Fighting COVID-19 Together

Fighting COVID-19 Together, Accomplishment of Expanding Rare Disease Family Livelihood Assistance Subsidy

Because of the raging COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, people's health, life, social life, and economic activities have all been greatly affected. In May, TFRD readily launched the Rare Disease Family Livelihood Assistance Subsidy Plan to provide RD families with financial stability and help them go through the hard times so that the care for RD patients will not be suspended or reduced.

Due to the pandemic this year, many breadwinners of RD families have fallen into the predicament of furlough, layoffs, or business closures. The unexpected problems of unemployment or salary reduction have made economically-disadvantaged families even worse. TFRD immediately began accepting applications from RD families for the subsidy. As of the end of November, 70 cases have been approved and NT$ 1.62 million has been allocated to help nearly 300 family members to sustain their lives.

In these 70 cases, most of the main breadwinners are basic-level employees. Hit by COVID-19 this year, about 10 cases lost their jobs because of layoffs. The other 60 cases are undergoing a sharp drop in monthly income due to furlough or fewer working days, which makes it difficult for them to live on.

TFRD is very grateful to our society for caring about the needs of RD patients. From the beginning of this year, kind people from all walks of life donated many anti-pandemic materials such as masks, alcohol, cleaning liquid, and forehead thermometers. The financial support for RD families continues to flow into TFRD until today. The comprehensive care makes RD patients feel the warmth in the grueling year2020 when everyone is struggling to cope with.

Translator: David Lee (Becker Muscular Dystrophy)