The government will continue to support a humanitarian group in the Czech Republic that provides services to Ukrainian refugees, a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) and the group in Prague on Tuesday said.
The MOU paves the way for a new round of cooperation between Taiwan and the Czech group — People in Need — in a joint effort to assist Ukrainian refugees in the Czech Republic, the ministry said on Wednesday.
Through the joint project, the Czech group would provide shelter for young Ukrainians fleeing the ongoing war at home and offer counseling services to refugees in the Czech Republic, ministry said.
Photo: Huang Chin-hsuen, Taipei Times
With a budget of US$283,252, the project, which is to run until the end of this year, is expected to help 4,825 displaced Ukrainians, the ministry told the Central News Agency, without specifying if the government would be the source of the funding.
Taiwan in 2022 donated US$1 million to People in Need to support its programs aiding the education and integration of displaced Ukrainian children in Czech schools, along with other assistance.
The US$1 million in funding was part of the US$32 million that the ministry raised from private citizens in Taiwan shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The MOU was signed between Representative to the Czech Republic Ke Liang-ruey (柯良叡) and People in Need executive director Simon Panek.
The deal was lauded by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中), who took part in the signing ceremony remotely from Taipei, as another “milestone” for Taiwan-Czechia collaborations in their help for Ukraine, the ministry said in a news release.
Panek was cited in the release as expressing gratitude for Taiwan’s aid to Ukraine, citing how countless Ukrainian refugees had benefited from Taiwan’s support.
The ministry in its release also reaffirmed Taiwan’s commitment to supporting Ukraine as the war continues and to keep working with the Czech Republic to provide humanitarian assistance to Ukrainian refugees.
Czech Commissioner for Human Rights Klara Simackova Laurencikova also took part in the signing ceremony in Prague, the release said.
Founded in 1992, People in Need has grown to become the largest humanitarian organization in the Czech Republic and one of the most important non-governmental organizations in central and eastern Europe, the ministry said.
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires