In order to promote international medical assistance, the International Cooperation and Development Fund (TaiwanICDF) has organized Mobile Medical Missions of medical professionals from Taiwan. TaiwanICDF's last medical mission departed on Dec. 2 to provide outreach clinics in the Darjeeling region of India in order to assist the Tibetan refugees in that region and the neighboring Indian residents during the harsh weather conditions of December.

The TaiwanICDF, as the sole organization in Taiwan overseeing international development and cooperation operations on behalf of the Taiwan government, has stationed four medical missions in four African allied nations. However, in order for the TaiwanICDF to serve more people in developing countries with its limited budget and human resources, the Fund has also organized short-term Mobile Medical Missions.

The seven members of the mission to Darjeeling are gynecologist Dr. Yin-Shuan Lien and pharmacist Chieh-Hsuan Lai of Chung Shan Medical University Hospital; Dr. Wei-Lien Chen, who had previously worked as a mission leader on a TaiwanICDF medical mission in Malawi; private-practice pediatrician Dr. Fan-Chi Chen; and past TaiwanICDF medical volunteers nurses Chia-Ling Shen and Bao-Yin Tseng. These medical professionals are the short-term volunteer team for the Mobile Medical Mission's outreach clinics in Darjeeling. The leader of the Mobile Medical Mission is the African Division Chief of the TaiwanICDF Technical Cooperation Department, Dr. Chi-Fu Chen, who has years of experience as a dentist in Africa.

The Mobile Medical Mission in Darjeeling works from the mobile hospital vehicle donated by the TaiwanICDF to the Tibetan Refugee Self Help Center in 2003. The mission provides services for several Tibetan communities in the Darjeeling region and the local residents of Indian and Nepalese origin out of its three-week outreach clinics that visit different areas of the region. The TaiwanICDF aims to continue working with Taiwan medical organizations as well as recruit more medical professionals to replicate the Mobile Mission Model in Darjeeling. It is TaiwanICDF's goal to continue providing medical services around the world to those in need of health care.

• Update: 2018/03/01
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