A group of 40 volunteers gathered by the Taiwan-based International Cooperation and Development Fund (ICDF) will soon depart for overseas service, an ICDF spokesman said yesterday.
They have received six months of training in languages, cultural adaptation, self-defense and professional knowledge to help them adjust to overseas volunteer life, the spokesman said.
The ICDF, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs-affiliated organization in charge of government aid to poor countries, is entering its 11th year of sending service volunteers overseas, the spokesman said.
The organization's efforts in operating the program have attracted the attention and interest of many Taiwanese, the spokesman said, adding that over 300 people applied for the program this year.
Both the number of people enrolled and selection of volunteers this year hit record highs, the spokesman said.
The ICDF selected forty volunteers, including recent graduates, workers, retiring overseas school principals and returning ICDF volunteers. They will head to 13 different developing countries.
They will provide assistance in many different areas such as Mandarin instruction, medical care, computer information training, counseling on agricultural technology and business and physical education.
Three volunteers last year joined an aid program to Costa Rica in Central America last year, but ended their services when the country broke off diplomatic relations with Taiwan in June. They have returned to the volunteer service force again, and will head to Paraguay in South America and the Marshall Islands in the western Pacific, the spokesman said.
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