Last year, Huang Chiu-hsiung (
An after-school program for underprivileged kids at the Shuiyuan Township (
"I went to see the principal [of the local elementary school] about one eight-year-old who had stopped coming [to the program]," Huang told the Taipei Times in a phone interview.
"The principal said the child had stopped coming to school, too, so I went to the child's home," he added.
What Huang saw was an all-too-common situation for local Aboriginal families, he said, and his heart ached.
"The child's mother had split, and the father was too sick to take care of his five children," Huang said, adding that the eight-year-old had dropped out of school due to such circumstances. "I offered to take care of the child's expenses to get him back in school."
Three semesters later, Huang and his wife are shelling out NT$120,000 (US$3,650) per semester to ensure that 20 young students get an education and don't go hungry.
Huang said poverty is so widespread in his township that 3 out of 10 students live in abject poverty. He added that impoverished children are typically Aborigines and come from broken families or families with a large number of children.
But, according to the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times' sister newspaper), Huang and his wife are making a difference.
"Thanks to Police Chief Huang, this semester, all expenses for our students' tuition and meals have been taken care of," a local elementary school principal was quoted as saying in the report.
"We've been talking to the media and introducing them to local school principals. We're trying to get the message out," Huang told the Taipei Times.
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