Starting today, Shenzhen Daily will publish a series of reports on local expat communities on a weekly basis. This series will reflect expats’ lives in Shenzhen, the difficulties they encounter and the community services in place and on the way to assist them.
Martin Li martin.mouse@163.com THE Foreigners Community Service Station in Yanshan Community in Nanshan District is hoping to expand services for local expats, according to Wu Jiangwen, a team leader at the station. The community is home to more than 2,700 expats from 54 countries and regions, including Japan, the United States, South Korea, Canada, India, Germany and France, according to official statistics. “Although we organize various activities for expats in the community each month, most of the time they just show up and feel the atmosphere, but then seldom contact us. We are planning to organize some small-scale activities to bring expats and the station closer, so we can better learn their needs and provide efficient services,” said Wu, who is a social worker and has three colleagues at the station. Founded in 2010, the station is located in Jingshan Villa and organizes a variety of activities each month in an effort to stay close to expats in the community, including handcraft workshops, outdoor movie screenings and Chinese language workshops. Wu said that they invited Chinese locals to teach expats to make zongzi, a glutinous rice dumpling, for Dragon Boat Festival on June 2. “Such an activity appealed to expats, so we will organize more,” said Wu, who started working at the station in 2012. A Dogs’ Game is scheduled to be held in the community next month, followed by a paper flower workshop in August. Besides organizing various activities, Wu and her colleagues assist with resident registration for newly arrived expats at the local police station. Consultation services are also provided. They also help mediate disputes among residents in the community, especially disputes between Chinese and expats. | 