2009 year Press Release
Having “Taiwan” as a part of its name, TaiwanIHA represents the ideologies and value of Taiwan as a country no matter where it goes. Therefore, when TaiwanIHA engages in international relief efforts and fight diseases and disaster alongside countries and people in need, they too, see Taiwan when they see TaiwanIHA.TaiwanIHA cross borders to disaster regions with their medicine
In May and June last year, Myanmar and Sichuan, China experienced some of the biggest disasters in history. At that time, in a not too distant island of Taiwan organized an international medical rescue team in a very short time. After receiving the disaster notification, they first efficiently integrated the resources of various governmental departments by organizing an emergency medical team through the hospitals affiliated with Ministry of Health and Welfare and Center for Disease Control, and readied the medical rescue supplies. Then, the team integrated the domestic NGOs to provide medical assistance in the disaster areas.
This team that can integrate domestic medical human and rescue resources in a single channel, in a short period, achieving efficient mobility in event of disasters is called Taiwan International Health Action a.k.a TaiwanIHA.
It is time to help others
In 2001, the Millennium Development Goal proposed by United Nations has indicated the control of infectious diseases and the death rate of mothers and babies as its priority and goal. If we were to reach this goal, wed have to start from international health. Therefore, Ministry of Health and Welfare under the Executive Yuan hoped to establish a platform that can optimize international health rescue works, by taking the governmental resources as the foundation and partnering with NGOs. Thus, the idea of TaiwanIHA was formed.
Today, everyone in Taiwan can easily access quality public health and medical services, and we should contribute to this world with a grateful heart. It is time we can help others said the Deputy Minister of Health, Dr. Chen Tzay-Jinn of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Executive Yuan.
Since its inception three years ago, TaiwanIHA has completed a variety of missions, such as participating in international humanitarian relief, post-disaster health reconstruction, participating in the prevention of bird flu and infectious diseases, Global Medical Instrument Support and Service program, assist in the setup of WHO mobile library in developing countries, hold and participate in international conferences, hold training programs for medical professionals from developing countries, and cooperating with various international organizations.
To humble yourself in servicing the world
In the process of doing good, actually we have helped ourselves. Deputy Minister Chen Tzay-Jinn exemplifies, many of the active Taiwanese fishing boats fishing in the South Pacific were helped by the medical teams stationed in nearby areas in events of accidents or disease. He further pointed out that Taiwans medicine is comparatively advanced to other countries, however the medical personnel have no chance to understand the diseases in developing or tropical countries. Therefore when Taiwan medical teams provides support in developing countries and participate in the control of diseases, we learn more than what we have contributed, thus becoming the beneficiary.
In the past successful three years, TaiwanIHA hopes to utilize this platform and cooperate with experts and institutions alike in the future. It would also like to further participate in international health care and humanitarian works, not only to increase the exposure of Taiwan, but also for the contribution in global public health system to be recognized. Indeed, the experience and contribution in international health works will also help is providing citizens of Taiwan a better and healthy life.