The latest quakes in Hualien got me wondering, where can non-Taiwanese citizens contribute to help out when disasters strike, with their own time and hands, or monetarily?
I saw an article like this one http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2018/02/08/2003687293 talking of companies donating, but I’m amazed that there’s no explicit mention of who or what are they donating to, nor a clear call to action to readers on how to also contribute to presumably government-led efforts. I see the Red Cross has a presence here (http://www.redcross.org.tw/english/index.jsp), but they don’t seem that big, and must be coordinating with the government somehow. Their donation page doesn’t have any project-specific donation option if you want to help out say a recent recovery effort either. I did stumble upon this org http://www.taiwanaid.org/en/member/410 from another article (although I almost missed it again due to no particular highlighting of the info), but the website is not foreigner-friendly, nor do they mention anything special in their news.
All that said, what have people done in the past, and is there a good central place to go to for more info for future efforts?
I would advise against it. The local temples and other religious organizations make billions of dollars running
a racket, let them chip in for once they’ve obviously angered the gods by not burning enough smoke barrels.
Red Cross is corrupt too, countless articles and reports all over news of this the past 5 yrs. Do some research before giving away your money…there are reputable donation agencies.
Unfortunately most Europeans born before 1992 are not allowed to donate. The official reason is the BSE crisis in Britain at the time. The unofficial reason is that they are afraid that injecting a local with long nose blood will turn him into an uncontrollable alcoholic nymphomaniac.