The Child Welfare League Foundation yesterday released the results of a survey targeting "high-risk families" and said that only by addressing the source of child-abuse can children be truly protected from harm.
Last year alone, at least 40 children were killed by their suicidal parents or died because of abuse.
The number of children reportedly abused during the same period reached 9,897, according to the foundation.
This means on average, one child is abused every 53 minutes, said Alicia Wang (
Common trait
All the parents involved in these cases share a common trait -- a lack of ability to take care of their children either due to sickness, drug or alcohol problems, or suicidal tendencies, Wang said.
These families are called "high-risk families" because child abuse is more likely to occur in these households, she said.
Survey results showed that 50 percent of these families have economic difficulties and 40 percent have marriage problems, Wang said.
These children often suffer from a lack of three proper meals a day, money for medical care and are often left at home alone, she said.
Wang said that one out of five children either only have instant noodles or bread for their meals, or nothing at all.
These families are often removed from society, are distant from their relatives and neighbors and thus lack support, she said.
Disabilities
Fifty percent of the children in the families surveyed have physical or mental disabilities, are hyperactive or autistic, and cannot control their own emotions, Wang said.
"Many of these children are forced to grow up too fast. They need to learn to take care of themselves at a very young age since their parents cannot," Wang said.
"The best way to protect these children is to discover these high-risk families as soon as possible and give them the help they need," she added.
Wang said that the found-ation's social workers currently help children in more than 97 townships.
The foundation also hopes to gather funds to establish a "Children's Safety Protection Station" to more effectively deal with the rising cases of reported abuse, she said.
The survey, conducted from Feb. 10 to Feb. 22, polled 500 high-risk families who are currently being helped by the foundation.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai