Two buildings constructed in Nepal with funds from the Taiwanese chapter of a non-governmental organization (NGO) are to be opened later this month, providing classrooms and dormitories for orphans, the Taipei-based World League for Freedom and Democracy (WLFD) said.
The buildings on two school campuses in the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu, have been named WLFD Taipei-Nepal Friendship School Houses and are to be formally opened on April 23 at a ceremony hosted by WLFD president Yao Eng-chi (饒穎奇), the organization said.
At the opening ceremony, Yao is to transfer management of the buildings to the Nepalese government, the organization said.
Nepal faces about 10,000 deaths from AIDS each year, leaving hundreds of thousands of orphans, the WLFD said, adding that amid a weak economy, many schools in Nepal are run down and poor children in remote areas are forced to drop out to work.
Yao decided to initiate a program aimed at providing educational opportunities for disadvantaged Nepalese children, the organization said.
The Taiwan chapter of the WLFD, through a fundraising campaign, was able to donate enough money to construct two buildings, it said.
The WLFD was founded as the Asian People’s Anti-Communist League in 1954 by the leaders of the Republic of China, South Korea and the Philippines. It was renamed in 1991.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) mention of Taiwan’s official name during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Wednesday was likely a deliberate political play, academics said. “As I see it, it was intentional,” National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies professor Wang Hsin-hsien (王信賢) said of Ma’s initial use of the “Republic of China” (ROC) to refer to the wider concept of “the Chinese nation.” Ma quickly corrected himself, and his office later described his use of the two similar-sounding yet politically distinct terms as “purely a gaffe.” Given Ma was reading from a script, the supposed slipup
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