I was looking for an animals of Taiwan thread, but couldn’t find any. If someone knows one, please merge.
He just got his PhD in environmental engineering.
What a shit article. How did Jane Goodall encourage him to study in Taiwan? Like a personal meeting? Just something Jane said in an interview once somewhere?
I think she had a deep networks in Tanzania given her work with chimps in times past and links with the Leakeys of Oldevai gorge fame. Lots of links in Taiwan too due to animal rights advocacy. Those of us on this board for decades are aware of her great work here.
It says she paid for his schooling, so they’re close.
I also graduated yesterday, so I heard the whole speech: he mentioned that because he learned English pretty well, when Jane Goodall visited his village, he acted as her translator. Goodall took him as his mentee and sponsored him through a scholarship to pursue a BSc and then grad school.
Congratulations 
Is there a high paying job w8ing for him tho???
Thank you 
!
Regarding this, he mentioned he currently saved 50% of his salary to donate it to other kids who need financial aid in Tanzania. So I assumed he already has a job. He said he previously worked as a veggie seller in a wet market, and he is fluent in Chinese and even speaks some Taiwanese. He also just finished his PhD in something related to Agriculture, so I don’t think it will be hard for him to get a job in case he doesn’t have one.
He can also probably just stay here. He has a wife and a kid here
An interesting story. Tanzania has been very close to the PRC, and there are few obvious ways for Tanzanians to fund their studies here. The fact he did it, and got into and graduated from NTU . . . kudos to him.
Guy
Yes, it was very evident there when I visited with my wife and then three year old back in 2013. All the highway transportation, port projects, etc. seemed to be PRC funded and laboured as well. Remember taking the roads between Dar and Arusha when going on safaris. Lots of Chinese presence.
All that infrastructure spending likely part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
Congratulations to both on graduating.
@vibekiller , you also environmental engineer? Plans?
Taiwanese???
Luvky man
Thank you so much! No, my PhD is from the EECS department (I won’t say explicitly here, because I am the only one from my program graduating this year 
). But I am familiar with environmental engineering, because it’s my dad’s field, and I’ve also spent some time volunteering in related fields. 
I plan to stay in Taiwan as well. First and foremost, because I like it. Second and stronger reason, because I am also married to a Taiwanese. I’ll be interning at a company this summer, and I hope they hire me full time afterwards. 
Yes, the (Taiwanese) wife was very nice and smiley, and they have an adorable baby boy.
You should do R&D for TSMC. Skip being a tester.
And tell us how much their bonuses are from the AI boom.
This one is much better and more detailed, came across it yesterday.
Very inspirational, dude had to walk 30mins everyday just to get water, doing it barefoot no less. Meanwhile you see people complaining about trivial/meaningless bs everyday, it really grinds my gears, Peter Griffin style.
Focus Taiwan articles seem to expire after awhile so I’m gon copy/paste the content for posterity sake.
From Tanzania to Taiwan: Jane Goodall-inspired NTU graduate dreams of giving back
Nathan Thadeo Yoashi (photo courtesy of National Taiwan University)
Taipei, May 31 (CNA) A Tanzanian Ph.D. graduate who came to Taiwan on the recommendation of the late primatologist Jane Goodall said Saturday that the education and support he received have enabled him to help children in his home country and pursue his dream of building a school there.
Nathan Thadeo Yoashi, who graduated from National Taiwan University’s (NTU) Graduate Institute of Environmental Engineering, shared his story as the representative of international graduates at NTU’s commencement ceremony.
Speaking in Mandarin, with occasional words in Taiwanese Hokkien, Yoashi recounted growing up in a poor farming family near Tanzania’s Gombe Stream National Park, where Goodall conducted her chimpanzee research.
A childhood marked by hardship
“I grew up in a poor farming family, and we often did not know where our next meal would come from,” Yoashi said, recalling days when he had only a small piece of sweet potato to eat with water.
The water had to be fetched from a river 30 minutes away, a journey he made barefoot every day, he said.
While tending cattle and goats on an empty stomach, he often asked himself: “Why was I born into such a family? How long will this life continue?”
Despite limited resources and being able to attend school only three days a week, Yoashi said he never gave up on learning and remained among the top three students in his class of 150.
A life-changing encounter
Yoashi’s life changed when Goodall visited his school and he was asked to serve as an event host and translate for the British primatologist, ultimately catching her attention.
“Before flying back to the United Kingdom, she told me to continue helping with the Roots & Shoots program and to contact her if I ever faced financial difficulties,” he said.
“Those words completely changed the course of my life,” Yoashi added.
After graduating from primary school, Yoashi said Goodall’s financial support enabled him to continue his education at a gifted junior high school far from home, covering his living expenses on campus so he could focus on his studies.
He later attended a gifted senior high school and, on Goodall’s recommendation, came to Taiwan in 2017 to pursue a bachelor’s degree at Chang Jung Christian University in Tainan on a scholarship.
Finding purpose in Taiwan
“After coming to Taiwan, the challenges began because I could not speak a word of Mandarin,” Yoashi said.
He learned Mandarin from church members while also studying sustainable agriculture with local farmers, planting peanuts in Yunlin, baby corn in Tainan and rice in Chiayi.
Yoashi also sold vegetables at traditional markets, where he said local grandmothers were curious to see “a Black man selling vegetables,” adding jokingly that he often sold out first because they found him “cute.”
After beginning his master’s and Ph.D. studies at NTU in 2021, Yoashi said he received help from many classmates and teachers, leading him to reflect on “the importance of collective knowledge.”
That experience prompted him to bring together students from 10 African countries to establish the NTU African Students’ Association, which served African students on campus and helped promote international cooperation, including facilitating an MOU between NTU and the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.
“Today, I am very happy to bring the knowledge I have learned back to my hometown,” Yoashi said.
“Through cooperation, we are working to address pollution, soil, agriculture and water resource problems caused by mining,” he added.
A dream to give back
Yoashi said that whenever he returns to Tanzania and sees children there, he is reminded that he now has the ability to help them.
He said he saves half of his monthly living expenses to support five children in his hometown, adding that Goodall’s spirit “has not left” but continues to live on through his work.
“My dream is to build a school in my hometown to help more children like me have the chance to change their destiny,” he said.
At the end of his speech, a tearful Yoashi also thanked his Taiwanese wife and their son for supporting him.
“Taiwan has not only given me knowledge, but also a warm home,” he said.
(By Wu Hsin-yun and Sunny Lai)
I worked in international development for years in Taiwan, so know a lot about African aid. As @afterspivak correctly points out, Tanzania is not in Taiwan’s orbit in any sense.
What struck me about Tanzania, and reflecting decades after visiting, were the orphans and the poverty.
This student overcame a lot of socio-economic barriers.
Pics: Orphanage near Lake Manyara in Tanzania I visited with my son. The kids here have been orphaned because of Malaria or AIDS deaths.
LOL all this talk here about Taiwanese women not liking black men. Yet we keep hearing about these marriages and these mixed kids. I talked to an Ghanaian taxi driver at BWI who had a friend move to Taiwan from France and marry a local. He already had kids from a previous marriage before moving to Taiwan and didn’t have any kids with his Taiwanese wife.
You also have the national team member whose dad is from South Africa.
Its not so easy to say “taiwanese women wont marry a black women”. Depends on lot of factors. If the guy is successful and bonus if he is rich then women here can go past the whole color issue. Also many women feel pressure to marry after passing a certain age. Some are also conscious of looks and lack self esteem and think no one would marry them so they go for the guy who just show interest in them even if he is black. Also black guys can be really charming and flirty and with good physique and tall.
Please dont hate me for saying all this. I just woke up.