Father Giuseppe Didone yesterday issued an open letter thanking Taiwanese for donating NT$120 million (US$3.98 million) in six days to a fundraising campaign he launched to help fight the COVID-19 outbreak in Italy.
Didone on Wednesday last week appealed for donations to the Camillian Saint Mary’s Hospital Luodong to purchase emergency medical provisions, including masks and protective gowns, for health workers in Italy.
Although the fundraising deadline was originally set for Wednesday next week, Didone said he had decided to stop accepting contributions yesterday after “exceeding all expectations” by raising NT$120 million from more than 20,000 donors.
Photo: Chiang Chih-hsiung, Taipei Times
In the letter, the priest said the hospital is determining what types of supplies it can purchase in Taiwan without breaching government restrictions on the purchase and export of medical supplies.
For items that cannot be purchased in Taiwan, the hospital will ask its parent organization — the Camillian order — for help obtaining them abroad, he said
The hospital also hopes to send a portion of the funds to Camillian order leadership in Italy to be used based on the recommendations of local public health authorities, Didone said.
“In the last few days, I’ve seen a late-stage cancer patient come to the hospital to make a donation. I’ve seen an old vegetable vendor waiting in line to donate surgical face masks and some of her earnings. Can you imagine how it has moved me to see this?” he said, adding that the outpouring of support from Taiwanese has “made me even more certain of the reason I decided to spend my life here.”
The hospital’s fundraisers said many of the donors wished to repay the order’s Italian priests, who have spent decades building healthcare services in rural Taiwan.
Didone, who first came to Taiwan in 1965 and is now in his 80s, established special care centers for intellectually disabled people in Penghu and Yilan counties, and currently works at Camillian Saint Mary’s Hospital in Luodong.
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