The Jin Hsin Industrial and Commercial Vocational High School in Pingtung County’s Chaojhou Township (潮州) has called for donations of shoes in usable condition and appropriate for African terrain.
The Step30 project seeks secondhand shoes to help people in the rural areas of Kenya and Uganda, who, due to lack of resources and poor sanitary conditions, are subject to sand flea bites from walking barefoot.
The vocational high school, in response to the project, had called for residents to deposit shoes at the school next week.
Photo: Chiu Chih-jou, Taipei Times
Despite the event having not yet officially started, residents began donating shoes to the school as early as last month.
According to the school, it has received more than 7,000 pairs of shoes since then.
However, the school said that nearly 1,000 of the pairs that have been received are no good.
Photo: Chiu Chih-jou, Taipei Times
Student Chen Chi-hui (陳佳慧) said that the school’s students helped organize the donated goods between classes.
Many of the shoes were smelly and dirty, while some had gaping holes, Chen said, adding that others, such as high heels, boots or sandals were not suitable to be sent to Africa.
Sifting out the large number of unsuitable shoes is adding to the volunteers’ workload, Chen said.
School official Shih Kuan-wei (施冠瑋) said that the school had begun verbally promoting the event last month, adding that while many of the donors had their heart in the right place, some of their donations had lacked some thought.
Shih said that the school is looking for more shoes for children aged two and three, adding that the school was also short on bags in which to put the shoes.
The school would welcome any donation of still-serviceable shoes and bags to put them in, Shih said.
One of Step30’s founders, Yang Yuan-ching (楊宛靜), traveled to Chaojhou to encourage the students involved in the project.
Seeing the amount of care and concern generated by the project, as well as seeing the students pulled away from their phones and games to become involved in helping others is a primary motivation for the organization, Yang said.
Yang also said that the organization faces challenges posed by the large number of volunteers needed to take in and sort donated shoes, the NT$600,000 fee per shipping crate, as well as difficulties establishing a channel of distribution once the donated items reach Kenya and Uganda.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard