Representative to the Philippines Gary Lin (林松煥) on Tuesday presented the family of Filipina caregiver Melody Albano Castro, who was killed last month in the Hualien earthquake, a check for 600,000 Philippine pesos (US$11,472).
Recognizing the financial difficulties faced by Castro’s family — she has an eight-year-old daughter and her husband is partially paralyzed — Taiwanese businesses operating in the Philippines launched a fundraiser to help them.
Lin and representatives of the firms handed over the check for 600,000 pesos to Castro’s mother at a ceremony attended by family members at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in Makati, Metro Manila.
TECO also donated food, children’s books and toys to the family.
Lin also reaffirmed the Taiwanese government’s commitment to providing good work and living conditions for migrant workers and to treat them the same as Taiwanese.
Castro’s family thanked Taiwanese for their kindness.
Jayson Albano, Castro’s younger brother, said she had been the family’s breadwinner and the family would like to thank the Taiwanese government and people for helping the family in its time of need.
Castro was one of 17 fatalities in a magnitude 6.0 earthquake that struck Hualien on Feb. 6.
She was employed as a caregiver to a person with disabilities and died when the building she was in partially collapsed during the earthquake.
Rescuers recovered her body from the rubble of the building.
The 600,000-peso donation was in addition to the 3.2 million pesos provided by Taiwan, which included government compensation payments, insurance claims and donations from the public.
Castro started working as a caregiver in Taiwan in 2015 and was covered by the National Health Insurance Program and the Act for Protecting Worker of Occupational Accidents (職業災害勞工保護法), TECO said.
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