For 16 Years, Taiwan Donates Lifesaving Rice to Food For The Poor – Gift of Rice More Important Than Ever As Haiti Faces Crisis
COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (Jan. 25, 2022) Food For The Poor and the Republic of China (Taiwan) have renewed their longstanding annual pledge to provide lifesaving rice to Haiti, where a humanitarian crisis is expected to worsen this year.
Food For The Poor-Haiti will receive 440 tractor-trailer loads of lifesaving rice from the Republic of China (Taiwan) in 2022, with the first shipment of 40 containers in February and continuing each month through December.
Bishop Ogé Beauvoir, Executive Director of Food For The Poor-Haiti, and Richard Wen-Jiann Ku, Ambassador of the Republic of China (Taiwan) in Haiti, signed an agreement spelling out the details of the shipments last week at the charity’s Port-au-Prince office.
The shipments will equal 8,800 metric tons of rice, which is the same amount as the generous gift provided last year and 22 percent more than the gift provided in 2020.
The rice comes at a critical time, as Haiti recovers from a devastating earthquake that rocked its southern peninsula on Aug. 14. The area continues to be unstable. A 5.3-magnitude earthquake struck the same area on Monday. Continued gang violence and scores of kidnappings following the assassination of Haiti’s president, and the COVID-19 pandemic have left the economy in shambles.
The United Nations estimates the humanitarian crisis in Haiti will worsen in 2022, with 46 percent of the population needing aid, up 10 percent over 2021.
Ambassador Ku saluted FFTP for quickly sending emergency relief and food aid, including Taiwan rice, to victims of the August earthquake and pledged that the government and people of Taiwan would continue to deepen the partnership.
“The international community has been drawing attention to the food insecurity in Haiti. Given the magnitude of the needs to be met in this food crisis, we know that our contribution is far from sufficient to solve this problem,” Ambassador Ku said. “However, I am convinced that with Food For Poor-Haiti, our privileged partner in the distribution of Taiwan aid in Haiti, countless families will be able to improve their daily lives and work for a better future.”
Bishop Beauvoir said the charity will be able to serve more than 3 million people through different institutions and organizations, thanks to the rice donation.
That includes 796 schools, 180 orphanages, 783 parishes and denominations, 297 community organizations, 11 religious community homes, 293 hospitals, health clinics, prisons and elderly houses and many other organizations.
“In 2021 we have seen an increase of about 30 percent in the demand for food aid that we receive at Food For The Poor,” Beauvoir said.
For 16 years, the partnership with the Taiwanese government has provided FFTP the opportunity to feed thousands of families and meet its mission to help children and families living in dire poverty.
Transportation costs increased exponentially this year and international shipping company CMA CGM agreed to discount its rates for the charity to ensure this lifesaving humanitarian aid could get to those who need it most. CMA CGM, which actively works with charities and foundations around the world, has partnered with FFTP in the past to ship rice from Taiwan to Haiti and donated containers to the charity in the wake of hurricanes in Haiti and Honduras.
FFTP President/CEO Ed Raine said the significance of the rice donation and the charity’s longstanding relationship with the government of Taiwan can never be underestimated. The charity is the beneficiary of 44 percent of Taiwan’s worldwide donation of rice.
“It is really a mark of the trust that the government of Taiwan has in Food For The Poor and we are honored to be in receipt of that trust,” Raine said. “You’re trusting us to use this extraordinarily generous donation to benefit so many millions of people’s lives. We never lose sight of what this donation means in terms of the lives of the people that this helps to save.”
Food For The Poor, one of the largest international relief and development organizations in the nation, does much more than feed millions of hungry children and families living in poverty primarily in 17 countries of the Caribbean and Latin America. This interdenominational Christian ministry provides emergency relief assistance, clean water, medicine, educational materials, homes, support for vulnerable children, care for the aged, skills training and micro-enterprise development assistance. For more information, please visit www.FoodForThePoor.org
Michael Turnbell
Public Relations
954-427-2222 x 6054
[email protected]