disability or intellectually challenged is now preferred by most advocates in most English- speaking countries. 

Classification of Mental Retardation

Class	IQ
Profound mental retardation	Below 20
Severe mental retardation	20–34
Moderate mental retardation	35–49
Mild mental retardation	50–69
Borderline intellectual functioning	70–84