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.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
Taiwanese celebrities Hank Chen (陳漢典) and Lulu Huang (黃路梓茵) announced yesterday that they are planning to marry. Huang announced and posted photos of their engagement to her social media pages yesterday morning, joking that the pair were not just doing marketing for a new show, but “really getting married.” “We’ve decided to spend all of our future happy and hilarious moments together,” she wrote. The announcement, which was later confirmed by the talent agency they share, appeared to come as a surprise even to those around them, with veteran TV host Jacky Wu (吳宗憲) saying he was “totally taken aback” by the news. Huang,
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) put Taiwan in danger, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday, hours after the de facto US embassy said that Beijing had misinterpreted World War II-era documents to isolate Taiwan. The AIT’s comments harmed the Republic of China’s (ROC) national interests and contradicted a part of the “six assurances” stipulating that the US would not change its official position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, Hsiao said. The “six assurances,” which were given by then-US president Ronald Reagan to Taiwan in 1982, say that Washington would not set a date for ending arm sales to Taiwan, consult
RSS