Zonta District 31 launches emergency relief fund for new immigrants in Taiwan

In May 2021, due to COVID-19 epidemic in Taiwan, economics and people’s living were severely impacted. The Ministry of Education of Taiwan announced distance learning, where many new immigrant women had to borrow money to buy computers or use their own mobile phones for their children to take remote courses. According to the statistics from the Immigration Department of the Ministry of the Interior, there are currently about 560,000 immigrants in Taiwan, of which about 200,000 new immigrants have not yet obtained Taiwan ROC’s identity cards. The new immigrants without the cards were not included in the bailout, which affected their livelihood. 

To fulfill the service project “Zonta Gives Love to Taiwan New Immigrants” in 2020-2022, District 31 launched the action of “COVID-19 Epidemic Emergency Relief for New Immigrants.” Taiwan’s National Immigration Coalition was entrusted to co-organize the application and review eligible families, especially single-parent new immigrant women, to receive a relief fund of NT$10,000 (US$357) per household. Through the generous donations of 23 Zonta clubs in Taiwan, NT$1.4 million (US$50,000) was raised in just five days and a total of 140 families were helped. During the epidemic, the emergency relief was carried out to help disadvantaged families of new immigrants to tide over the difficulties.