The nation's only sheltered workshop for patients with ichthyosis, commonly known as "fish-skin disease," may be unable to carry on its service, a social welfare institution said yesterday.
The Kindness Companion Shop run by the Home for Ichthyosis Patients, the country's only institution for sufferers of the illness, was forced to close its doors at the end of last month after the landlord decided to sell the property, the home's executive secretary Wang Ssu-han (王思涵) told the Taipei Times in a telephone interview yesterday.
The home commenced a house-hunt in late July but has been turned down by nearly 30 landlords, who refused to rent houses to serious ichthyosis patients.
The workshop, which started operation in Taipei in September 2004, offered job training, consultation and shelter for ichthyosis patients in northern Taiwan. Like the home, it was the only facility of its kind in the country.
"We offered ichthyosis patients an environment to learn how to get along in the community," said Wang. "It is more like a stopover. They move on from here."
She added that the shelter also cooperated with the Council of Labor Affairs and offered job opportunities to people seeking help at the council's Bureau of Employment and Vocational Training.
A statement released by the shelter said the workshop made profits by selling imported and second-hand furniture. All profits were used to fund medication for ichthyosis patients.
Four factors led to the declaration of a typhoon day and the cancelation of classes yesterday, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said. Work and classes were canceled across Taiwan yesterday as Typhoon Krathon was forecast to make landfall in the southern part of the country. However, northern Taiwan had only heavy winds during the day and rain in the evening, leading some to criticize the cancelation. Speaking at a Taipei City Council meeting yesterday, Chiang said the decision was made due to the possibility of landslides and other problems in mountainous areas, the need to avoid a potentially dangerous commute for those
There are 77 incidents of Taiwanese travelers going missing in China between January last year and last month, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said. More than 40 remain unreachable, SEF Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) said on Friday. Most of the reachable people in the more than 30 other incidents were allegedly involved in fraud, while some had disappeared for personal reasons, Luo said. One of these people is Kuo Yu-hsuan (郭宇軒), a 22-year-old Taiwanese man from Kaohsiung who went missing while visiting China in August. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office last month said in a news statement that he was under investigation
PRO-CHINA SLOGANS: Two DPP members criticized police officers’ lack of action at the scene, saying that law enforcement authorities should investigate the incident Chinese tourists allegedly interrupted a protest in Taipei on Tuesday held by Hong Kongers, knocked down several flags and shouted: “Taiwan and Hong Kong belong to China.” Hong Kong democracy activists were holding a demonstration as Tuesday was China’s National Day. A video posted online by civic group Hong Kong Outlanders shows a couple, who are allegedly Chinese, during the demonstration. “Today is China’s National Day, and I won’t allow the displaying of these flags,” the male yells in the video before pushing some demonstrators and knocking down a few flagpoles. Radio Free Asia reported that some of the demonstrators
China is attempting to subsume Taiwanese culture under Chinese culture by promulgating legislation on preserving documents on ties between the Minnan region and Taiwan, a Taiwanese academic said yesterday. China on Tuesday enforced the Fujian Province Minnan and Taiwan Document Protection Act to counter Taiwanese cultural independence with historical evidence that would root out misleading claims, Chinese-language media outlet Straits Today reported yesterday. The act is “China’s first ad hoc local regulations in the cultural field that involve Taiwan and is a concrete step toward implementing the integrated development demonstration zone,” Fujian Provincial Archives deputy director Ma Jun-fan (馬俊凡) said. The documents
RSS