Our core mission is to give disadvantaged children and their families the support they need to lead happy, fulfilling lives. As we do so, we’re also eyeing ways to help other parts of the community.To do this, we conduct on-the-ground work and proactively integrate resources from across the CTBC group.The social problems facing underprivileged children and families are our main concern, particularly in relation to poverty and education. We address these challenges through a range of programs and efforts, the most notable of which you can read about below.
The Light up a Life fundraising campaign is the CTBC Charity Foundation’s biggest annual event. It is also where the corporation's promise to promote happiness began.
Launched in 1985, Light Up a Life was a pioneer for Taiwan as it was the country’s first charity campaign launched by a private enterprise. Now, well over three decades later, it is also Taiwan’s longest-running charity fundraiser.
The idea for the campaign came to CTBC Financial Holding’s founder, Dr. Jeffrey Koo Sr., following holiday celebrations in the U.S. After experiencing the warmth of Christmas in Times Square, Koo returned home to a much different sight: Taiwanese children huddling through winter in poverty. He and his wife Mitzi Koo were deeply moved by the stark contrast, and Light Up a Life was born.
In the time since, the scale of the event has expanded, but the original convictions and intentions behind it remain unchanged.
The direct link between poor economic circumstances and poor childhood psychological, physical, and learning development – and resulting problems later in life – is something we come face to face with all too often.
And it is why we started the Taiwan Dream Project in 2015.
For the grassroots program, we work with communities to set up local centers that provide disadvantaged children with nutritional meals and educational help. In addition, we mobilize community groups and volunteers to create a social security network for children and youth, so instead of killing time on the streets after school, they can get some food and help with their homework at a Taiwan Dream Project center.
It really does take a village to raise a child, and through the Taiwan Dream Project,we’re harnessing volunteer and community spirit to ensure children have access to the support they deserve.
We long ago found that one of the best mediums through which to reach young children in rural areas is sports, especially Taiwan’s national pastime, baseball. That’s why we launched the CTBC Youth Baseball Project.
Launched by the CTBC Charity Foundation in 2014, the program supports little league and junior league baseball teams nationwide. Our key intention with this program is to use the teamwork and disciplinary requirements of baseball to help participants complete their schooling.
A key part of the project is developing long-term partnerships with rural elementary schools and providing them with resources. In addition to helping with the development of baseball teams, the project funds meals, after-school tutoring, and sports equipment upgrades, ensuring healthy physical and mental development.
Furthermore, as part of our baseball-related efforts, we built CTBC Park in Yanpu Township in southern Taiwan’s Pingtung County. Opened in 2015, it is the first professional-grade facility in Taiwan to provide off-site training for little league teams. The site provides squads from rural and remote areas with a richer practical experience and empowers their players to persevere in their academic and personal lives. We also hold the annual CTBC Baseball Championship to provide young players with a stage on which to test their mettle against one another.
Many parents of struggling families have their own humble dream, namely being in a position to themselves provide for their loved ones. To help these families, and inspired by the Grameen Bank microfinancing concept of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, we established the CTBC Poverty Alleviation Program.
We took the concept and tweaked it for the Taiwan context. Combining our expertise in entrepreneurship counseling, lending, social work, and business planning, the program provides microloans to some of the most creative and hardest-working people you’ll ever meet.
Since 2011, the CTBC Poverty Alleviation Program has assisted families, who have gone on to start successful businesses and escape poverty.
Driven by the belief that poverty can be effectively overcome through education, the CTBC Charity Foundation has broadened its scope to include students in need abroad.
Our overseas outreached started in China in 2013, when we launched the Caring for China's Next Generation on Campus program. The program identifies underdeveloped, remote, and ethnic minority areas, in each of which a school is selected as an educational demonstration site and funds are provided to purchase teaching equipment.
Wherever one of our volunteers is in action, you’ll be able to spot them. Whether they’re reading an English storybook to a child in a remote village or collecting Light Up a Life donations outside a metro station,they’ll be wearing the distinctive green CTBC volunteer vest.
They come from various subsidiaries and departments of CTBC and are of every demographic, but when you see them in the vest, you know they all share at least one important trait: a common belief in doing what they can for those less fortunate than them.
