The Taipei-based Harmony Home Association Taiwan held its most successful fundraiser ever yesterday to support its continuing campaign to help people and babies with HIV/AIDS, but added that more funding was needed.
The association, established in 2003, said more than NT$2.5 million (US$86,000) was raised within three hours, with many celebrities and dignitaries attending to show their support.
However, the amount was still less than the association’s monthly expenses of about NT$3.5 million, founder and secretary-general Nicole Yang (楊捷) said.
In addition to helping 100 adults and 40 babies nationwide, the group also provides assistance to at least 1,000 HIV-positive people in China.
“We’re very grateful, but we hope people can consistently provide financial assistance to those in need, rather than giving on impulse,” she said.
HIV and AIDS have drawn attention lately after two hospitals in Taiwan improperly transplanted organs from an HIV-positive person to five patients on Aug. 24.
Asked if the case had any effect on donations, Yang did not answer directly, but said such an incident raised public awareness and gave people the chance to learn more about the disease.
“Only with the right information and knowledge can one prevent and control such a disease,” she said.
The fundraiser, sponsored by Trend Media & Publication, featured 100 one-of-a-kind rings, provided by Stephanie Chang, a jewelry designer whose pieces have been included in nearly every Sotheby’s New York auction since 2000.
Those who donated NT$30,000 or more had a chance to win one of Chang’s rings.
“Each ring is unique and special in its color and shape,” she said, adding that she made the 100 rings to show her support for the cause.
“It is just a beginning and I hope more people will be willing to show their support,” Chang said.
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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