President Ma Ying-jeou met on the morning of March 20 with Kiwanis International President John Button, Mrs. Button, and directors and supervisors from the Taiwan District of Kiwanis International. President Ma applauded the longstanding work of the Kiwanis in children's and community services, and also introduced the substantives measures taken by the ROC government to promote children's welfare.
In remarks, President Ma stated that this year marks the 100th anniversary of the Kiwanis International. Since its founding in 1915, the organization has expanded to over 16,000 chapters in over 80 countries around the world. The Taiwan District of Kiwanis International presently consists of 16 sub-districts, 320 chapters, and over 13,000 members. In addition, the local district has for five consecutive years been awarded the Kiwanis International "Best Performance by a District and Nations" award. Meanwhile, Taiwan has been selected as one stop on the Kiwanis Centennial Tour, showing that the Taiwan District's efforts and contributions have been widely recognized by the Kiwanis internationally, the president said.
President Ma stated that Kiwanis International began promoting its Eliminate Maternal/Neonatal Tetanus (MNT) Project in 2010, and that he personally donated US$1,250 to this cause, becoming a Walter Zeller Fellow, in a gesture of concrete support. The president added that the Taiwan District in March of this year again won first place internationally for the amount it has donated to this cause.
President Ma further commented that the last case of maternal/neonatal tetanus in Taiwan was recorded in 2001, and thus has met the criteria as a "low risk" area by the World Health Organization. In 2013, however, neonatal tetanus deaths still totaled 49,000 throughout the world, and consequently Taiwan is pleased to work together with the world community to eradicate this disease, thereby saving the precious lives of more infants, he said.
Discussing concrete measures taken by the government to protect the interests of children, President Ma said that as of the end of February of this year the number of children and youth in Taiwan stood at 4.15 million, accounting for 18% of the total population. To reduce the economic burden on families raising young children, the government provides childcare subsidies to households in which one of the parents stays at home to take care of children two years of age or under. The president cited statistics indicating that last year, 258,000 individuals benefited from this program, with the government paying out allowances of NT$5.1 billion. The government also provides daycare subsidies, providing monthly allowances of between NT$2,500 and NT$5,000 for households that send children under two years of age to daycare facilities. Last year, over 62,000 people received this funding, with total subsidies coming to NT$1.25 billion. Meanwhile, the government continues to provide health care subsidies for children less than three years old, and financial assistance to pay for health insurance for children from underprivileged households. Last year, the number of discrete beneficiaries of this assistance was 15.18 million people, he said.
President Ma remarked that the United Nations (UN) in 1989 formally passed the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Even though the ROC lost its representation in the UN in 1971, the Legislative Yuan still passed the Enforcement Act for the Convention on the Rights of the Child, incorporating the convention's provisions into domestic law. The president explained that this law formally went into effect on November 20 last year, which was Universal Children's Day, helping to safeguard the rights and interests of children and youth.
President Ma also explained that Taiwan has already become an exporter of compassionate assistance, pointing out that through the Taiwan Fund for Children and Families, World Vision, and other groups, the people of Taiwan are providing financial sponsorship on a regular basis to 340,000 underprivileged children, of whom some 230,000 live overseas. The president also mentioned that last July on a visit to the Republic of El Salvador, he met with Melvin Antonio Perez, a boy there who he has sponsored. During that visit, he learned that individuals from Taiwan are sponsoring roughly 5,500 children in El Salvador, more than any other country except the United States and Canada. On a per capita basis, the ROC's sponsorship of children in El Salvador would be ranked at the top. The president added that 140 countries and areas throughout the world provide ROC nationals with visa-free courtesies or landing visas, which proves that the ROC is respected and appreciated by other countries around the world.
Also in the delegation was Taiwan District of Kiwanis International Governor Chuang Kuei-Sheng (莊貴盛).