The parents of two children from Palau yesterday expressed their gratitude to the people of Taiwan for paying for cranio-facial operations to repair their childrens' cleft palates.
A cleft lip and palate occur when a baby is born with an opening in the roof of their mouth (palate) and the upper lip does not fully form.
"We are very grateful that our baby has been able to benefit from the surgery and to do so for free, because we could never have afforded it," said Mrs. Ngedebuu, the mother of 18-month-old Delson Ngedebuu, one of the children.
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), this was the first time the government has provided free medical treatment to foreign nationals. It did so after receiving a request from the government of Palau, an archipelago nation of some 18,000 people and over 200 islands in the the western central Pacific Ocean.
"Though Taiwan was excluded from this year's World Health Assembly (WHA), we [Taiwan] are willing to give medical assistance when we can to foreign friends in need," Shia Ji-chang (夏季昌), section chief of MOFA's Department of Information and Cultural Affairs, told the Taipei Times.
Taiwan's bid for observer status in the WHA, the highest decision-making body of the WHO, suffered a setback early this week in Geneva, as Taiwan's plea was not put on the meeting's agenda.
Ngedebuu gave her thanks while speaking to reporters as her family and that of the other child, two-year-old Reign Kazuyuki, attended an appointment with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Eugene Chien (
The minister personally congratulated the families and thanked the Chang Kung Memorial Hospital for successfully carrying out the operations.
"By providing such help to other nations, we are reaching out to the international community and showing the world that the people of Taiwan are mature and responsible citizens of the global community," Chien said.
According to the MOFA, upon receiving the letter from the Palau government in January requesting Taiwan's help in treating the children, the ministry contacted major hospitals seeking volunteer assistance from medical institutions to conduct the operation.
The Palauan government told the ministry that the two children were from poor families and "in serious need of treatment."
Taiwan was approached not only because it has sent doctors to help in Palau's hospitals before, but also because no hospitals in Palau have expertise in cranio-facial surgery.
The Chang Kung Memorial Hospital was the first to respond and conducted the two operations on May 8.
Cleft lip and palate occurs in one of every 500 to 1,000 babies. It is one of the most common birth defects.
Doctors and scientists know how cleft palates form, but they do not have a complete explanation for why clefts occur, or what causes them.
A combination of the child's inherited traits and the environment within the mother's womb during pregnancy is thought to be the most likely cause of clefting in infants. In some way, the growth and development of the face are disrupted, resulting in a cleft.
Asked whether the operations signaled that Taiwan would provide free medical treatment to all foreign nationals who came begging, Shia told the Taipei Times that requests would be dealt with on a case-by-case basis, taking into account the patient's financial circumstances and whether his or her country could provide the treatment.
He said that if Taiwan had the necessary degree of medical expertise in the relevant field, the government would be pleased to assist in cases of genuine need.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
A pro-Russia hacker group has launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on the Taiwanese government in retaliation for President William Lai’s (賴清德) comments suggesting that China should have a territorial dispute with Russia, an information security company said today. The hacker group, NoName057, recently launched an HTTPs flood attack called “DDoSia” targeting Taiwanese government and financial units, Radware told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). Local tax bureaus in New Taipei City, Keelung, Hsinchu and Taoyuan were mentioned by the hackers. Only the Hsinchu Local Tax Bureau site appeared to be down earlier in the day, but was back
PROXIMITY: Prague is closer to Dresden than Berlin is, so Taiwanese firms are expected to take advantage of the Czech capital’s location, the Executive Yuan official said Taiwan plans to boost cooperation with the Czech Republic in semiconductor development due to Prague’s pivotal role in the European IC industry, Executive Yuan Secretary-General Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said. With Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) building a wafer fab in the German city of Dresden, a Germany-Czech Republic-Poland “silicon triangle” is forming, Kung said in a media interview on the weekend after returning from a visit to Prague. “Prague is closer to Dresden than Berlin is, so Taiwanese firms are expected to take advantage of the Czech capital’s location,” he said. “Taiwan and Prague have already launched direct flights and it is
RSS