FEATURE: Nation’s single fathers are not getting enough help

By Loa Iok-sin
STAFF REPORTER
Wednesday, Aug 08, 2007, Page 4 For many single fathers, “Happy Fathers’ Day” is a wish rather than a reality, as the social resources that could help to alleviate the economic and psychological pressures they face every day are unavailable to them.

“There are as many as 740,000 single-parent households nationwide, of which 40 percent to 45 percent are single-father families,” said Chu Chien-fung (???), president of Single Parent Association of Taiwan, citing statistics by the Ministry of the Interior and Taipei City’s Department of Social Welfare during an interview on Monday.

Chu is a single father himself.

“The numbers are from last year, but the figures are from three years ago. I think it must have gone up since,” he said.

In Taichung, a citywide survey conducted last year by the Child Welfare League Foundation with elementary students in the fifth and the sixth grades found 120,000 single-father families in the city alone, Taichung City Shiang Ching Family Center director Wu Ying-chi (???) said.

The center was created by the foundation and Taichung City.

Although the number of single fathers is high, the help available to them is small.

“The government’s single-parent services are available only through women’s welfare departments,” Wu said.

The full story is here.