Many charity organizations in Taiwan have seen donations fall by half or more since local COVID-19 cases began to spike in May, with some sending urgent calls for renewed support as virus measures ease.
During a nationwide level 3 COVID-19 alert from May 19 to Tuesday last week, in-person donations to the Taiwan Fund for Children and Families (TFCF) dropped 80 percent, TFCF Social Resources Department director Lin Hsiu-feng (林秀鳳) said.
Corporate and private donations also fell sharply, as businesses lost income and individuals suddenly encountered financial hardship, she added.
Photo courtesy of the Taiwan Fund for Children and Families
The disruptions resulted in a 45 percent decline in the fund’s donation income, while donations of supplies have entirely stopped, she said.
“Social welfare groups have all entered a cold spell,” Lin said.
Even the TFCF’s regular operations have been affected, Lin said, giving for example a case in which an aid recipient was reported by a neighbor for gathering illegally after going to the fund to collect a monthly support package.
Many service and gig workers have lost their livelihoods due to the COVID-19 pandemic, making the resources provided by welfare organizations more necessary than ever, she said.
Aside from distributing emergency funding to 2,300 households, TFCF workers call recipients at least twice a week to check on them and deliver supplies in urgent cases — even to remote mountain areas — to ensure that no one goes hungry during the pandemic, she said.
The fund helps nearly 30,000 households, 60 percent of which do not have a computer, Internet access or other equipment needed for remote education, Lin said.
Fearing they would be expected to provide compensation for any damage to borrowed school equipment, many families have pulled their children out of school or have multiple children sharing one cellphone to do schoolwork, she said.
To ensure educational equity in digital learning even after the pandemic, TFCF is calling for donations of tablets, computers and other devices, Lin added.
Meanwhile, Huashan Social Welfare Foundation representative Yang Ya-ling (楊雅苓) said that donations to the organization have halved since the local COVID-19 outbreak was first detected in May.
Receipt donations have also dropped and volunteers have stopped going to the foundation, but the most apparent loss has been donations of goods such as nutritional supplements and nonperishable food items, Yang said.
Directors of local offices have been left to replenish necessary articles and deliver pandemic supplies to elderly recipients themselves, she added.
Community care centers have been closed during the outbreak, depriving elderly people of interpersonal interaction, Yang said, adding that one person even called herself on a public phone out of desperation.
The foundation has maintained its phone conversation service to help older people retain their mental acuity, she said.
The Genesis Social Welfare Foundation said it has also been hit hard by the pandemic.
The foundation cares for more than 800 people in vegetative states by providing around-the-clock nursing care, restorative facilities, adult diapers, nutritional supplements, bill payment sercives and more, costing at least NT$4,000 per person every month, it said.
However, as people have been shopping less since the local outbreak began, receipt donations have been severely affected, resulting in lost income of more than NT$3 million, it added.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
Myanmar has turned down an offer of assistance from Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the nation on Friday last week, saying other international aid is sufficient, the National Fire Agency said yesterday. More than 1,700 have been killed and 3,400 injured in the quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Worldwide, 13 international search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, with another 13 teams mobilizing, the agency said. Taiwan’s search-and-rescue teams were on standby, but have since been told to stand down, as
RSS