Philanthropist vegetable vendor Chen Shu-chu (陳樹菊) yesterday donated NT$15 million (US$537,095) to the Taitung County Government to set up a fund to provide financial assistance to pregnant women to help them give birth safely.
The fund would help pregnant women who cannot afford hospital care get access to antenatal examinations and offer assistance to children who lost their mothers during childbirth until the age of 12, the Taitung government said.
Taitung Department of Social Welfare Director Chen Shu-lan (陳淑蘭) said that Chen Shu-chu, who retired in early 2018, has donated a life insurance policy worth NT$15 million to set up the fund.
Photo: Huang Ming-tang, Taipei Times
Chen Shu-chu, who is in her 70s and had sold vegetables from her family’s market stall for more than half a century, wanted the funds to be used to commemorate her mother, who died during childbirth when Chen Shu-chu was in elementary school, Chen Shu-lan said.
Her family was poor at the time and could not afford hospital care for her mother, Chen Shu-lan said.
The county government expressed gratitude for the donation, saying that the fund would help lower risks women face during childbirth and enhance their welfare.
The fund would also provide scholarships to children who lose their mothers during childbirth, it said.
At the donation ceremony, Chen Shu-chu said that she had saved income from her family’s vegetable stall for more than five decades before retiring, so it was “natural” that she would do something to help her community in return.
“For me, the best way to live my life is to complete what I want to do,” she said. “As I am grateful to my mother for giving birth to me, but regret that she lost her life while in labor, I just want to help pregnant women who need financial support to make sure they are safe while giving birth.”
Chen Shu-chu has become famous for her philanthropy over the past few years.
In 2018, she donated two life insurance policies worth a total of NT$16 million to Taitung MacKay Memorial Hospital and Taitung Christian Hospital to set up two cancer treatment funds for the benefit of people in need.
When she retired, Chen Shu-chu said that she had a home and some savings, which would be enough for her to support herself for the rest of her life.
She is determined to continue providing as much help as she can to others, she said at the time.
In 2012, Chen Shu-chu was named one of six winners of the Ramon Magsaysay Award for helping poor people.
She donated the US$50,000 cash prize to Taitung Mackay Memorial Hospital.
In 2010, she was included in Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people for contributing more than NT$10 million to charitable causes, including a donation to build a library at Taitung’s Ren-Ai Elementary School, her alma mater, and another donation to sponsor poor children.
In the same year, she was also named one of 48 heroes of philanthropy by Forbes Asia.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS