The New Frontier Foundation and various other civic groups announced the beginning of project to help over 700 disadvantaged children throughout the nation yesterday.
At a press conference in Taipei, the program called the "Value the Children of Taiwan Project," seeks to address the various educational problems facing underprivileged children, foundation executive director and Democratic Progress Party (DPP) deputy Secretary-General Lee Ying-yuan (李應元) said. He added that all children have the right to adequate care and education.
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
Despite Taiwan's decreasing birth rate, the number of children from disadvantaged families is increasing, Lee said.
"When you see reports in the news about these children, you can't help but feel sad, regardless of whether or not these are children being raised by single parents, foreign spouses or grandparents. All children born in Taiwan are the future of Taiwan," Lee said.
According to Lee, the main goal of the project is to build contacts with 100 associations and businesses and encourage them to make donations.
Organizing and fundraising for the program began in June this year, in part driven by a documentary called A-tsu's Son. The film, directed by Wu Nien-jen (吳念真) focusing on grandparent-run families. The tragic case of a foreign bride throwing her child off a building also motivated the project's representatives, they said.
In order to achieve the project's goals of building academic guidance, financial support, family counseling, day care and the planning of a summer camp for needy children, the foundation decided to connect with various social groups.
Since then, the foundation has partnered up with NGOs such as the Eden Social Welfare Foundation, Peng-wan Ru Foundation and the Taiwan Kiwanis of Children Foundation and has raised over NT$7 million. It has also trained 500 volunteers to assist over 700 children from all over the country. The initiative runs until October.
One school that has benefited from the project so far is Fu Yuan Elementary School of Hualien County, where about 27 percent of the student body hail from single-parent or grandparent-run families.
The students from single-parent or "grand-family" homes consistently perform poorly in school, often due to their poor grasp of Mandarin or ridicule from fellow students about their low socioeconomic status, Fu Yuan school principal Lin Bi-shya (林碧霞) said.
Gaining hope from the progress the project's volunteers have made with these children, Lin said she hopes the plan will become a long-term project, and urged the government allocate resources towards to that end.
Although foundation representatives said that the foundation has no plans to continue the project past October, it hopes that the planning and funding put into this summer's work will help the partner NGOs sustain the project in the schools.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS