Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin, currently in his last year in office, oversaw the opening of a new public nursery in Neihu District last week, gradually realizing the city government’s policy for establishing at least one public nursery in each Taipei district. The city government is expected to achieve its goal of having one public parent-child center in each district within the next six months. The 12 so-called public nurseries, however — run on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis — can only accommodate 500 infants, which is far below the mark for meeting the demand of Taipei’s 60,000 children who are two years of age or younger.
The new Neihu Parent-Child Center and Infant Care Center are located on the second floor of Gangqian MRT Station on the Wenhu MRT Line. The space covers approximately 353 ping (1,167m2), and includes a wooden construction block area, a parent-child arts and crafts area, a multifunctional classroom and a drawing corner. There will be regular parent-child cooking sessions, parenting classes, as well as music and body movement classes, all of which officially start soon.
Statistics show that Taipei’s population has more than 60,000 children two years of age or younger, and that the majority of them are looked after by parents or grandparents. More than 6,600 of the infants are looked after by caretakers, while 1,739 attend private day cares. The city’s 12 public BOT nurseries can accommodate a total of 500 infants, meaning that each nursery can only accept between 40 and 45 infants. A lottery system determines who gets in, making it very difficult to get accepted and the reason many parents complain about how hard and impossible it is to be selected.
Photo: Shih Chih-ju, Liberty Times
照片:自由時報記者施致如
Tu Tzu-jung, a divisional chief at Taipei’s Department of Social Welfare, says that four new public nurseries will open in Taipei this year. The municipality’s thirteenth nursery is set to open next to Jingmei Elementary School, while locations for the other three have yet to be selected, she says, adding that the high number of newborns in Shilin, Beitou and Neihu districts and the lack of private day care resources in Datong and Wanhua districts put all of them within the realm of possibility.
Six of the city’s public BOT nurseries are located inside elementary schools in Xinyi, Zhongzheng, Nangang, Songshan, Daan and Wanhua districts respectively, a locale that is a cause for alarm among some parents. One mother surnamed Chen, with an eight-month-old infant at home, says that she is worried about her child contracting colds from students in the lower grades.
(Liberty Times, Translated by Kyle Jeffcoat)
台北市長郝龍斌任期最後一年,內湖親子館暨托嬰中心上週啟用,「一區一托嬰中心」政策到位,預計半年內完成「一區一親子館」目標,但十二家公辦民營托嬰中心收托名額僅五百人,比起台北市六萬多名兩歲以下嬰幼兒,仍不足以應付需求。
Photo: Shih Chih-ju, Liberty Times
照片:自由時報記者施致如
內湖親子館暨托嬰中心位於捷運文湖線港墘站二樓,約三百五十三坪大,設有建構式積木區、親子DIY手創區、多功能教室與繪本角落,定期安排親子烹飪、親職講座及音樂律動課程,即日起正式開放。
統計資料顯示,北市有六萬多名兩歲以下嬰幼兒,大多由父母、祖父母等家人照顧,其中六千六百多名寶寶由保母照顧,一千七百三十九名寶寶由私立托嬰中心照顧,十二所公辦民營托嬰中心共可收托五百名寶寶,每所名額四十到四十五人不等,採抽籤制,非常搶手,常有家長反映「很難抽」、「抽不到」。
社會局科長杜慈容表示,今年北市將增設四所托嬰中心,第十三家將設在景美國小旁,另外三家地點還未決定,包括新生兒數較多的士林區、北投區與內湖區,還有私立托育資源較少的大同區與萬華區,都在考慮範圍內。
北市現有六所公辦民營托嬰中心設在國小內,分別位於信義、中正、南港、松山、大安、萬華區,部分家長對此有疑慮,家有八個月大寶寶的陳媽媽就說,擔心孩子會與低年級學生互相傳染感冒。
(自由時報記者施致如)
The strongest earthquake to hit Taiwan in 25 years killed at least 16 people and damaged dozens of buildings, but the destruction was largely contained thanks to decades of preparedness work. Taiwan sits on the “Ring of Fire,” an arc of intense seismic activity along the Pacific Rim, and — much like neighboring Japan — has a long history of catastrophic quakes. How does April 3 compare with other recent quakes? The April 3 earthquake, which measured 7.4 on the moment magnitude scale, was felt across Taiwan. It was the most severe since a 7.6 magnitude quake in 1999 killed
Around the time of the Dragon Boat Festival in June, the streets of Taiwan are filled with the delightful aroma of zongzi, a traditional snack made of sticky rice wrapped in leaves. The leaves are folded into a cone and then filled with sticky rice and other ingredients such as braised pork belly, peanuts and salted duck egg yolks. The filled leaves are then tightly tied with kitchen twine and ready for cooking. 每到六月端午時節,街頭巷尾就會飄出粽子的香氣。粽子是將糯米包進粽葉的傳統美食,先將粽葉折成圓錐狀塞入糯米,以及紅燒肉、花生、鹹鴨蛋黃等配料,用棉線綁緊後即可烹煮。 Dragon Boat Festival (n. phr.) 端午節 aroma
Everyone has seen a piece of fruit turn brown after being cut. Have you ever wondered why that happens? It is a common phenomenon that occurs due to a chemical reaction called enzymatic browning. The appearance, flavor and nutritional value of the fruit are all affected by this reaction. Some fruits, such as apples, pears, bananas, avocados and peaches, are more prone to enzymatic browning than others. These fruits contain high levels of an enzyme called polyphenol oxidase, or PPO for short. __1__ This causes a chain of chemical reactions that ultimately transforms the phenolic compounds into
A: As well as Eid al-Fitr, Southeast Asia is celebrating the Water Festival this week. B: And this year, Thailand is expanding the celebration between April 12 and 16 for the event, officially known as the Songkran Festival, expecting to make 24.3 billion Thai baht in tourism revenue. A: Does Taiwan celebrate the Water Festival? B: Some local cities and counties do have similar activities. A: Let’s go experience the festival then. A: 除了「開齋節」外,東南亞「潑水節」本週也盛大登場! B: 泰國今年從4月12日到16日擴大「宋干節」連假,預估觀光收入可高達243億泰銖。 A: 台灣會慶祝「潑水節」嗎? B: 有些縣市會舉辦類似活動。 A: 那我們也去體驗一下吧。 (By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times/台北時報張聖恩)