Amb. Timothy T. Y. Hsiang, Secretary General of the International Cooperation and Development Fund (TaiwanICDF) and Dr. Laurie Marker, Executive Director of Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) remotely signed an agreement on the dispatch of volunteers on December 4, the " International Cheetah Day." The signing ceremony was witnessed by Amb. Allen ChenHwa Lou, Representative of Taiwan Representative of the Republic of Somaliland, and Ms. Shukri Bandare, Minister of Environment and Climate Change of the Republic of Somaliland. Under the agreement, the TaiwanICDF can dispatch volunteers to Somaliland to support cheetah conservation initiative.

In the signing ceremony, Amb. Hsiang noted that this agreement is of great significance. It is not only the first time that TaiwanICDF cooperates with an international organization that focuses on wildlife conservation, but also the outset for TaiwanICDF to plan the dispatch of volunteers to Somaliland. Amb. Hsiang also expressed his appreciation to the Taiwan Representative Office in Somaliland for facilitating this cooperation. Thus far, the TaiwanICDF Overseas Volunteer Program has dispatched more than 830 volunteers to 44 countries, assisting in a variety of contemporary development issues such as agriculture, public health and medicine, education, information and communication technology, environment, and small and medium enterprises, among others as its principal services.

Dr. Marker said in her remarks that cheetah is Africa’s most endangered big cat due to habitat loss resulted from population growth and illegal trafficking. She also appealed to the public that, “Conservation doesn’t matter if you are wildlife biologist, but conservation is part of our lives.”

In January 2023, the TaiwanICDF will start to recruit volunteers with specialties, such as electrical engineering and civil engineering to serve in Somaliland, to help improve the facilities and construction for the wildlife, and to perform a land survey for a Somaliland’s new national park. For more information, please stay tuned to our official website (http://www.icdf.org.tw) and "TaiwanICDF Overseas Volunteer” Facebook page(https://www.facebook.com/TaiwanTOV/) for the latest news.

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• Update: 2022/12/26
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