To present Taiwan as a contributor to the international community, a local non-governmental organization (NGO) yesterday signed an agreement to donate US$16,000 to assist 100 orphans from Taiwan's African ally of Malawi.
The Chinese Fund for Children and Families/Taiwan signed an agreement at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) with Malawi's ambassador to Taiwan yesterday to donate US$16,000 to help 100 orphans in Malawi.
"To my knowledge, it is the first aid program specifically targeted at children in Malawi [by local NGOs]," Eunice Kazembe, Ambassador of the Embassy of the Republic of Malawi in Taiwan, said.
Hosting the signing ceremony, Vice Foreign Minister David Lee (
Kazembe said the aid would be appreciated by people in Malawi where AIDS as well as other diseases have afflicted the country.
"About 14 percent of the population has AIDS, with about 600,000 orphans left as of last year. That number is growing," Kazembe said.
"The problem is that sometimes both of their parents died, and these orphans were left with their grandparents. Sometimes these grandparents would be left with children not just from one of their children but several," Kazembe said.
"Sometimes the orphans don't have AIDS, but they still have serious economic problems because both of their parents have died of AIDS and their grandparents have no means to support them economically. But if they have AIDS, their problem is simply compounded," the ambassador added.
The donation yesterday was only part of the longstanding assistance aid programs Taiwan is involved in overseas.
Last year, Taiwan donated 5 million condoms in January to Liberia to help prevent the spread of AIDS.
Of the estimated 31 million people diagnosed with AIDS around the world, over two-thirds of them live in Africa. UN statistics also shows that in 1998, over 2 million Africans died of AIDS while another 200,000 lost their lives in various civil wars in the African continent.
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