A local charity group's recent success in a regional competition for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) has increased the exposure of Taiwan's NGOs on the international stage, President Chen Shui-bian (
The Garden of Hope, an advocacy group for abused and at-risk girls and mothers, set a tremendous example for Taiwanese NGOs after being named "NGO of the Year" at the inaugural Asia-Pacific NGO Awards in Manila on Sept.16, Chen and foundation representatives said during a press conference in Taipei.
The awards, organized by Citigroup and the British nonprofit group Resource Alliance, recognized outstanding regional philanthropic associations for quality of operations, delivery of service and transparency in administration. The Garden of Hope beat 75 other NGOs to take first place. It was the only Taiwanese NGO among the eight finalists.
"Winning this award is proof of everybody's efforts at the Garden of Hope. It means that the hard work of Taiwan's NGOs has received recognition in the international arena," Chen said.
"NGOs are a powerful instrument for change in Taiwan's society. A just society needs more cooperation between NGOs and the government to educate and guide people. Together, we can build a peaceful, healthy space where our youth can grow," he said.
The Garden of Hope said it was planning to share the US$10,000 prize money equally among five areas of concern: the work of the women's group Samaritana in the Philippines, the establishment of a Garden of Hope branch on Kinmen, the Hope Basketball Project in Nantou County, the New York branch of the Garden of Hope, and building a women's service center in Taitung.
"We hope the money can act as a base to multiply the benefits throughout the community," foundation executive director Chi Hui-jung (
All organizations in the competition were singled out for their potential and worthiness, Chi said.
The foundation used yester-day's press conference to present its new logo and identify five goals for local NGOs in the coming five years.
These included increasing cooperation between NGOs to bring about social change and empowerment, increasing international exposure for local NGOs, establishing a common resource base for all organizations and promoting the ISO 9001 management system to increase the groups' efficiency.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching