Taiwanese tennis player Lu Yen-hsun (盧彥勳) yesterday asked the public to support independent living for the mentally and physically challenged, by dropping a few coins into collection boxes which can be found at most convenience stores.
Despite being in intensive training for the Rise of Legends exhibition matches that take place on Thursday in Kaohsiung, Lu attended a charity event where he asked for public assistance in helping to improve the lives of the physically and mentally challenged.
Pointing out the individual donations he has received during his tennis career, Lu said the disadvantaged in society are even more deserving of assistance.
The money raised from the campaign will go to social welfare institutes that foster the concept of independent living for the mentally and physically challenged, said United Way of Taiwan (UWT) secretary-general Chou Wen-chen (周文珍), the campaign organizer, adding that the group worked with 177 organizations and benefited 61,400 families last year.
As an example of how the money has changed lives, Chou highlighted a 30-year-old woman with a spinal cord injury who fulfilled her dream of becoming a radio host and a 34-year-old male who was able to land a job as a store clerk, despite suffering from a slight mental impairment.
“They can now connect with the community and do not have to rely on others to make decisions for them,” Chou said,
He added that the tailor-made training programs provided by the UWT are not subsidized by the government and can be quite expensive.
Chou said the UWT was working in cooperation with President Chain Store Corp (PCSC) and that collection boxes will be available at 4,800 of the company’s convenience stores nationwide.
Amy Yu, a manager at the PCSC’s Public Affairs Department, said every store follows standard procedure in handling charitable donations so the public could rest assured that all donations would reach those most in need.
“The money is checked on a daily basis, with at least one customer as a witness, and then wired to corporate headquarters before the end of the day. Every month, we post online details of the account and remit the money to UWT,” Yu said.
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
An aviation jacket patch showing a Formosan black bear punching Winnie the Pooh has become popular overseas, including at an aviation festival held by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force at the Ashiya Airbase yesterday. The patch was designed last year by Taiwanese designer Hsu Fu-yu (徐福佑), who said that it was inspired by Taiwan’s countermeasures against frequent Chinese military aircraft incursions. The badge shows a Formosan black bear holding a Republic of China flag as it punches Winnie the Pooh — a reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — who is dressed in red and is holding a honey pot with
Celebrations marking Double Ten National Day are to begin in Taipei today before culminating in a fireworks display in Yunlin County on the night of Thursday next week. To start the celebrations, a concert is to be held at the Taipei Dome at 4pm today, featuring a lineup of award-winning singers, including Jody Chiang (江蕙), Samingad (紀曉君) and Huang Fei (黃妃), Taipei tourism bureau official Chueh Yu-ling (闕玉玲) told a news conference yesterday. School choirs, including the Pqwasan na Taoshan Choir and Hngzyang na Matui & Nahuy Children’s Choir, and the Ministry of National Defense Symphony Orchestra, flag presentation unit and choirs,
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