A television series produced by the New Taipei City Government that gives Taiwan’s new immigrants a chance to tell their own stories and obtain valuable information is to be launched at 9pm on Sunday.
“New immigrants are valuable assets for Taiwan, and New Taipei City has always valued them, offering them diverse services early on,” New Taipei City Deputy Mayor Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜) said at a news conference promoting the program on the Immigrants’ Welfare channel.
Among the services provided by the city government are courses for children about the native languages of their parents, programs for parents and children to read together, employment assistance, entrepreneurial assistance and general counseling, Hou said.
Photo: Lai Hsiao-tung, Taipei Times
This year, the special municipality invited new immigrant groups to plan a television series with content they need, and worked with 11 cable operators in the city with expertise in filming local issues to produce the shows in Mandarin Chinese, Thai, Bahasa Indonesia and Vietnamese.
The series, which is to consist initially of 12 episodes, aims to provide immigrants information related to their lives and employment in their own languages so they can more easily absorb and understand.
New Taipei City Government Information Department Director Lin Chieh-yu (林芥佑) said the department has called on new immigrant groups, such as 4-Way Voice; TransAsia Sisters Association, Taiwan; and the Taiwan International Family Association since last year to get ideas for the show.
It has also asked Karen Hsu (徐瑞希), head of the Global Workers’ Organization, to coordinate an editorial desk that plans to unearth more stories that focus on new immigrants.
Lin said the new series is to be aired at 9pm on Channel 3 every Sunday. The half-hour program is to be aired first in Mandarin Chinese, then rebroadcast in Thai, Bahasa Indonesia and Vietnamese in that order until 11pm.
The same 30-minute program is also to be rebroadcast in Mandarin Chinese on Mondays, in Thai on Tuesdays, in Bahasa Indonesia on Wednesdays and in Vietnamese on Thursdays.
The program also is to be uploaded to the Internet to enable new immigrants to watch it on Web-connected devices.
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