United as one for overcoming the pandemic, SinoPac Holdings announces donation of NT$30 million to support the disadvantaged communities
[June 28, 2021, Taipei] SinoPac Holdings announced today (June 28) that its subsidiaries, Bank SinoPac and SinoPac Securities, would jointly donate about NT$30 million worth of cash, supplies, and equipment to social enterprise organizations that provide emergency food relief (food bank), social welfare foundations, county governments, and medical institutions for overcoming the pandemic. The donation focuses on emergency relief and care for disadvantaged communities as well as the provision of pandemic prevention equipment, hoping to be hand in hand with the public for combating the pandemic and overcoming these difficult times with the assistance of the enterprises.
SinoPac Holdings stated that in the wake of the pandemic, Taiwan was placed under Level 3 COVID alert and the medical systems were straining due to the escalating number of confirmed cases. In addition to affecting the operation of the economy and society, the disadvantaged communities are in a tougher situation now. Therefore, SinoPac Holdings rendered support in the areas of emergency relief resources and pandemic prevention equipment with the purpose of combating the pandemic together with the public. SinoPac Holdings stated that the combat against the COVID-19 is a long and arduous journey and as long as the public stands as one, we will be able to beat the virus and resume our normal lives.
SinoPac Holdings pointed out that with regards to the emergency relief and pandemic prevention equipment, in an effort to ensure that the resources can be effectively distributed and match the needs of the assisted parties during the pandemic period, in-depth conversations were specially held with various organizations to discuss specific actual needs before corresponding donations were made out. In the future, SinoPac Holdings will continue to pay close attention to the livelihoods of disadvantaged communities and the various pandemic prevention equipment required by the healthcare system in order to achieve the objective of providing long-term protection and timely support.
In terms of food resources, SinoPac Holdings will collaborate with Homeless Taiwan, Alliance of Taiwan Foodbanks, Mennonite Social Welfare Foundation and Department of Ethnology, College of Social Sciences National Chengchi University to provide food and resources to the homeless, disadvantaged families, the people living in rural areas, and the elderly living alone through these professional institutions. Pandemic prevention resources and daily meals can thus be provided via these community relations and social care networks which have been established over a long period of time. Some of these organizations support local businesses through the establishment of a production chain of pandemic prevention food packs and the creation of short-term job opportunities such as delivery workers, essentially playing an important role in the support of the local communities during the pandemic by alleviating the economic pressure of low-income families.
In terms of pandemic prevention equipment, the pandemic has highlighted the plight of digital learning for students living in rural areas. SinoPac Holdings will collaborate with Taiwan Fund for Children and Families (TFCF) and other organizations to donate IT equipment to the disadvantaged children and youths living in rural areas and teachers and students with insufficient resources. This would narrow the gap of digital learning between urban and rural areas, and enabling the students to have equal opportunities in digital learning and ensure uninterrupted learning.
As for medical pandemic prevention equipment, a total of four COVID-19 screening booths were donated, of which one was to the Hsinchu City Government, one was to the Taichung City Government and two were to the Tainan City Government. On top of that, UVC disinfection robot systems were donated to complement the environmental disinfection of high-risk areas such as negative pressure isolation rooms in hospitals, etc. to reduce the risk of infection due to incomprehensive manual disinfection.