The many stories related to Taiwan’s decades-long tradition of giving aid to other countries could be adapted into a film, including the program “A Lamp Lighting Up Africa” that Taiwan is promoting in Burkina Faso Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) on Sunday said.
The films could be shown next year as part of celebrations for the Republic of China’s 100th founding anniversary, Wu said while hosting a dinner for Taiwanese diplomats and expatriates upon his arrival in the West African ally on a one-week visit.
The lamp project, for example, could be adapted into a TV drama centered on a protagonist who goes to Burkina Faso to carry out the work, blended with issues such as kinship and friendship, Wu said.
PHOTO: CNA
The project is aimed at bringing electric light to the homes of -disadvantaged Burkina Faso students, who are often forced to study on the streets at night by the light of street lamps because they do not have electric lights at home.
Under the program, systems that generate power using photovoltaic cells have been installed in participating schools and each student has been given an LED lighting kit equipped with a rechargeable battery that lasts four-and-a-half hours. The children can recharge their lamps at school and bring them home to use at night.
Wu is the first Taiwanese premier to visit the Burkina Faso since the two countries resumed diplomatic ties in 1994. The main purpose of the visit was to attend the inauguration yesterday of Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore for a new term.
During his stay, Wu will also host the completion ceremony for a Taiwan-funded vocational -training center and visit a new hospital, which was constructed with the help of a loan from a Taiwanese bank. The hospital is scheduled to open next year.
Immediately after his arrival earlier in the day, Wu had brief discussions with Burkina Faso officials at the airport, in which he expressed hope that bilateral -cooperation can be further enhanced.
Burkina Faso Minister of Agriculture Laurent Sedego said the rice output of his country had doubled thanks to the assistance of an agricultural technical mission from Taiwan. As a result of the assistance, the minister said, within two years the country will no longer be dependent on imported rice.
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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