Convenience store chain Taiwan FamilyMart Co and non-governmental organization One-Forty on Tuesday introduced multilingual signs to direct people from four Southeast Asian countries to the services they most commonly use as part of a “migrant-friendly services” initiative.
The signs, written in Indonesian, Filipino, Vietnamese and Thai, have been put up at counters in more than 4,200 FamilyMart stores across Taiwan to help people with tasks such as sending remittances back home, and sending and receiving packages.
Those services, in addition to purchasing food, are the three most commonly used by migrant workers, a survey conducted by FamilyMart and One-Forty among workers from Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam in January found.
Photo: Wu Po-hsuan, Taipei Times
One-Forty is dedicated to helping migrant workers adapt to life in Taiwan and teaching them how to start their own businesses when they return home.
Migrant workers visit convenience stores once every two days on average, but nearly 60 percent said they wished there were “tools” to help them solve communication problems, said the survey, which garnered 2,600 valid responses.
Some respondents said they wished there was clearer labeling on food products containing pork or lard.
As a result, FamilyMart said it has created an Indonesian-language sign with an illustration so that Muslim customers do not accidentally purchase such products.
The franchise expects to increase its number of stores with a Southeast Asian imported products area to 500 nationwide and the number of branches with Halal deli sections to about 1,000 from 600 by the end of this year, FamilyMart Corporate Communications Department manager Vita Wu (吳采樺) said.
FamilyMart branch supervisor Chen Jou-en (陳柔恩) said clerks would now be able to cater to the needs of migrants much more promptly thanks to the multilingual signs.
For example, it often takes a lot of time just for foreigners to tell clerks that they need to send a package or pick up transportation tickets, Chen said.
Thirty-five years after Taiwan began recruiting migrant workers, they now form an important part of the nation’s workforce, supporting local industries and providing care to households, Taiwan FamilyMart president Hsueh Tung-tu (薛東都) said.
Hsueh said that convenience stores have become a “third living space” for them, after their workplaces and homes, and he hopes FamilyMart will become Taiwan’s most migrant-friendly convenience store franchise.
Under the initiative, users of FamilyMart’s app can make donations to One-Forty, which would be used to make videos teaching migrant caregivers how to take care of people with dementia.
President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday thanked Palau for its continued support of Taiwan's international participation, as Taipei was once again excluded from the World Health Assembly (WHA) currently taking place in Switzerland. "Palau has never stopped voicing support for Taiwan" in the UN General Assembly, the WHO and other UN-affiliated agencies, Lai said during a bilateral meeting with visiting Palau President Surangel Whipps Jr. "We have been profoundly touched by these endorsements," Lai said, praising the Pacific island nation's firm support as "courageous." Lai's remarks came as Taiwan was excluded for the ninth consecutive year from the WHA, which is being held in
RESOLUTIONS DEBATE: Taiwan’s allies said that UN and WHA resolutions cited by China and other nations ‘do not determine Taiwan’s participation in WHO activities’ A proposal to invite Taiwan to this year’s World Health Assembly (WHA) was rejected on Monday, resulting in Taipei’s absence from the annual meeting for a ninth consecutive year, although partners spoke up for Taiwan’s participation at the first day of the meeting. The first agenda item after the opening was a “two-on-two debate” on a proposal to invite Taiwan to participate at the WHA as an observer. Similar to previous years, two countries made statements in favor of the proposal, while two others expressed their opposition. Philippine Secretary of Health Teodoro Herbosa, president of the 78th WHA, accepted the WHA General Committee’s
Left-Handed Girl (左撇子女孩), a film by Taiwanese director Tsou Shih-ching (鄒時擎) and cowritten by Oscar-winning director Sean Baker, won the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution at the Cannes Critics’ Week on Wednesday. The award, which includes a 20,000 euro (US$22,656) prize, is intended to support the French release of a first or second feature film by a new director. According to Critics’ Week, the prize would go to the film’s French distributor, Le Pacte. "A melodrama full of twists and turns, Left-Handed Girl retraces the daily life of a single mother and her two daughters in Taipei, combining the irresistible charm of
A Philippine official has denied allegations of mistreatment of crew members during Philippine authorities’ boarding of a Taiwanese fishing vessel on Monday. Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) spokesman Nazario Briguera on Friday said that BFAR law enforcement officers “observed the proper boarding protocols” when they boarded the Taiwanese vessel Sheng Yu Feng (昇漁豐號) and towed it to Basco Port in the Philippines. Briguera’s comments came a day after the Taiwanese captain of the Sheng Yu Feng, Chen Tsung-tun (陳宗頓), held a news conference in Pingtung County and accused the Philippine authorities of mistreatment during the boarding of