The International Cooperation Development Fund (ICDF) yesterday launched an exhibition highlighting the accomplishments of the state-funded humanitarian and outreach organization.
Taiwan dispatched its first overseas humanitarian mission, Operation Vanguard, in December 1959 to Vietnam to provide agricultural assistance to local farmers, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Javier Hou (侯清山) said.
In the decades since, the fund’s projects have dotted the map, with programs in Africa, South America and the South Pacific.
Hou said, Taiwan used to be a recipient of aid from other governments. In the 1950s, it received approximately US$100 million per year in aid from the US, Japan, Saudi Arabia and international organizations, he said, which represented roughly 9 percent of annual GDP.
Swazi Ambassador Njabuliso Gwebu said the fund had a “great presence” in her country.
Taiwan’s agricultural mission to Swaziland started in 1969, she said, one year after the country gained independence from Britain.
“Taiwan’s assistance has greatly improved the lives and quality of our farmers. ICDF has not only offered assistance to our farmers, it has helped to establish a handicraft center by teaching the people about sewing and carpentry,” she said. “Now it is also helping us in computer skills.”
In Nicaragua, the fund has helped locals with the lemongrass industry.
The herb is now processed for drinks and other products and exported to the US and Europe.
International food and drink giants such as Starbucks procure the raw materials from Nicaragua in products such as tea.
The fund also collaborates with more than 35 hospitals in Taiwan to provide medical assistance to developing countries in the form of mobile medical missions, medical training and clinical demonstrations.
In terms of education, thousands of students from Taiwan’s allied countries have pursued advanced degrees in Taiwan on ICDF scholarships since the fund’s creation.
The exhibit is at the Foreign Service Center in Taipei and will run until June 5. Entry is free.
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:
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