Do you agree that every human being is imperfect? Would you stand out and say that you have never been wrong in your life? Some teenagers in our community are striving to get rid of drug abuse and seeking working opportunities to reengage in society. However, most people opt to shut doors and keep away from them. They need a hand, but they seldom got one until a program was established.

 

The "Cultural Mission" Program, launched in 2012, has been operated jointly by the Cultural Affairs Bureau (ICM), Social Welfare Bureau (IAS) and Teen Challenge Macao (TCM). It aims to provide paid internship opportunities for marginalized teenagers to build up proper values and a healthy lifestyle through cultural work in a positive working environment in ICM. The interns have various job responsibilities in ICM such as archaeological excavation and conservation, theater management, video production and so forth.

 

 

Ung Vai Meng, former head of ICM is said to be the program initiator as he observed that there was a shortage of labor force with cultural work skills in Macao and therefore, one of the motives of this program was to train not only marginalized teenagers but also people of low education and low income to devote themselves to cultural work in Macao.

 

Many people might doubt about the difference between a full-time civil servant and a teenage intern in ICM. In fact, the positions are completely and systematically different. The marginalized teenagers are paid as interns and do not enjoy the salaries, benefits and welfare system of full-time civil servants, although both are guaranteed by the 'Labor Relations Law' and enjoy the same vacation system, a staffer in ICM explained. The monthly salaries for the interns do not come from ICM, but from the program associated with TCM.

 

TCM is the only youth rehabilitation centre in Macao which offers residential facilities for marginalized teenagers to live on site. Its main goal is to help these teenagers to get rid of drug addiction, and develop job connections with enterprises so that they could be employed after detoxification.

 

In addition, TCM is associated with the "Cultural Mission" program, which operates as a social enterprise with financial supports from IAS. In other words, it is a non-profit company which receives work contracts from ICM and recruits marginalized teenagers as their interns.

 

Furthermore, this company is responsible for monitoring the teenage interns' work behaviors and determine their earning by their working performances based on reports from ICM. For instance, there are regular urine tests that the interns have to take at least once a week and sometimes irregular urine tests are conducted to ensure that they remain clean of drugs.

 

Chan Chi Leng, manager of TCM who supervised the program said that the job matching process is the most difficult part in obtaining jobs for marginalized teenagers. "I once asked a marginalized teenager about his professional skill. He asked me whether a casino dealer is a professional skill," Chan said. It is extremely hard to persuade entrepreneurs to hire these teenagers when they do not have any valuable professional skills.

 

Before sending them to work in ICM, these teenagers are required to complete one-year diverse cultural courses provided by ICM in TCM. During the courses, they can discover what they are most interested in, so that they can learn the particular cultural work more in depth while they work in ICM. Moreover, they are required to have 30 training hours in their spare time per year. They are free to choose anything to learn with their own payment and they have to submit certificates or related documents to prove their participation.

 

In ICM, the teenage interns are divided into groups and have group leaders. Different groups working in different aspects of cultural work such as archaeological excavation and conservation, public relations, theater management and so on. And there are full-time professional ICM staff as supervisors in each group to provide guidance for them. Sometimes their supervisors will arrange workshops and suggest external training courses for them to learn more in a particular cultural field.

 

In terms of rewards and penalties, the ICM supervisors submit monthly reports to TCM about their subordinates performance. The report scale scores are in 5 points and achieving 3 points means qualified. And there is an annual professional award to remunerate the outstanding interns. Interns with poor performance will be given only one year to improve. If they still have poor performance in the second year, their internship at ICM will be terminated by TCM.

 

An internship program contract lasts for 10 years maximum. That means these interns need to find a new job if they successfully work for 10 years in ICM. And for the promotion and salary system, they will have a basic pay of MOP9000 per month and they will be promoted every two years with MOP2000 more per month for good performance.

 

"I think the program period should be extended from a maximum of 10 years to whenever I want to quit voluntarily," suggested a program participant, Tony Lam. Tony has already worked in the group of archaeological excavation and preservation for a year. He said that 10 years are still insufficient for him to get prepared to earn a living as he will be in his early thirties by then. It is still a long way to go and it is hard to find a job in this specific fields of archaeological excavation and preservation in Macao, he said.

 

In the meantime, Tony is attending a free training course in electricity  in Macau Polytechnic Institute and planning to obtain a Western cuisine chef certificate in Institute for Tourism Studies. His life goal now is to become a chef in Western cuisine as he believes that he really has an interest and passion for it.

 

Another program participant, Richard Lam, works in the same group with Tony and has participated in this programme for the longest time since 2012. He reflected, "The program provides us a transitional period to get rid of the previous working environment and lifestyle."

 

According to him, the program allows them to have another job option other than going back to casinos where they had made bad companions. It was also agreed by another program participant, Vincent Un. "The regular office hours and generous vacations in ICM allow me to pursue my hobbies like playing basketball and studying at schools. When I was working in the casino in the past, there were fewer vacations and the shift system did not allow me to do so."

 

Apart from this, Tony added, "It is not easy to get even a labor job on construction sites since companies are hiring outsourced labors nowadays other than local citizens in Macao. And the criminal record certificate limits us to find jobs right after detoxification in the first five years." Hence, this kind of program functions crucially as a transitional period for marginalized teenagers to rejoin the community.

 

Working strenuously in the labor force is not opposed by marginalized teenagers. Vincent said, "I've realized that it is definitely impossible for us to work comfortably and earn as much money as people who graduate from colleges. And I am willing to do a hard labor job rather than none."

 

Is it really hard to find jobs after detoxification in Macao? Does Macao SAR Government provide enough resources and aid to these marginalized teenagers? All of them answered with one voice that they did not know any other job connection program which will help them except the "Cultural Mission" program so far.

 

According to Chan, approximately 90% of marginalized teenagers who had finished the cultural training courses of the "Cultural Mission" Program in TCM, participated in the internship in ICM. Today, there are 24 such interns at service in ICM. However, Chan said that there is still a lack of job opportunities for marginalized teenagers. He expressed, "These interns work in ICM with great passions and effort. However, there are limited vacancies in ICM to place many others. Hopefully, these teenagers can perk up, create companies themselves, and thus offer more job opportunities for younger ones."

 

The ICM staffer said that some interns in ICM continued their study in secondary education and even further study in higher education. She continued, "Hopefully, the program could be widespread and extended to private companies in our community rather than in public organizations only."

 

To echo her point, Chan revealed that the student council of the Macao University of Science and Technology recently discussed with him about marketing drawings of marginalized teenagers into commodities in order to raise the concern for the welfare of marginalized teenagers in society.

 

The "Cultural Mission" Program is a milestone. In fact, it is not only about the inheritance of cultural work, but also the inheritance of love and tolerance between human beings to create a pay-it-forward community. Every person needs a chance. If you can offer, don't hesitate. As the ICM staffer emphasized, "May the program pump confidence into people's hearts to accept these marginalized teenagers and give them hope to turn over a new leaf!"