Taiwan Buddhist groups sending aid to Haiti

Jan 17, 2010, 7:04 GMT

Taipei - Taiwanese Buddhists packed relief materials for Haiti earthquake survivors Sunday, while other civic groups were seeking donations and sending medical teams to the Caribbean nation.

The Tzu Chi Foundation planned to send 400,000 packs of instant rice, 30 tons of corn meal and 50,000 blankets to Haiti.

'As the port and airport of Haitian capital Port-au-Prince have been damaged by Tuesday quake, we plan to set up a coordination centre in the Dominican Republic to handle the relief goods for Haiti,' the Buddhist foundation's spokesman Chien Tung-yuan said.

'US-based Tzu Chi members will fly to the Dominican Republic on Monday to set up the coordination centre,' he said.

Tzu Chi is the world's largest Buddhist relief group. It has volunteers all over the world, and has rushed aid to many countries which were hit by earthquake and flooding.

Taiwan's Fokuangshan Monastery was also packing relief goods for Haiti on Sunday.

'We have prepared 10,000 boxes of bottled water, 150,000 anti-inflammation pills, 5,000 body bags and a large amount of canned food and medical supplies,' monastery spokeswoman Miao Kai said.

'Our relief goods will be flown to Haiti on Monday when our government's chartered plane departs for Haiti with donated goods,' she said. 'We will send more relief material as soon as we find out what the quake survivors need.'

Fokuangshan Monastery, founded by Hsing Yun, also has monasteries in the United States, South Africa, France and Australia as well as 200 meditation centres around the world.

Other religious groups in Taiwan have opened bank accounts for the public to donate money for Haitian quake survivors.

The national Red Cross and the Taiwan Medical Peace Corps said they will send medical teams to Haiti this week.

Haiti is one of the 23 countries with official diplomatic ties to Taiwan. Taiwan has donated 5 million US dollars to Haiti, and a rescue team arrived in Port-au-Prince Saturday.

Taipei also plans to send 200 tons of rice to Haiti, which is expected to arrive in April.

Taiwan's embassy in Haiti has purchased 500,000 tons of rice from Haiti to help the quake survivors.

President Ma Ying-jeou planned to visit Haiti to express his concern during his trip to Honduras January 25 for the inauguration of president-elect Porfirio Lobo Sosa.

Taiwan is consulting with the Haitian government regarding Ma's stopover. If Ma cannot enter Haiti due to the rescue efforts, he will stop in the Dominican Republic and meet with Haitian officials there to discuss how Taiwan can help, officials said.