Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding Sept. 28 in Warsaw to provide aid to disadvantaged children in Kyiv.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the MOU was signed by Jeff. Y. J. Liu, head of the Taipei Representative Office in Poland, and Tetiana Badylevych, deputy director of the Kyiv City Center for Social Services for Families, Children and Youth.
Those attending the event included Mykola Kniazhytskyi, co-chair of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, and members of the Ukrainian parliament Yaroslav Yurchyshyn and Andrii Lopushanskyi. The MOFA added that several media outlets from Taiwan, Poland and Ukraine were also present to cover the event.
Lin said the MOU reflects Taiwan’s commitment to working with international partners to help Ukrainian people return to their normal lives. It is a joint collaboration with Italian non-governmental organization WeWorld and the Taiwan Fund for Children and Families.
Taiwan and Ukraine share the same values and beliefs in freedom and democracy, Lin said, expecting the MOU to help build a better and brighter future for underprivileged minors.
On behalf of the Kyiv government, Badylevych thanked Taiwan for the assistance, saying that every child deserves a happy childhood despite the war.
The MOU will offer children in Kyiv a wide range of educational programs to help them cope with the trauma of war. It will also provide information and communication equipment to narrow the digital gap, enhance staff capacity at the center and build an information infrastructure to ensure sustainable development for children’s welfare.
The MOFA said since Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022, Taiwan has provided over US$150 million in humanitarian assistance to Ukraine to rebuild infrastructure, hospitals and schools, as well as promote smart medical care cooperation and cultivate technology application professionals. The government also supports removal of landmines in Ukraine initiated by Lithuania, the ministry added. (SFC-E)
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