The Mustard Seed Mission Helps more than 1,000 Taiwan Disadvantaged Families Overcome Difficulties during COVID-19 Outbreak

COVID-19 spreads in Taiwan. The nationwide lockdown has caused the highest unemployment rate in 10 years and even affected the right of the child to education. The Mustard Seed Mission (MSM) conducted a survey on the impact of the epidemic on its long-served families and found that among the 3,182 valid samples, 46.9% of served families were financially affected, and about 29.3% of families have reduced income by more than 1/3, and 17.4 % of families have been experiencing unpaid leave and unemployment.

Regarding the care and education of sponsored children, it is shown that the epidemic has a greater impact on learning than on care. 22.5% of sponsored children face the problem of no E-learning equipment and no proper guidance of schoolwork from family members; about 13.4% of children under the age of 6 lack meals; many families in the central and southern Taiwan lack care, all in 6 % above.

MSM has launched Taiwan COVID-19 Emergency Relief Project since mid-May, including "Epidemic prevention supply kit", "Emergency relief fund for vulnerable families" and "Suspended meals for children to eat during school suspension". The underprivileged who are not included in the government bailout are issued emergency relief funds, and a total of 104 people applied. In addition, 2,249 epidemic prevention supply kits for vulnerable families and 1,581 suspended meals for children are provided. These assistance services are increasing and have not been stopped with the downgrade of epidemic prevention level.

Mr. Hsu, a single father, is a service recipient of the sponsorship program of MSM. Mr. Hsu used to be a gig worker for making a living. Due to the epidemic, his three children had to learn at home and needed care. Besides, there were fewer job opportunities amid the pandemic, and his income was reduced by nearly 2/3. The living expenses cannot make ends meet. MSM timely provided emergency relief funds and epidemic prevention supply kits to this family and accompanied them to overcome the difficulties.

Social services can’t be stopped by the pandemic and it needs everyone’s engagement and support! Wu Hsiao-ping, CEO of MSM, said that disadvantaged groups need a longer time to recover from the disaster so we need to pay more attention to their needs. It is crucial to help them build the ability and resilience to face environmental, economic, and social disasters so that the underprivileged can gradually become self-reliant and eliminate poverty eventually!

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The Mustard Seed Mission has served Taiwanese citizens for over 60 years. If you would like to support MSM or need more information, please visit: https://www.mustard.org.tw/locale/en

This release was published on openPR.