Members of the North American Taiwanese Medical Association (NATMA) arrived in Paraguay on Friday to offer free medical treatment to thousands of people.
“This is a group of doctors who share the same spirit as Albert Schweitzer. They will showcase Taiwan’s advanced medical achievements and humanitarian values,” Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles Dirctor-General Abraham Chu (朱文祥) said at a news conference on Thursday with the medical team.
The NATMA team is comprised of 47 doctors, dentists, acupuncturists, massage therapists, pharmacists and their assistants.
They are paying for their own trips and would be taking 24 boxes of equipment and 10 boxes of medicine with them.
The team plans to offer free treatment to 800 to 1,000 patients every day for five days.
They will be received and assisted by the Paraguayan Ministry of Public Health and Social Welfare and the office of First Lady Silvana Lopez Moreira de Abdo.
In the past, the team often donated medical equipment and other supplies on their trips, which typically cost tens of thousands of US dollars.
Speaking about his most unforgettable experience, NATMA chairman Daniel Hsu (許正雄) said that he once saved the life of a Guatemalan child, who had lost consciousness due to blood poisoning.
He also performed a surgery to help a Guatemalan man who had been avoiding people because he had tumors all over his body, Hsu said.
NATMA president Alex Chiu (邱俊杰), who has participated in more than 10 trips, said he once saw a child born with defective sphincter in Nicaragua. The child’s intestines would fall out and touch the ground when he squatted, he said.
Due to restrictions at their medical facilities, the team was unable to perform the surgery the child needed, but donated money so that he could receive treatment at a major hospital, Chiu said.
“People in the medical sector are born with a desire to help others and that is what drives us to offer free medical treatment to people,” he added.
NATMA’s trip to the nation’s only diplomatic ally in South America will be an example of how “Taiwan can help,” he said, referring to a slogan promoted by the Ministry of the Foreign Affairs to lobby for the nation’s participation in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change that began in Poland on Monday last week.
International relations are no longer restricted to government interactions, he said, adding that civil groups can be of great advantage on a wide range of issues, such as climate change, fighting terrorism and money laundering.
Since 2005, NATMA has offered free treatment in Costa Rica, Panama, Haiti, Nicaragua, Grenada, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, Myanmar and Cambodia.
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