Almost nine out of 10 victims of Typhoon Morakot living in a relocation village in Kaohsiung County gave positive marks overall to the government’s housing project, the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) said yesterday.
The ministry polled residents of Da-ai Village (大愛), Shanlin Township (杉林) — one of the housing projects built for people left homeless by Morakot — last week to assess their satisfaction with their new homes. Of the 630 households that had moved into Da-ai Village as of July 20, 583 were surveyed.
The housing was built in collaboration with the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation.
“Overall, about 89 percent of respondents said they were satisfied with the houses, while 85 percent said they were satisfied with the quality of life there,” the ministry said in a press release.
Most residents gave a positive grade to the size of their houses and infrastructure, although fewer were happy about the welfare services provided.
Many respondents were concerned about finding employment. About 42 percent said they would like more job opportunities in the village, close to 40 percent said they would like more job referrals, 32 percent wanted more job training courses and 31 percent said they would like to have more job information.
However, Lituan Takilulu, another Kaohsiung County Morakot victim and chairman of the Alliance for Reconstruction of Aboriginal Villages, said the high marks don’t mean much.
“Of course people are happy to move into a new house,” the Namasiya Township (那瑪夏) resident told the Taipei Times by telephone. “However, what’s more important is finding out how they will make a living after leaving their native homes and how they will keep up with their traditional culture.”
Some of the rules set by the Tzu Chi Foundation for village residents — including a ban on smoking, chewing betel nuts and slaughtering animals even for festivals — have give rise to discontent, because such activities are considered an essential part of Aboriginal culture.
“With so many challenges ahead of us, the survey … doesn’t mean much,” Lituan said.
Wutu Micyang, a spokesman for the Taiwan Alliance for Aboriginal Community Actions, also queried the results: “You can always play some tricks to get the results you want when conducting a poll.”
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