EasyCard users can now donate money to the Huashan Social Welfare Foundation with a tap of their card.
A machine at MRT Taipei City Hall Station’s Exit 2, decorated with a family of cartoon bears and a large heart, allows commuters on the city’s metro rail system to make NT$50 donations and provides receipts.
SMART, the company that designed the machine’s graphics, said that the bears and heart are a play on the Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese) expression, “How considerate.”
As animals are something that people of all generations are drawn to, it added a mouse to the image, among other things, it added.
The foundation said the system would allow commuters to conveniently make donations while passing through the station.
Donations are to go toward helping older people who are mentally or physically challenged, or who are otherwise dependent on others for their everyday needs, with funds paying for the foundation to send staff to older people’s homes to assist them, it said.
“More than 3 million commuters pass through MRT Taipei City Hall Station every month. If only 1 percent of them make donations through the machine, we could help 100 older people for an entire year,” foundation deputy secretary-general Kuo Hui-ming (郭慧明) said.
EasyCard Investment and Holdings Co chairman Kenneth Lin (林向愷) said this is the first time the EasyCard system has been used as a payment method for donations in the MRT system, adding that the company is always happy to work with groups engaged in socially beneficial activities.
Lin said he hopes the relatively small sum and the ability to obtain receipts will attract donations and help society and the foundation.
STAY AWAY: An official said people should avoid disturbing snakes, as most do not actively attack humans, but would react defensively if threatened Taitung County authorities yesterday urged the public to stay vigilant and avoid disturbing snakes in the wild, following five reported snakebite cases in the county so far this year. Taitung County Fire Department secretary Lin Chien-cheng (林建誠) said two of the cases were in Donghe Township (東河) and involved the Taiwan habus, one person was bit by a Chinese pit viper near the South Link Railway and the remaining two were caused by unidentified snakes. He advised residents near fields to be cautious of snakes hiding in shady indoor areas, especially when entering or leaving their homes at night. In case of a
A tropical disturbance off the southeastern coast of the Philippines might become the first typhoon of the western Pacific typhoon season, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The system lacks a visible center and how it would develop is only likely to become clear on Sunday or Monday, the CWA said, adding that it was not yet possible to forecast the potential typhoon's effect on Taiwan. The American Meteorological Society defines a tropical disturbance as a system made up of showers and thunderstorms that lasts for at least 24 hours and does not have closed wind circulation.
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
RSS