A crowdsourcing campaign organized in Taiwan to buy an ambulance for Ukraine has raised enough money to buy two ambulances, the event’s organizers said yesterday.
The charity organization “Taiwan Stands With Ukraine” held the fundraiser during the Europe Festival at Taipei’s Huashan 1914 Creative Park on May 6 and 7 to buy a second-hand ambulance from Humanitare Hilfe fur die Ukraine e.V (OBOZ), a German-Ukrainian nonprofit organization that procures ambulances around Europe to be delivered to Ukraine.
In addition to collecting donations, the group sold merchandise, such as T-shirts bearing images depicting Taiwan-Ukraine friendship, to raise funds at the event, the organizers said.
The group had aimed to raise NT$300,000, but ended up collecting NT$576,000, organizer Alex Khomenko said yesterday.
In addition, Taiwan-based Swedish Youtuber Lukas Engstrom also raised NT$113,000 to add to the total.
The charity organization said it was “incredibly grateful” to the European Economic and Trade Office in Taiwan for hosting the event, adding that it was thankful for the verbal support and financial contributions of attendees.
The organization has sent the money to OBOZ to purchase one ambulance each for the Regional Clinical Hospital in Rivne and to the Municipal Multifield Clinical Hospital No. 4 in Dnipro.
The ambulance for Rivne cost 11,400 euros (US$12,259) and has already been delivered, Khomenko said, adding that the other ambulance cost 14,200 euros and was scheduled to leave Germany yesterday.
OBOZ works with hospitals in Ukraine to determine the kind of equipment they need, Khomenko said.
As the emergency vehicles procured by OBOZ come from different European countries, they are not the same color, he said.
To distinguish their origin, the ambulances are emblazoned with the OBOZ logo and the name of the organization that paid for them, in this case Taiwan Stands With Ukraine, he added.
“In Ukraine, they often get repainted again if they go to the east or south, because the Russians are known to actually target ambulances,” Khomenko said.
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