With all the posts about helping stray animals, some might want to consider giving money to help some folks in Taiwan who are in really dire straits as well. The following article is from the Chinese press and is being carried in English…maybe it’s time for a low-key foreigners effort? For the amount most people spend on a night out these folks are making do for two weeks.
[quote]
There was quite a sad story in the Apple Daily this weekend as well. Mother of five died of cancer – at the age of 48. Hubby left a few years ago…The five kids (ranging from 2 to 10) have nobody to take care of them and no money. Sad. Unfortunately there are too many of these stories…My wife is always in tears when she watches that “sob-story” talk show with similar stories.
bump for attention to expats
I’m going to keep this one in view…
Thanks for this post. I would like to help out with others who are ‘disadvantaged’. If anyone knows about working with AIDS patients would you send me a pm. That is of special interest to me also.
Thanks
ImaniOU has already started on some charity work with disadvantaged locals. 
[quote]Give him my number. The less GQ-looking he is, the better. Hey baby, how YOU doin’?
I’d even be willing to compromise on my chest hair thing if he’s an alright guy.[/quote]
Sorry. Bad taste I know. 
Ironlady has called attention to a real need. :bravo:
There are of course a nearly infinite number of real needs in this world, such as this, and the plight of abused animals, and the AIDS problem, on and on. What’s vital is that each person wake up out of her or his egocentric little world and come to an understanding that there are things which need doing, and get off her or his ass and DO something to make a difference!
[quote=“ironlady”] The elder Peng is 74 now. A little over a year ago, he slipped into a coma, and today he cannot speak or move. To concentrate on his stepfather’s care, Peng Kang-liang quit his job and relies on a government subsidy of NT$8000 a month to make ends meet. However, he is always short of cash, since just the medical expenses for the elder Peng total about NT$15,000 a month.
Peng says that his stepfather must be turned in bed every two hours and have his nose cleaned out; every four hours, he must be fed milk, and someone must be with him 24 hours a day. Peng says tht his mother died about eight years ago, and his twenty-something younger brother lost his life in a car accident. When dying, his mother called on him to be a filial son, and Peng honors this promise to her today, taking painstaking care of his stepfather. [/quote]
With all due respect and in perfect sincerity I will tell you that this situation is absolute madness. What is needed there is grief counselling, love, and a nice fat morphine drip. The man is 74 and has been in a coma for a year for god’s sake, do they expect he is ever going to experience (let alone enjoy) life again? People are born, live for awhile and then they die. That is just the way it works.
Unfortunately, the government is deadset on deporting those foreigners who do. It’s sad to look at my old resume and see how active I was in the community despite all my musical organizations and doing 21 credits of class and 28 hours of work and how there is nothing new added since 2001 (when I came to Taiwan). Here, even with far more time free, I can’t in fear of being kicked out of the country. And it seems as if charity is a foreign concept here as it does not align with neither the idea of face nor guanxi so it’s not hard to see how the government believes volunteerism is the same as working for money. Perhaps they can’t get their heads around the idea that people are doing it for something other than what they might receive in return. 
This is not the first time I’ve read warnings against volunteering. To think that they would actually chuck you out of the country. 
It’s very sad. I was involved in a volunteer program back in Australia, and I have free time I would willingly give to a few projects, but it’s clear we’re not wanted.
This is not the first time I’ve read warnings against volunteering. To think that they would actually chuck you out of the country.
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That’s totally ridiculous… Being deported for volunteering… what kind of government is running this place?? :loco:
What are the major problems that disadvantaged Taiwanese people face?
I think a lot of them are kept behind closed doors so we may not know the full extent of the problems. It must be quite different from South Africa though, where our unemployment rate is 30-40% (compared to Taiwan’s 2 or 3%), and one of the highest AIDs infection rates in the world… 
If everyone just did a little, just put in a little effort to make a difference, whether to the lives of humans or animals, so many problems could be alleviated. Just takes a little effort on everybody’s part.
Hmm
From what I have read the volunteering thing can be got around by ensureing that you are not treading on anyone’s toes. I would imagin running a charity for poor folks would be unlikely to get you in to trouble, in much the same way as we have people helping stray dogs etc on this site.
Personally I struggle for free time and do not speak perfect Mandarin (actually its pooh) but would be prepared to support some good causes with cash from time to time, if anyone wants to get organised.
Ignorant, low-class, xenophobic, corrupt scum. Just like the government that preceded this one and just like the government that will follow this one. Welcome to Taiwan.
You are not gong to get deported for helping AIDS patients.
[quote=“bob”]
With all due respect and in perfect sincerity I will tell you that this situation is absolute madness. What is needed there is grief counselling, love, and a nice fat morphine drip. The man is 74 and has been in a coma for a year for god’s sake, do they expect he is ever going to experience (let alone enjoy) life again? People are born, live for awhile and then they die. That is just the way it works.[/quote]
With respect for all forms of volunteering, as I read the original post, I had similar thoughts to those made by bob. Focusing only on those cases where people have good intentions to start with, those intentions are still misguided in situations like this. I had the opportunity to do some reading and take basic training in hospice work several years ago. I came away from that with the sense that my culture, aside from hospice efforts, has entirely lost touch with the cycle of life. And there, senseless efforts to artificially prolong an old person’s life robs them and everyone around them of the chance to share a natural and dignified end of the cycle, and normally results in a huge financial burden at a time when it can be least tolerated.
More specifically on topic, if anyone knows of an online list of volunteer organizations in Taiwan, it would be nice to have that posted.
And instructions on how you can legally volunteer without being kicked out of the country. It would be nice to have that also.
If they don’t want us to volunteer, fine and dandy, but seems like we could marshall considerable cash if everyone would kick in one night’s beer money from time to time and send it to some reputable group working to help people on the island. Last time I heard, there wasn’t any restriction on donating money to causes.
I don’t think that actual volunteering would work out given gov’t restrictions and language barriers (in many cases), but neither do I agree that a person who decides to care for a family member at home should be unable to do so because the government supplies only NT$8000 a MONTH and the person has no other source of income. How many of you could last a month in Taiwan on NT$8000 year after year, even if you didn’t have to pay someone’s medical bills?
Perhaps a F.com “Charity of the Month” with a Paypal donation button or something like that? Get some positive publicity about foreigners for a change (or at least have the typical sex-crazed Apple Daily foreigners donate the equivalent of their condom money for one night?!?) 
I would be down with that Ironlady.
Disclaimer–I did volunteer work in the city in 2003 with a church working with mentally disabled children. Never was questioned nor in fear of being caught. Actually, it was a blessing in disguise as it prepared me to do my volunteer work in the summer of 2004 in China, incidentally with the same type of children.
I wouldn’t suggest breaking the laws. But there is nothing wrong with giving an AIDS patient language exchange lessons 
Does anyone have any specific information dealing with the legalities of ‘voulunteering’ here on the island for “foreigners” ?
I think this might be a good place to start.
[quote=“TainanCowboy”]Does anyone have any specific information dealing with the legalities of ‘voulunteering’ here on the island for “foreigners” ?
I think this might be a good place to start.[/quote]
I think this has actually been discussed. If i recall there was someone who posted that they actually got a visa to do it. Search the threads,pls
It’s illegal, AFAIK, full stop.
My understanding is that you cannot engage in any activity that is not congruent with the stated purpose of your visa. So, if you’re on a work visa to teach English at Buxiban X, you can’t sing in a pub, bring trays to hospital patients, or organize charity concerts. (If you get caught, that is.) 
Because of the ‘face’ issues, plus the government regulations, I think it would be quite difficult to get things “changed” so that foriegners could volunteer in Taiwan across the board. There is much fear of foreigners “showing up” the Taiwanese on charity or disadvantaged issues, airing one’s dirty laundry in public so to speak, and also perhaps that it would be impossible to control the activities if they were not regulated. (I dunno, I’m guessing what they might be thinking).