Friday February 2nd, 2024, Mario Nicoleau, Executive Director of the international NGO "Food For The Poor" (FFTP - Haiti) and Richard Wen-Jiann Ku, Ambassador of Taiwan (Republic of China) in Haiti, signed an agreement specifying the details of shipments to Port-au-Prince of the donation of 8,240 tonnes of rice from Taiwan https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-41533-haiti-news-zapping.html

FFTP will receive an initial shipment of 40 containers of rice this February (equivalent to 400 semi-trailers) and additional shipments will continue each month through December 2024.

Nicoleau said the rice comes at a critical time in Haiti, where 44% of the population faces severe food insecurity and needs immediate assistance.

Since 2007, the partnership with the Taiwanese government has enabled FFTP to feed thousands of families and fulfill its mission of helping children and families living in poverty.

In 2023, Taiwan's rice donation enabled FFTP-Haiti to serve 820 schools, 5,414 people displaced by gang violence and 12,000 inmates in the country's prisons. Additionally, the rice benefited vulnerable children in 112 orphanages and families in 798 parishes and 61 congregations in Haiti's most remote and violence-prone areas.

"I want to underscore the importance of this extraordinary partnership and the value of the rice donation that is given to Haiti that keeps so many millions of people alive," declared Ed. Raine President and CEO of the FFTP, "We are just extremely blessed and fortunate to be able to count on the people of Taiwan for this extraordinary generosity."

Mark Khouri, Executive Vice President/Chief Operating Officer of FFTP recalled that Taiwan has donated over 70,000 tonnes of rice to his organization over the past 18 years. "That is an astronomical number that Food For The Poor and the people of Haiti have been blessed to have received," said Khouri adding "With all that is happening in Haiti, this is so vitally important to us and the people of Haiti. It is saving lives."

HL/ HaitiLibre