The SOS Voz Amiga line offers from Thursday telephone support in 21 languages, using artificial intelligence, the president of the social solidarity institution, Francisco Paulino told Lusa.
“Support will be precisely the same, because suffering has no borders, loneliness here or in Canada or Australia, is the same. What this will allow us now is to give a more inclusive response, ”said the official.
Francisco Paulino said that so far the team of volunteers who ensures the service has had the experience of contact with Portuguese emigrants: “They often call, usually loneliness is what happens most often, when we are in a country that is not ours, we do not know culture, we do not know how to move.”
The line began, however, to receive calls from foreigners, but not all employees have training that allows them to respond in English or other languages.
From now on, volunteers will use mobile phone service with a technology that allows an automatic real -time performer service.
“This is really a tool that will allow us to serve anyone and anyone,” he explained, adding that the initiative is only possible thanks to the donation of 62 mobile phones by a equipment manufacturer with this technology.
“We all know that the number of immigrants we have now in Portugal is already a good million. Of course, Brazilians and Palop are included [países de expressão portuguesa]But there are still many others left and so will have the opportunity when they need to contact us, ”he said.
The line sometimes receives contacts, also through e -mail, from parents of foreign students in Portugal, seeking support for situations that affect their children.
“We ask us if we serve in English. Punctually, yes. But as shifts are random we cannot guarantee that at any time is someone who can respond in English. With this new possibility this is exceeded, ”said Francisco Paulino.
The line also has already served Portuguese who are arrested abroad and the board now accounts to be able to respond to contacts of foreign prisoners in Portugal.
Created in 1978, A, there is an increase in demand whenever there are situations of economic crisis. With the Covid-19 pandemic there was an exponential growth, according to Francisco Paulino.
“We were answering 600 calls per month in 2019. We passed 1,000 to 1,100 and we didn’t answer anymore because at the time we had even less volunteers,” he said.
“The pandemic has increased in an extraordinary way everything that is related to anxiety, depression and other emotional disorders and has been maintained,” said the official.
The average calling per year went from 6,000 to 10,000.
“Another change we are noticing and it was also after the pandemic is that we are increasingly pre-adolescents to call. This has not happened five or six years ago. This is one of the changes we have seen in recent years, ”he said.
“We have called 12 and 13 years old, with very worrying ideas. Complaining that life is a sadness and that they are not doing anything here, ”warned Francisco Paulino.
The service is now available in 21 languages, according to the same source.
The mobile phones that volunteers will use in service are provided with technology that allows an automatic real -time interpreter service.
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