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.
CAUTION: Based on intelligence from the nation’s security agencies, MOFA has cautioned Taiwanese travelers about heightened safety risks in China-friendly countries The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged Taiwanese to be aware of their safety when traveling abroad, especially in countries that are friendly to China. China in June last year issued 22 guidelines that allow its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death so-called “diehard” Taiwanese independence activists, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan. Late last month, a senior Chinese official gave closed-door instructions to state security units to implement the guidelines in countries friendly to China, a government memo and a senior Taiwan security official said, based on information gathered by Taiwan’s intelligence agency. The
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday that it is looking to hire 8,000 people this year, at a time when the tech giant is expanding production capacity to maintain its lead over competitors. To attract talent, TSMC would launch a large-scale recruitment campaign on campuses across Taiwan, where a newly recruited engineer with a master’s degree could expect to receive an average salary of NT$2.2 million (US$60,912), which is much higher than the 2023 national average of NT$709,000 for those in the same category, according to government statistics. TSMC, which accounted for more than 60 percent
Tung Tzu-hsien (童子賢), a Taiwanese businessman and deputy convener of the nation’s National Climate Change Committee, said yesterday that “electrical power is national power” and nuclear energy is “very important to Taiwan.” Tung made the remarks, suggesting that his views do not align with the country’s current official policy of phasing out nuclear energy, at a forum organized by the Taiwan People’s Party titled “Challenges and Prospects of Taiwan’s AI Industry and Energy Policy.” “Taiwan is currently pursuing industries with high added- value and is developing vigorously, and this all requires electricity,” said the chairman
RSS