Charities and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have begun to help clean up areas that suffered major damage from flooding and landslides triggered by Typhoon Morakot last weekend.
Dharma Drum Mountain Social Welfare and Charity Foundation, the Tzu Chi Foundation and the Eden Social Welfare Foundation have taken the lead in organizing volunteers to help as floodwaters began to recede.
Dharma Drum, a Buddhist charity foundation, has targeted the Pingtung County coastal towns of Linbian (林邊) and Jiadong (佳冬). Groups of eight volunteers were led at dawn by masters from Dharma Drum Monastery in cleaning debris and shattered houses in the towns.
Volunteers, who made their way to disaster areas at their own expense, also formed investigation teams to survey the area and determine the needs of residents.
The foundation said that by clearing the typhoon wreckage, it was also clearing the minds of the disaster victims and helping lift away their heavy spirits caused by the disaster.
It began sending drinking water, sleeping bags, lunch boxes and flashlights to shelters on Saturday, helping 15,000 people.
The Tzu Chi Foundation, another Buddhist charity organization, appealed to volunteers to join their local cleanup team and said residents in Tainan, Kaohsiung and Pingtung counties could sign up at the foundation’s meditation halls.
It has recruited 15,000 volunteers to help distribute more than 200,000 hot lunches through Tuesday to disaster victims. It also plans to dole out grants ranging from NT$5,000 to NT$10,000 to help 12,000 households.
The Eden Social Welfare Foundation said it had deployed professional volunteers to disaster areas since the typhoon hit to provide counseling and prepare the victims to rebuild their homes. It is also organizing clean-up crews.
Meanwhile, the Child Welfare League Foundation said yesterday it has implemented a plan to help children who lost their parents in the typhoon and its aftermath.
League representatives have already visited a temple in Kaohsiung County serving as a makeshift shelter for flood victims, bringing with them stationery and toys to comfort the children there.
The group’s social workers and volunteers will visit the children at temporary shelters to help them cope with their stress and grief, in addition to hosting day camps for other children affected by the typhoon to ease the burden on their parents.
It will also provide long-term care and school sponsorship for the children until they reach the age of majority.
“Children who have encountered calamity suffer physiologically,” said Alice Wang, executive director of the league.
“Because of the psychological impact, they will experience fear, anxiety and nightmares and will need the companionship of adults,” Wang said.
The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a southwestern extension of the Sanying MRT Line from New Taipei to Bade District (八德) in Taoyuan, with a goal of starting construction by late 2026. The 4.03-kilometer extension, featuring three new stations, will run from the current terminus at Yingtao Fude Station (LB12) in New Taipei City to Dannan Station (LB14), where it will connect with Taoyuan’s Green Line, New Taipei City Metro Corp said in a statement. This extension will follow the completion of core Sanying Line, a 14.29-kilometer medium-capacity system linking Tucheng (土城), Sansia (三峽)
CARGO LOSS: About 50 containers at the stern of the ‘Ever Lunar’ cargo ship went overboard, prompting the temporary closure of the port and disrupting operations Evergreen Marine Corp, Taiwan’s largest container shipper, yesterday said that all crew members aboard the Ever Lunar (長月) were safe after dozens of containers fell overboard off the coast of Peru the previous day. The incident occurred at 9:40am on Friday as the Ever Lunar was anchored and waiting to enter the Port of Callao when it suddenly experienced severe rolling, Evergreen said in a statement. The rolling, which caused the containers to fall, might have been caused by factors including a tsunami triggered by an earthquake in Russia, poor winter sea conditions in South America or a sudden influx of waves,
The Ministry of Culture yesterday officially launched the “We TAIWAN” cultural program on Osaka’s Nakanoshima sandbank, with the program’s mascot receiving overwhelming popularity. The cultural program, which runs from Aug. 2 to 20, was designed to partner with and capitalize on the 2025 World Expo that is being held in Osaka, Japan, from April 13 to Oct. 13, the ministry said. On the first day of the cultural program, its mascot, a green creature named “a-We,” proved to be extremely popular, as its merch was immediately in high demand. Long lines formed yesterday for the opening
BE CAREFUL: The virus rarely causes severe illness or death, but newborns, older people and those with medical conditions are at risk of more severe illness As more than 7,000 cases of chikungunya fever have been reported in China’s Guangdong Province this year, including 2,892 new cases last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday said it is monitoring the situation and considering raising the travel notice level, which might be announced today. The CDC issued a level 1 travel notice, or “watch,” for Guangdong Province on July 22, citing an outbreak in Foshan, a manufacturing hub in the south of the province, that was reported early last month. Between July 27 and Saturday, the province reported 2,892 new cases of chikungunya, reaching a total of 7,716
RSS