Just short of a month since going online, a COVID-19 relief fundraiser organized by seven members of the Taiwanese diaspora raised more than US$50,000 for five social welfare groups helping society’s most vulnerable to weather the COVID-19 outbreak.
When COVID-19 cases began to spike in Taiwan in May, those of the group living in Taiwan began researching organizations with strong histories of helping vulnerable groups, including low-income individuals, domestic violence victims, migrant workers, homeless people and those with disabilities, the organizers said.
Their original plan to directly connect donors with the organizations proved challenging due to the organizations’ Chinese-only Web sites and inability to receive donations from abroad, so the organizers helped the groups create English landing pages and set up payment systems that can accept foreign transactions, they added.
After approaching about 15 organizations, the group ended up working with five: the 1919 Food Bank, the Hsinchulun Home, Homeless Taiwan, Serve the People and the Garden of Hope, they said.
The Taiwan Covid Relief Fundraiser eventually launched on July 8 with a goal of raising US$10,000, to be matched by the organizers.
The goal was reached after only three days, leading the team to revise its goal to US$25,000 with another matching donation.
By July 30, the fundraiser shattered the goal once more with US$26,000 raised by more than 200 donors for a total of more than US$50,000.
As of yesterday, the tally on the Taiwan Covid Relief Fundraiser Web site was US$28,191.
Most social welfare groups in Taiwan miss out on the chance to make themselves known internationally by only accepting domestic donations, Chinese Christian Relief Association secretary-general James Shia (夏忠堅) said yesterday, adding that he was particularly excited when the Taiwan Covid Relief team reached out to work with the association’s 1919 Food Bank.
The food bank has received US$10,000 through Taiwan Covid Relief, enough to satisfy the needs of 46 families for a year, Shia said.
The campaign has broken open international fundraising opportunities, he added.
Many people around the world want to give back to Taiwan in return for the assistance it provided last year, Taiwan Covid Relief organizer Catherine Chou (周怡齡) said.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods