[翻轉視界7] 回饋偏鄉奉獻己力!
Taiwan Fund for Children and Families 家扶基金會
https://www.ccf.org.tw/
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活動截止日期: 06.24.2020
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《UDN》報導:
In Taiwan, two out of every ten people in poverty are children. According to statistics from the Taiwan Fund for Children and Families, approximately 4-6% of children will be born into families suffering from poverty. They don’t have enough food and nutrition, lack protection and care, and grow up to fall into the vicious cycle of poverty. “There is no simple solution to poverty.” From the long-term observation of the YongLin Education Foundation, 100 children have 100 different stories. There is no simple solution to their problem. “You have to help every child achieve his or her happiness.” Get close to them, listen to them, and lend them a helping hand.
1. suffer from poverty 陷於貧窮
2. according to 根據
3. lack proper nutrition缺乏適當的營養
4. the vicious cycle of poverty 貧困的惡性循環
5. there is no simple solution 沒有單一的解決方式
6. long-term observation 長期觀察
7. lend someone a helping hand 像某人伸出援手
台灣每10個窮人中,就有2個是兒童,據家扶基金會統計,約有4-6%的孩子生而貧困。童年時食不果腹、缺乏照顧與保護,長大了也悲慘落入上一代的貧窮困境。「貧窮沒有單一的解決方式,」長期扎根偏鄉、照顧學童的永齡教育基金會觀察,100個貧窮兒背後有100個故事,沒有同樣一致的解決方式,「只有幫每一個貧窮兒量身打造幸福。」靠近他們、傾聽他們,向他們伸出援手。
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The 23-year-old Liang-chin Chen once worked four jobs as a child. When in junior high school, his parents failed in their business venture and were frequent by loan sharks who often came to collect debts. They borrowed NT$300,000, but with rolling interests, their debt accumulated into the millions. His family lived in metal shacks, and all their hard-earned cash was given to underground loan sharks. “I earn my own living expenses, and I went to sell mantou (Chinese steamed buns) at moving night markets for NT$5 apiece. When business was good, I would earn NT$400, and the whole family would be able to fill their bellies the next day.” Once when he was in the seventh grade, a gang member came to his house and scolded him: If you don’t have money, why do you bother to study? Why not go out and make some money?!
8. business venture 商業冒險、事業投機
9. loan shark 放高利貸者
10. collect debts 討債
11. rolling interest 滾利
12. metal shacks 鐵皮屋
13. hard-earned cash 辛苦錢
14. fill their bellies填飽他們的肚子
15. scold (v.) 責罵,責備
16. a gang member 黑道成員
17. bother to 努力,盡力;費心*
23歲的陳良進年幼時曾同時打4份。讀國中時,父母因為生意失敗、家道中落,三不五時就有黑道上門討債,借了30萬利息滾出幾百萬債務,全家人住在鐵皮屋裡,辛苦賺的錢都繳給地下錢莊。「我自己的生活費自己賺,到許多流動夜市賣饅頭,賣掉一顆賺5元,生意好時一個晚上賺400元,全家人隔天就能吃飽,」陳良進說,國一時黑道上門,指著他罵:「沒錢讀什麼書,為什麼不出去賺錢?」
*bother to: https://bit.ly/2Y676IH
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In this environment, Liang-chin Chen could not care less about school work, focusing only on working part-time jobs to make ends meet. He lived this way until his high school teacher convinced him that “studying holds the greater value” by showing him how he can receive scholarships through good grades. It’s more cost-effective than selling mantou. Liang-chin Chen climbed from the bottom of a remote high school to the top of his class in a national university. His university even helped him pay back the loan sharks through scholarships. He is currently a postgraduate student at National Cheng Kung University. This year, Liang-chin Chen is teaching elders how to exercise in Tainan’s remote areas. “I don’t have the money to contribute back to society and to help others, so I will use my skills and abilities to help elders in the community.” Liang-chin Chen is also a lecturer for Fubon Charity Foundation’s Youth from Disadvantaged Family Program.
18. could not care less abt sth (表示強調)一點也不在乎某事 (這裡指自暴自棄)*
19. make ends meet 勉強維持生計
20. cost-effective 有成本效益的;物有所值的;合算的,划算的
21. contribute back to 回饋給
22. disadvantaged 處於劣勢的,處於不利地位的
*could not care less: https://bit.ly/3ft0UjR
在這種環境下,除了每天打工賺錢溫飽外,學業上自暴自棄,上學只為了中午能吃到營養午餐。直到高中遇到良師跟他說「讀書CP值更高」,還教他計算成績多少可以換取多少獎學金,比賣饅頭划算。讓他從山上放牛班的學生變成國立大學第一名畢業,大學還靠獎學金幫家裡還完地下錢莊的債,現在就讀成大的研究所。陳良進今年到台南偏鄉教老人運動,「自己沒有錢回饋社會、幫助別人,只好用一技之長回饋社區幫助老人家。」最近陳良進也接受中華人之幼協會邀請,擔任講師。
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Liang-chin Chen is a paragon of the charity’s efforts to invite homegrown talents back to local comminutes in Tainan. Always smiling and speaking Taiwanese with elders, Liang-chin Chen can empathize with poverty-stricken children in remote regions. “I was a kid who grew up in a metal shack, but I met so many remarkable people who helped me during my studies. Do not be ashamed of your roots. Work to achieve your goals 10, 20 years from now, and you can do it. I am a living example of what one can accomplish.”
23. a paragon of 完人,盡善盡美的模範(或典型)
24. homegrown talents 在地的優異人才
25. local communities 在地社區
26. poverty-stricken 貧困的,一貧如洗的
27. remote regions 偏鄉地區
28. remarkable people 貴人
29. don’t be ashamed of 不需要以…為恥,不用為…感到不好意思
30. one’s roots 一個人的出身
陳良進就是該協會邀請合作留在台南家鄉貢獻的範例。總是面帶笑容,跟長輩講得一口好台語的陳良進,可以理解偏鄉貧困孩子的處境,「我是住在鐵皮屋長大的小孩,學習過程中遇到大大小小的貴人,因此長大後想回饋,也能看到不同的世界,」他說,走入偏鄉會跟貧窮兒說,不用害怕出身環境不好,要比拚的是10年、20年後的成就,他自己就是活生生的示範。
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貧窮解方 Solutions to Poverty
1.體制外撈起需要幫助的貧窮兒
Help poverty-stricken children outside the system
2.運用在地人力,降低流動率
Use local talents to reduce talent loss
3.貧窮兒長大返鄉回饋,自己家鄉的孩子自己救
Contribute back to the community from which we came
完整報導詳見聯合報UDN : https://bit.ly/2N2YnRi
圖片來源: https://bit.ly/2N2YnRi
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「what is a disadvantaged child in education」的推薦目錄:
what is a disadvantaged child in education 在 Lee Hsien Loong Facebook 的精選貼文
DPM Tharman Shanmugaratnam presented Budget 2013 this afternoon. His theme was “A better Singapore: Quality growth, An Inclusive Society”.
Our immediate priority is to solve the housing and transport issues. At the same time, we must upgrade our economy through productivity and innovation. Budget 2013 will help our businesses cope with much lower foreign worker growth over the next few years. It also contains schemes to enable every Singaporean to benefit from growth. For example, the Wage Credit Scheme will incentivise employers to raise salaries of their lower-income workers, as the Govt will pay 40% of these salary increases for three years. We will also focus on promoting social mobility, especially through education, so that children from less privileged backgrounds are not disadvantaged in our society.
The Parliament will discuss Budget 2013 in the upcoming weeks. You can visit www.singaporebudget.gov.sg for more details about the Budget. - LHL
We had the Budget today. We are transforming our economy so that we can have quality growth – growth that all Singaporeans will benefit from, and which will allow a better quality of life. And we are taking further steps towards a more inclusive society – starting with the kids, helping lower-income workers, and providing greater economic security for our retirees, including those in the middle-income group.
Here's an extract from the Budget Speech that sets out the main directions our policies are taking. The specifics are in the full speech linked below.
http://www.singaporebudget.gov.sg/budget…/budget_speech.html
BETTER SINGAPORE: QUALITY GROWTH, AN INCLUSIVE SOCIETY
Many Singaporeans, through Our Singapore Conversation platforms, have been sharing their hopes for Singapore – the kind of home we want to build for our families and our children. There has been a rich diversity of views. But a common set of aspirations is emerging, a common vision of the future that Singaporeans want:
• A home with a strong Singaporean identity and sense of belonging
• A Singapore with a robust and vibrant economy, and with good jobs that enable a more fulfilling pace of life
• A home with strong families, and where our seniors can age with dignity
• A society that takes care of the disadvantaged
• A Singapore with affordable living
• A society with greater sense of togetherness, and where the Government and the people have a more collaborative relationship
This is the Singapore that we want to build together.
The Government is making major moves to support this endeavour. Since 2010, we have embarked on major steps to transform our economy so as to create better jobs and allow for a better pace and quality of life. We are also making important shifts in social policies, as announced in last year’s Budget, to foster a fair and more inclusive society.
We will need to make further moves. So that by the end of the decade, we will have a better Singapore, a better future for all Singaporeans.
Immediate Challenges: Housing and Transport
First, we have pressing challenges in housing and transport. The Government will spare no effort in resolving these problems.
We want to reduce the cost of housing relative to the income of young Singaporeans. Prices in the HDB resale market and private market have risen too rapidly in the cycle that began as we recovered from the 2009 economic crisis. We have taken major steps to cool the housing market. We have also ramped up the supply of HDB flats which will help first-time buyers book their flats faster as well as ease prices in the resale market. And we have increased supply of private housing through Government Land Sales. The Minister for National Development will speak more in COS about these immediate challenges as well as how we can ensure affordable, quality housing for Singaporeans over the longer term.
We have to make many improvements in public transport. Congestion and waiting times are a daily problem for Singaporeans. We are ramping up bus capacity, especially feeder services, to improve frequency and add new routes. We are accelerating the rollout of the additional 800 buses that we made provisions for last year. In addition, the Land Transport Authority will be tendering out routes to private operators.
Our rail network will expand by more than 50% by 2021. That is still eight years away. But in the meantime, we will see improvements that will help relieve congestion. Parts of the Downtown Line will start operating from the end of this year, and new trains will be added to existing lines from next year. We will also introduce other measures to reduce crowding, including significantly enhanced incentives for commuters who travel during the “shoulder” periods before and after the morning peak hour. The Minister for Transport will talk about these measures in the COS.
An Economy and Society in Transition
While we fix these immediate problems in housing and transport, we have to press on with our priorities to help Singaporeans have a better quality of life over the medium to long term.
We have to shift gears for an economy and society that is in transition.
We are no longer a developing economy, but we have not achieved the level of productivity and income of an advanced economy. At the same time, our own workforce is growing more slowly, and is gradually getting older.
We must make every effort to achieve quality growth: growth that is achieved mainly through innovation and higher productivity, and growth that will benefit all Singaporeans – our children, working families, our elderly and disabled.
Our strategies for achieving quality growth and an inclusive society are in fact tied inextricably together. Raising productivity is not just our most important economic priority, but enables us to build a better society. Higher productivity is the only sustainable way to raise incomes for ordinary Singaporeans, and provide jobs that give people a sense of responsibility and empowerment. Higher productivity is also necessary for us to shorten working hours over time and allow Singaporeans to enjoy a better work-life balance.
Our society is also facing the pressures of widening income disparities. This is happening in cities globally and in Asia, but it matters more to us because Singapore is not just a city but also a nation. We must take further steps to temper inequality. We also want to do more to enable our seniors to have a sense of economic security and fulfilment in their retirement years.
On both economy and society, therefore, we need to shift our thinking.
In government: where we are reshaping policies and driving new initiatives, especially to sustain social mobility and strengthen support for older Singaporeans.
In the business community: which has to innovate and adjust to the permanent reality of a tight labour market.
In our society at large: where we have to accord ordinary workers not just better pay but greater respect.
In the community: with non-profits and other voluntary groups pursuing the causes we all believe in, and working with an active partner in the government.
And for all of us individuals, to do our best to improve and to contribute to our country in our own ways.
Transforming Our Economy for Better Jobs
We are restructuring our economy. We began this in earnest in 2010, by:
• Tightening foreign worker inflows;
• Supporting enterprises in their efforts to upgrade operations and improve productivity; and
• Investing in our workers by heavily subsidising their training, in every skill.
We need to intensify this economic restructuring and skills upgrading so as to achieve quality growth. Although wages are going up in a tight labour market, productivity has lagged. If we do not do better in raising productivity, we will be caught in a situation where businesses lose competitiveness, and wages eventually stagnate. Both workers and businesses will be worse off.
We must help our SME sector revitalise itself. There are however wide divergences in efficiency amongst SMEs even in the same industries. Restructuring will unfortunately lead to some businesses being winnowed out, but the end result must be a vibrant and sustainable local SME sector. Every support must be provided to help the businesses which bring in more efficient techniques and service models, so they can grow in a tight labour market, and where possible make their mark internationally.
There are already many examples of SMEs transforming themselves, in every sector. For example in furniture manufacturing, local firms are training multi-skilled employees, relocating manpower-intensive activities, developing unique brands and carving a niche for themselves in overseas markets.
To make this economic transition, we must also harness the value of older Singaporeans and design jobs suited for them, as well as for other potential employees who are unable to work regular, full-time schedules. Flexible work practices must become more common, enabling employees to structure their work so that they have time for their families or for personal development like part-time courses. We should also make it possible for more employees to have the option of telecommuting from home or working from “smart work centres” near their homes, like what they have in Amsterdam and Seoul. The Government will work closely with businesses in these efforts.
Building a Fair and Inclusive Society
We are also taking major steps to ensure a fair and more inclusive society.
• First, to sustain social mobility. Meritocracy alone will not assure us of this. We therefore want to do more, starting from early in our children’s lives, to give the best leg up to those who start with a disadvantage. We cannot change the fact that children have different family backgrounds that bring very different advantages and disadvantages. But we want to find every way, at the pre-school and primary school levels, to help our children from poorer or less stable families to develop confidence and the self-belief that gives them aspirations of their own, and to help them catch up when they fall behind. And we will provide pathways to develop every skill and ability, so that every child can discover his strengths as he grows up, and can do well.
• Second, we must do more to mitigate inequality. We are making our fiscal system more progressive, by tilting our taxes and benefits in favour of the lower- and middle-income groups.
Currently:
i. A lower-income older worker receives a significant top-up of his income through Workfare each year.
ii. A middle-income family with a child in child care gets subsidies of $4,800 per year. If the child is in university, he can receive more than $8,500 in bursaries over the course of his studies, and get a subsidised government loan to pay off the remaining fees and cover study expenses. Children from lower-income families receive far more.
iii. Singaporeans with disabilities now receive substantially greater support. Both when young through early intervention under EIPIC, and as adults, where we provide a substantial incentive through the Special Employment Credit (SEC) for firms to employ them so that they can contribute and lead more independent lives.
iv. An older Singaporean in need of long term care can receive subsidies of $870 per month for home-based care or $1,200 per month if he is in a nursing home, following the changes we introduced last year. Those who need more help will get it through Medifund.
We will take further, significant steps in this Budget towards strengthening social mobility and increasing the progressivity and fairness of our system. In particular, with enhancements to Workfare, a low-wage worker who is 60 years old would receive a top-up of his pay of about 30%. This is in addition to what his employer can receive through the SEC, and the new Wage Credit Scheme, to be introduced in this year’s Budget, which will encourage his employer to up his pay.
While raising incomes is the best way to help lower- and middle- income Singaporeans cope with rising costs, this Budget will also include measures to help them more immediately. The most significant support will go to older Singaporeans, to help them with medical costs.
Taking all our measures together, including those which will be announced in this Budget, we are providing substantial benefits to lower- and middle-income Singaporeans. The full picture can be seen if we look at benefits over a lifetime, starting from a couple’s needs when they first have children, to the time they get old and need other types of help, especially with healthcare costs.
In total, over a lifetime, a young low-income couple with two children can expect to receive more than $600,000 in benefits in real terms (2013 dollars). (This comes from subsidies and other means-tested benefits for their children’s education, housing, healthcare, Workfare, the GST Voucher, and other schemes.)
This is much more than we used to provide in the past. In the last decade alone, we have more than doubled the lifetime benefits in real terms for such families.
When we take into account all the taxes that such low-income families will pay (mainly GST), they will get back far more in benefits. In fact, they will get more than five dollars in benefits for every dollar in taxes paid.
However, today’s generation of older Singaporeans will not benefit as much as younger Singaporeans from the enhancements in Workfare and CPF and other schemes. We want to do more for this senior generation of Singaporeans, who worked over the years, often with low pay, to build a better future for their children. They made today’s Singapore possible. We will do more for them. The Government is reviewing the system of healthcare financing and some other schemes to help them in their retirement years.
Finally, the Budget will make significant investments to nurture the sports and arts, which play a growing role in enriching life in Singapore. Over the next five years, we will invest 30% more in sports programmes, and more than double our investments to develop regional- and community-level sports facilities. The Government will also create a new Cultural Donation Matching Fund, to provide dollar-for-dollar matching for donations to the arts and culture.
In short, we are building a better Singapore: a more inclusive and caring society, with an innovative and dynamic economy, so that Singaporeans can have better opportunities and more fulfilling lives.
http://www.singaporebudget.gov.sg/budget…/budget_speech.html