Creation of Digital Opportunities

Creation of Digital Opportunities

The foundation for digital opportunities were laid by CHT employees, who ventured into the rural areas to take on most of the broadband and mobile network constructions. On top of the hardware infrastructure, we provide contributions or preferential programs in communication products/services. Also, digital education for the communities in the rural areas have been made through the Chunghwa Telecom Foundation and the corporate volunteers.

Besides the care for the next generation’s growth, we further assist in the cultural industry in communities and facilitate placemaking. Through the bottom-up, all-round efforts, we endeavor to join forces to build Taiwan into a society of digital inclusion.

Chunghwa Telecom Foundation

Established in 2006, Chunghwa Telecom Foundation (CHTF) works in depth with the communities in Taiwan. With implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) as the point of departure, it aims to bridge the urban-rural divide in resources. Serving as a resource matching platform, it supplies resources such as community digital learning, youth volunteering for students, sports/cultural/art activities, transformation and marketing for local industries, and local placemaking assistance. In the process of community participation, it uncovers touching stories unique to the communities as well as featured local industries, serving as a force to support local communities in Taiwan to march onward.

In addition, CHTF established 89 “Good Digital Neighbors” across the country with partner offices available in the northern, central, southern and eastern regions of Taiwan as well as on the offshore islands, encompassing communities of the Minnan, Hakka, indigenous, and the sisters of New Immigrants. Through the connections and networking of the Good Digital Neighbors, we want residents, regardless of differences in group or age, to acquire digital opportunities and energy to bridge the urban-rural divide in resources.

Click Taiwan – Service Learning for Youth in Universities and Colleges

Since 2009 , CHTF invited youth in universities and colleges nationwide to go to “Good Digital Neighbors” across Taiwan during the summer vacation. Through on-site investigation, students uncover the needs in communities. Combined with their expertise, these students design and implement service programs catering to the local needs and document the processes in texts and images to share the wonderful stories of local communities. The university students involved carried out various services in the focused communities across Taiwan. With diversified courses and curriculums, they accompanied the elderly and children in the communities for a fruitful summer vacation. Meanwhile, they also conducted historical and cultural field research in the communities, designed pamphlets for the industries, shot root-seeking documentaries of the tribes, preserved local stories besides bringing forth new ideas and perspectives for the communities to facilitate the communities’ growth and bridge the urban-rural divide from diverse facets. As such, they ushered in more perspectives for the communities in the rural areas, introduced service solutions fit for the local needs on the ground, and flipped the local industries. The 13th “Click Taiwan” Program in 2022 developed the OMO model in response to the pandemic (including community management, online teaching for the elderly, community video production, collaborative production of community chronicles by students and communities, etc.). The in-person flash mob visits to local communities were conducted in the meantime. More energy and innovations were introduced to the tribes in the rural areas via the OMO model.

Support to Placemaking – “Click Taiwan Innovative Design Action”」

The Chunghwa Telecom Foundation saw the manpower and resource shortage locally and that the local industries were limited in terms of development. With 2020 as the starting point, it came up with the project of “Click Taiwan Innovative Design Action”. Together with the local industries and a social enterprise, it recruited designers with expertise in design and urban-rural development as well as teachers from universities and colleges. They teamed up and went into the designated communities. By tapping into their design power, they produced solutions for local industries jointly with their community partners. In 2022, we continued to take actions in local communities, assisting the Guogang Community at the Nuannuan District of Keelung, Happiness Food Social Enterprise in Pingtung, and the Xin Laiyi Tribe in Pingtung to flip the industrial landscapes together. In addition, at the end of the year, the "Result Presentation after Three Years of Click Taiwan" was organized to share with the public the tracks of efforts co-created with the local partners over the years.

Read with You “Community Network Tutoring”

From the impact of Typhoon Morakot in 2009 to date, Chunghwa Telecom has been supporting education in rural areas and digital learning. Through the corporate volunteers, the services are extended. Together with applications of teleconferencing technology, the tutoring education resources is delivered to the rural areas and the disadvantaged students via digital technology for the children of new generation in these areas to have a learning environment “of safety, with dignity, and full of hope.”