An education program in Cambodia founded by a Taiwanese charity has benefited nearly 10,000 Cambodians over the past five years, which is comparable to a modern equivalent of the famed agricultural missions dispatched by the Taiwanese government to aid diplomatic allies in the 1960s.
The Cambodia-Taiwan Education Program was launched by the Taiwan Exquisite Culture and Education Association five years ago after the group, having funded a lunch program for orphanages in Cambodia with local priests, found that food relief would not lift orphans out of poverty, the program’s director, Hsu Chien-wen (許茜雯), said.
An occupational training subprogram was initiated this year to introduce 2,000 Cambodians to employment opportunities at Taiwanese businesses based in Cambodia over the next three years, Hsu said.
After emerging from the regime of the Khmer Rouge, Cambodia remains the poorest and most in need among Asian countries, she said, adding that the association decided to provide aid to the country as its efforts could be maximized with minimal budget in Cambodia, while the friendliness of Cambodians toward aid workers was also a factor.
“The philosophy of the association is: ‘We do what we can.’ It is within the power of the association to support Cambodia, although there are other countries in need of assistance,” she said.
Established with a limited amount of charitable donations, the education program was selective in providing aid, starting in cities and then expanding to remote areas, she said.
The program is mainly based on English and computer courses, as English is an international language, and digital literacy gaps have led to a widening wealth gap in the 21st century, so computer education is at the heart of the program, she said.
Kenny, a Cambodian manager of the program, said that although rural areas are in general underdeveloped and poverty-stricken, everyone knows that learning English and computer skills is key to changing the future, so parents are willing to sign their children up.
The program has offered Chinese courses in some regions to help young people find jobs in the tourism industry or with Taiwanese businesses, Hsu said.
Nearly 10,000 Cambodians have taken courses with the program, and the association launched an occupational training subprogram to provide sewing training this year, with trainees having completed the training to be recommended to Taiwanese companies, she said.
The program provides Taiwanese with an opportunity to perform volunteer work, with hundreds of Taiwanese students volunteering in Cambodia and learning by helping others each year, she said, adding that the program has helped promote Taiwan through charity work.
Left-Handed Girl (左撇子女孩), a film by Taiwanese director Tsou Shih-ching (鄒時擎) and cowritten by Oscar-winning director Sean Baker, won the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution at the Cannes Critics’ Week on Wednesday. The award, which includes a 20,000 euro (US$22,656) prize, is intended to support the French release of a first or second feature film by a new director. According to Critics’ Week, the prize would go to the film’s French distributor, Le Pacte. "A melodrama full of twists and turns, Left-Handed Girl retraces the daily life of a single mother and her two daughters in Taipei, combining the irresistible charm of
A Philippine official has denied allegations of mistreatment of crew members during Philippine authorities’ boarding of a Taiwanese fishing vessel on Monday. Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) spokesman Nazario Briguera on Friday said that BFAR law enforcement officers “observed the proper boarding protocols” when they boarded the Taiwanese vessel Sheng Yu Feng (昇漁豐號) and towed it to Basco Port in the Philippines. Briguera’s comments came a day after the Taiwanese captain of the Sheng Yu Feng, Chen Tsung-tun (陳宗頓), held a news conference in Pingtung County and accused the Philippine authorities of mistreatment during the boarding of
88.2 PERCENT INCREASE: The variants driving the current outbreak are not causing more severe symptoms, but are ‘more contagious’ than previous variants, an expert said Number of COVID-19 cases in the nation is surging, with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) describing the ongoing wave of infections as “rapid and intense,” and projecting that the outbreak would continue through the end of July. A total of 19,097 outpatient and emergency visits related to COVID-19 were reported from May 11 to Saturday last week, an 88.2 percent increase from the previous week’s 10,149 visits, CDC data showed. The nearly 90 percent surge in case numbers also marks the sixth consecutive weekly increase, although the total remains below the 23,778 recorded during the same period last year,
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is pushing for residents of Kinmen and Lienchiang counties to acquire Chinese ID cards in a bid to “blur national identities,” a source said. The efforts are part of China’s promotion of a “Kinmen-Xiamen twin-city living sphere, including a cross-strait integration pilot zone in China’s Fujian Province,” the source said. “The CCP is already treating residents of these outlying islands as Chinese citizens. It has also intensified its ‘united front’ efforts and infiltration of those islands,” the source said. “There is increasing evidence of espionage in Kinmen, particularly of Taiwanese military personnel being recruited by the
RSS