wfn.org | Martha-Mary dilemma prevalent among foreign workers in Taiwan

["Taiwan Church News" <enews@pctpress.org>]

>      Taiwan Church News

>3043 Edition

>June 21~June 27, 2010

Martha-Mary dilemma prevalent among foreign workers in Taiwan

>Reported by Sam Lee

>Written by Lydia Ma

It is not uncommon to hear about foreign workers being abused or  treated 
unfairly by their

Taiwanese employers. To understand this phenomenon in greater  detail, a 
delegation of PCT

youth participating in this year’s PCT Ecumenical Youth  Exchange Program will 
travel to

Thailand in July and visit Taiwanese businessmen and Thai workers.

The program will send 6 PCT youth to Thailand from July 25 to  August 8, 2010, 
to visit PCT

partner church, Church of Christ in Thailand, and other affiliated  
organizations. The trip will

include a symposium with local Taiwanese businessmen and Thai  workers to 
address this phenomenon.

In preparation for this trip, these youth requested a visit to PCT  Labor 
Concern Center on June

7 to learn more about challenges facing migrant workers and issues  relating to 
economic justice.

According to the director of Labor Concern Center, Wang Wen-shiou,  the center 
has been

reaching out to a lot of Thai workers and many of them “leave  Taiwan with a 
lot of money,

>resentment, and bad impressions.”

This phenomenon is an indication that many Taiwanese employers are  less than 
kind toward

foreign workers or housemaids and beckons churches to examine what  has gone 
wrong so as

to come up with strategies to alleviate the plight of foreign  workers.

Ongong is a youth from East Coast Presbytery and an Aborigine. She  had many 
opportunities

to meet foreign workers as she was growing up and personally  understands their 
loneliness

and plight because she is half Pingpu and half Amis and grew up  surrounded by 
people from

>different ethnicities.

“On Sundays, many Maria’s can only be  Martha’s,” she said, alluding to the 
common first

name among housemaids and the familiar story of Mary and Martha in  the Bible. 
Many foreign

workers don’t have regular holidays and quite a few  Philippine maids can be 
seen pushing

wheelchairs as they help their employers attend Sunday services.

Many of these “Maria’s” would like to worship God  in their own language or 
attend Mass, but

their jobs have forced them into becoming  “Martha’s”. This dilemma prompted 
Ongong to

wonder why family members cannot take care of their own parents on  Sundays and 
whether

Taiwanese society should reexamine the responsibilities shared by  family 
members and hired workers.

Ongong is convinced that reaching out to foreign workers and  foreign spouses 
and

addressing their plights must begin with Christians and within  churches.

>********************

Taiwan Church News is published weekly in Taiwan's local  languages.

You may translate and re-use our articles online only if you  acknowledge the 
source as

"Taiwan Church News" and list the names of the reporter and  writer.

Contact us before reprinting any of our articles for print  publications.

Direct comments and questions about this article to:  enews@pctpress.org

Visit our website for more news at: http://enews.pctpress.org/  (English)

>http://www.pctpress.org (Chinese)

>********************

> 
>