The Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) yesterday announced a fundraising campaign to support survivors of the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck Myanmar on March 28, with two prayer events scheduled in Taipei and Taichung later this week.
“While initial rescue operations have concluded [in Myanmar], many survivors are now facing increasingly difficult living conditions,” OCAC Minister Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) told a news conference in Taipei.
The fundraising campaign, which runs through May 31, is focused on supporting the reconstruction of damaged overseas compatriot schools, assisting students from Myanmar in Taiwan, and providing essential items, such as drinking water, food and medical supplies, Hsu said.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
Funds raised through the campaign would support a five-year plan to fully rebuild the 60 affected overseas compatriot schools in Myanmar, she added.
They would also be used to support students from Myanmar living in Taiwan, more than 3,000 of whom are studying at high-school level and above, Hsu said.
Donated funds would be used by the Myanmar Taiwanese Chamber of Commerce to procure and deliver medical supplies, which Hsu said are the most urgently needed essential items.
Most of the essential items would be procured in Myanmar, while some would come from neighboring countries and a portion would be shipped from Taiwan, she added.
Most people in the city of Mandalay and nearby areas in Myanmar lost the means to support themselves and are now dependent on external aid, she said.
Hsu added that international assistance has been “far from promising,” urging people in Taiwan to support the fundraising campaign.
Meanwhile, many Burmese students in Taiwan are “extremely anxious” about their families back home who only have access to limited assistance, she said.
The council is to hold a multifaith nondenominational prayer event tomorrow night at the University of Taipei for students from Myanmar, followed by another on Saturday afternoon at National Chung Hsing University in Taichung, she said.
Department of Overseas Compatriot Student Affairs Director-
General Wang Yi-ju (王怡如) welcomed faculty members and other students who wish to offer their blessings to Myanmar to attend the events.
Buddhist, Christian and Muslim representatives are to lead prayer rituals at the events, symbolically sending “hope, light and warmth” to those in Myanmar, she said.
The death toll from the earthquake has surpassed 3,600 and is “still climbing.” An Associated Press report on Tuesday, citing UN data, said that more than 17.2 million people living in affected areas were in urgent need of necessities such as food, drinking water, healthcare and emergency shelter.
Donations to the council’s fundraising campaign can be made to the “Overseas Compatriot Culture and Education Foundation” (財團法人海華文教基金會) — a nonprofit organization supported by the council — via Cathay United Bank’s Guanchian Branch (館前分行) to account number 001-50-169089-5.
Donors are asked to include “Myanmar Earthquake Relief Donation” (緬甸震災捐款) in the payment notes and to e-mail their donation receipt along with their name, identification document number, and contact information to occeftw@gmail.com.
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
RSS