"Uninterrupted-Electricity Love"

Loving Generators Donation Generates “Uninterrupted-Electricity Love”

A power failure only brings inconvenience to ordinary people temporarily. However, it is a matter of life and death for the 3,000 plus patients in Taiwan who rely on electricity-powered cough assist machines, suction machines, respirators, and oxygen concentrators at home to sustain their lives.

To help these patients respond to this kind of emergency, the legislator Yang Yu-xin held a public hearing on August 27, 2013, inviting various social welfare organizations to have a dialogue with the government. In the wake of the hearing, the Ministry of Health and Welfare called an inter-ministerial meeting, inviting local governments and non-governmental organizations to seek a solution to this problem. With the collective efforts and the assistance of Master Zong Dao of the Pu Xian Temple in Sanxia, the Buddhist Huai Ren Foundation and the Pu Xian Temple jointly donated 100 power generators to patients in need. The Director of Social Assistance Li Mei-zhen of the Ministry of Health and Welfare designated TFRD as a distribution platform, and TFRD immediately contacted the relevant patient groups and appropriately forwarded these loving generators to them.

On December 30, 2013, at the donation press conference, Minister of Health and Welfare Qiu Wen-da revealed that during his 35-year career as a neurosurgeon, whenever a power outage occurred, he would rush to the intensive care unit if he was in the hospital then. If he was at home, he would go to the hospital as soon as possible, fearing that the patients would die due to power outages.

Master Zong Dao has cared for the disadvantaged for a long time. This time, he provided 100 generators to non-government organizations. TFRD received 40 units, Taiwan Motor Neuron Disease Patients Association 30 units, Taiwan Association for Happy Breathing Children 20 units, and Taipei Spinal Cord Injury Social Welfare Foundation 10 units.

3,241 patients across Taiwan are dependent on the electrical vital equipment. They can’t take the risk of power failures. On the same day, we also invited the patients to share what it is like to be “unable to live without electricity." Mr. Pan, a father of a patient, described the experience of having to call 119 to send his kid to the emergency room for electricity after failing to "borrow electricity" everywhere during a typhoon night. Cheng Cheng, who is only 5 years old, suffers from the defective mitochondria and muscle weakness which would constantly lead to sleep apnea. Cheng Cheng can’t sleep without a respirator. Every typhoon season, Cheng Cheng’s parents and the whole family have to wait by the elevator of the apartment building so that they can connect the respirator to the uninterrupted power supply system next to the elevator whenever necessary to prevent it from stopping operating. And Mr. Su, a 66-year-old Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) sufferer, has been ill for 12 years. He needs his wife to help with phlegm suction, turning over, and relocation. Mrs. Su helplessly said: "We are not like the family living in a building where a generator is available." So they are glad that there will be a loving generator to help them.

Translator: David Lee (Becker Muscular Dystrophy), Reviewer: Albert Kuo