2007 year Press Release
Taiwan International Health Action (TaiwanIHA) dispatched a medical relief team on the night of August 17, 2007 to Pisco, Peru, where was hit severely by an earthquake on August 16(Taipei Time), for providing medical assistance. The TaiwanIHA medical team accomplished its one-week mission of medical humanitarian relief and returned to Taiwan in the evening of August 28.TaiwanIHA rescue report- Record of medical relief in Pisco, Peru
At 6:41 in the evening of August 15, 2007, Peru was hit hardly by an earthquake of 8 degrees in the Richter scale. After receiving the information, TaiwanIHA immediately sent a medical team to Peru despite immediate arrival of Setpa typhoon in the evening of August 17.
The five-member medical team includes Chief of Medics, Dr. Chen Hou-Chaung (orthopedist at Taichung Hospital), Dr. Ker Cheng-Chin (Taipei Hospital), Ms. Shin Yi-Jen (registered nurse at Taipei Hospital), Ms. Lien Shu-Fen (public health specialist) and Mr. Lee Szu-Min, the chief of administration at TaiwanIHA. They brought 8 boxes of medical supplies and traveled over 20 hours to arrive in Peru in the afternoon on August 18. Wasting no time, upon arrival, the team then immediately proceeded to the town of Pisco, and it was the first such foreign medical relief teram to arrive . Under the arrangements made by Peruvian Health Minister Dr. Carlos Vallejos, the team was stationed in the local San Juan de Ica hospital. At the dawn of August 19, the team proceeded to the village of San Clemente and commenced its work, treating near 200 patients on that same day.
Because of the immediate assistance and the enthusiasm demonstrated in the humanitarian works, the medical team of TaiwanIHA received much appreciation and admiration by locals as well as other international humanitarian organizations. The Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System (GDACS),an integrating center of information relating to major international disasters and humanitarian assistance, along with United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA), UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC),listed TaiwanIHA as one of the international relief organizations participating the relief work in Peru.