The consumer vouchers to be issued by the government may not sound like much to most people, but for families living in poverty, they could make a crucial difference, the Children’s Welfare League Foundation said yesterday, calling for donations to the nation’s poor.
“For many people, NT$3,600 may not be much more than pocket money to spend on leisure and consumer goods, but for economically disadvantaged families, it could be life-saving money,” foundation executive director Alicia Wang (王育敏) said.
“You may not know it, but NT$3,600 can buy six cans of powdered milk to feed an orphan or a kid in a disadvantaged family for three months. It can buy fifteen 1.5kg packs of rice to feed 15 families for a month. It can buy nine winter outfits to keep nine kids from poor families warm even on a cold day like this,” Wang said.
Wang cited an informal online survey conducted by the Internet portal Yahoo-Kimo last month, which showed that near 50 percent of 27,163 respondents planned to use their NT$3,600 consumer vouchers on leisure and luxuries such as travel and gourmet food.
The vouchers will be distributed starting next Sunday.
On the other hand, more than 90 percent of 244 households living below the poverty line said in a survey conducted by the foundation that they would use the coupons to buy basic necessities like rice, vegetables, meat, canned food or toilet paper, or to pay the rent, Wang said.
“The global economic crisis has had an impact on everybody — but it has hit economically disadvantaged families the hardest and has pushed them into a corner,” Wang said. “Wage earners in these families have been laid off and many are unable to find even simple part-time jobs like handing out flyers on the street.”
With some families struggling to put food on the table, Wang said the foundation hoped people who are well off would donate their consumer vouchers to the foundation to help those in need.
“Although more than 90 percent of disadvantaged families said in the survey that the consumer vouchers would help them, 80 percent estimated that the consumer vouchers could cover their spending for only less than a month,” she said. “They need your help.”
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off Taitung County at 1:09pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 53km northeast of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 12.5km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Taitung County and Hualien County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Nantou County, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage following the quake.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) is to begin his one-year alternative military service tomorrow amid ongoing legal issues, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. Wang, who last month was released on bail of NT$150,000 (US$4,561) as he faces charges of allegedly attempting to evade military service and forging documents, has been ordered to report to Taipei Railway Station at 9am tomorrow, the Alternative Military Service Training and Management Center said. The 33-year-old would join about 1,300 other conscripts in the 263rd cohort of general alternative service for training at the Chenggong Ling camp in Taichung, a center official told reporters. Wang would first
MINOR DISRUPTION: The outage affected check-in and security screening, while passport control was done manually and runway operations continued unaffected The main departure hall and other parts of Terminal 2 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport lost power on Tuesday, causing confusion among passengers before electricity was fully restored more than an hour later. The outage, the cause of which is still being investigated, began at about midday and affected parts of Terminal 2, including the check-in gates, the security screening area and some duty-free shops. Parts of the terminal immediately activated backup power sources, while others remained dark until power was restored in some of the affected areas starting at 12:23pm. Power was fully restored at 1:13pm. Taoyuan International Airport Corp said in a