For Taiwanese, the number “921” represents a day of devastation and heartbreak, fear and for many, the tragic loss of loved ones.
Measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale, a fatal temblor on Sept. 21, 1999, rattled the entire country when the Chenglongpu Fault, which stretches along the foothills of the Central Mountain Range in Nantou and Taichung counties, shifted. The quake and its aftershocks shook Taiwan throughout the night, leaving behind a death toll that made 921 one of Taiwan’s deadliest natural disasters.
According to the National Fire Agency, the earthquake killed more than 2,400 people and left 11,443 severely wounded. Around 150 children were orphaned.
The total cost of damage to buildings and infrastructure was NT$300 billion (US$9.2 billion).
The quake devastated more than 40,000 homes, but did not shatter the country’s spirit. In the wake of the tragedy, communities united to help those in need and the expatriate community was no exception. In central Taiwan, expats were especially active in reaching out to their neighbors.
Ten years later, the American Chamber of Commerce in Taichung (AmCham Taichung) is still helping ensure the welfare of the 921 orphans and other needy children in the area.
Established in 1993, AmCham Taichung, which seeks to serve all foreign nationals and not just Americans, functions as a bridge between the expatriate and local business communities and Taichung City Government.
In addition to offering standard services to the community and businesses, AmCham Taiwan has made a name for itself through its KIDZ program.
Established six years ago by then-chairman Jack McDowell, who spent six years of his childhood in an orphanage in Tennessee, the KIDZ program began with a full-day Christmas party for the city’s disadvantaged children.
The project has since evolved, providing juice and milk daily to Christian Herald Orphanage (台中光音育幼院) and special needs children at the Daniel A. Poling Babies Home. It also offers high school scholarships to all the orphans at the Christian Herald Orphanage, which includes some of those who lost their parents in the 921 quake.
“The philosophy behind the program is that if we can help those children to have a better future by making sure they receive an excellent education, they could move forward and have a more productive life and pursue a professional career,” AmCham Taichung chairman Nathan Hines said.
These individuals could eventually help others in need or make other contributions to their communities, Hines said.
The first group of students to receive the scholarships are expected to graduate next year. In September, another 21 teenagers from the orphanage start high school with financing from AmCham.
Depending on whether a child attends a private or public high school, tuition per semester ranges from NT$20,000 to NT$60,000.
“If the kids can test into high schools, we want to make sure the funds are available for them. But right now it is a struggle to come up with enough funds to cover the expenses,” he said, adding that this had become more difficult with time because many of those orphaned in the 921 quake are high school age now.
Douglas Habecker, the chamber’s secretary-general, expressed gratitude to all the donors who have supported the program, but said more was needed. Donations of any sum are appreciated, he said.
“We could go out and bang doors and try to get random donations and that could work. But at the end of the day, the one thing that makes charities like this successful is when larger corporate donors give large chunks of money,” he said.
Those people who might not be able to donate money but would still like to contribute can help as volunteers, Habecker said. AmCham Taiwan holds fundraising events throughout the year, including a golf tournament and a chili cook-off. This November it will also hold a casino night.
Every dollar of proceeds from the events goes to the KIDZ program fund, Habecker said.
To learn more about the KIDZ program, visit www.amchamtaichung.org or call (04)2471-8133.
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching