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Taiwan is not an island - hands from the international reaching to minority groups
Amid the pandemic, Catherine Chou, with other seven Taiwanese Americans, rolled up their sleeves and managed to raise some US$50,000 to help out five social welfare groups in Taiwan. Covering homeless people, individuals with disabilities, migrant workers, victims of domestic violence, the people in need receive the donation from the international community within a month, like the charcoal in a snowy day.
'No Man is an Island' - John Donne
A leading English poet said so, indicating that every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. A group of the diaspora who had moved to Taiwan decided to fundraise for local organizations that were assisting the most vulnerable, connecting Taiwan to the international community and helping Taiwanese come through.
As COVID-19 hits the world all of the sudden, Taiwan had been holding up until it fell into the virus hands on May 19 of 2021, leading to a Level 3 alert placing in the whole country. These Taiwanese Americans had learned that some minority groups have difficulties with paying the rent or phone fee, and that some children can't even afford schools.
Helping out the homeland
Catherine Chou, an assistant professor of early modern British history at Grinnell College in the United States, has moved to Taiwan at the beginning of the pandemic outbreak. In mid-April of this year, she had participated in the fundraising dinner for the Hualian train derailment accident, which was held by Taiwanese Americans. At the dinner, Catherine met a group of people from different countries, who all regard Taiwan as their homeland and desire to help.
Drawing on the global backgrounds of this community, Catherine initiates this project, launching fundraising for people in need. Therefore, Catherine Chou, Jane W.Wang, Jonathan Liao, Kathy Cheng, Kevin Lin, Laura Huang, and Tait Sye team up to act.
Open up a portal to the globe
Even though they live in Taiwan, most of them have difficulties in Chinese reading or writing. So the language barriers pose a challenge when connecting the social welfare groups. They researched on-the-ground organizations with excellent track records for helping low-income individuals, victims of domestic violence, migrant workers, and the homeless or people with disabilities. They aim for organizations that provided these people with the necessary food and shelter or emergency income in order to survive this period of acute crisis.
“It’s difficult at the beginning, with my lousy Chinese,” said Catherine Chou. She read websites of social welfare organizations and she contacted 15 of them through emails, Facebook, and phone calls. Some of them ignore, and some refuse. But Catherine doesn’t take no for an answer, struggling to keep in touch with these groups.
After deciding on the five social welfare groups including 1919 Foodbank, Hsin Chulun home, Homeless Taiwan, Serve the People, and Graden of Hope, they found that they lack English-language donation sites and some of them can’t receive donations from foreign banks or credit cards.
To solve the problem, they worked with these organizations to set up English versions of their donation sites and choose payment systems that can handle foreign transactions, as the sites can also realize direct donations without having to transfer funds through third-party platforms or our personal accounts. NetiCRM, a Taiwanese constituent relationship management system for non-profits, has joined and developed the website connected with these five organizations. NetiCRM and Catherine Chou have shared the expense of web development.
Going live on July 8, the fundraising platform is a huge success as their first goal of US$10,000 was hit in three days. They had now raised a total donation of US$56,534 for Taiwan’s most vulnerable till now.
“Once you resonate with people, the energy grows fast and strong,” said one of the members, Jonathan Liao, CEO of FutureWard. The website has soon been shared on social media by celebrities, podcasters, and entrepreneurs.
They lined up sponsors and partners from both Taiwan and abroad to give back to the country where they call “home.”
Settling down in Taiwan
Even though the offline activities are forbidden amid the level 3 restrictions, these Taiwanese-American community manages to exercise the influence of the donation campaigns and truly convey their kindness and blessings to the people in need.
They also plan on sustainable use of the platform by inviting more organizations to collaborate and expand their outreach, making it an international portal and connecting Taiwan with the world. Across the sea, Taiwan is not an island with many connections and supports.
“Taiwan has helped other countries fight the pandemic. Now it is our turn to help Taiwan,” said the organizer Catherine Chou, who is now settling down in Taiwan and will get a Taiwanese ID card soon.
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