TAIWAN ~ NAURU

 PUBLISHED BY THE EMBASSY OF THE REPUBLIC OF CHINA (TAIWAN) IN NAURU  ISSUE 28  JANUARY - MARCH 2017

Reunion Dinner on New Year’s Eve of 2017

On the 27th of January, the last Inside this issue: day of 2016 Chinese Lunar Year, H.E. Ambassador Joseph Reunion Dinner on New Year’s Eve of 1 2017 Chow and Madam Michelle Chow hosted a New Year's Eve TTM Anibar Farm Open Day 2 Dinner banquet at the Anibare Restaurant in Meneng Hotel to Madam Chow’s Karaoke Afternoon 3 celebrate the coming of 2017 Tea Party Lunar New Year. The Embassy News Update 3 was delighted to have the com- pany of H.E. Baron Waqa, Screening of a Film of Nauru College 4 President of Nauru and First Students visiting Taiwan Lady Madam Louisa Waqa, the Paul Tien from TTM’s Nutrition Class 5 Hon. Cyril Buraman, Speaker of Parliament, the Hon. Cabinet Ministers, MPs, and their wives to celebrate the Golden Rooster Year of 2017. SimplyHelp Foundation Donation 5

In his speech, H.E. Ambassador Chow said “Moysanmela” to begin with Dengue Fever Rapid Screening Rea- 6 and explained the significance of the New Year’s Eve Dinner (also called re- gents from Taichung Veteran General union dinner) in Taiwanese culture and for which family members would try Hospital their best to get home to enjoy dinner together just like Christmas Eve in Western culture. It is a time for families to be together. He continued to say Donation for Market Day of Nauru 6 tonight we gathered here; in spirit, we are a family. Therefore, if we are unit- College ed and working together, we will be able to do our utmost. Based on this con- Incoming Medical Specialist - 6 viction, the relationship between the Republic of China (Taiwan) and Nauru Dr. Chen, Hong-Jhe is not just formal diplomatic relations, but a closer brotherhood. Ambassador Chow then used the Chinese metaphor of “the Golden Rooster crows at Outgoing Dr. Hsu, Chia-Tien 7 dawn” as the motto of the year of the rooster for the two countries to encour- age each other. Finally, H.E. Ambassador Chow on behalf of the Taiwan Photo Gallery 8 Government thanked H.E. President Baron Waqa and the Nauru Government for supporting ROC (Taiwan) in the international community and wished the two countries a long-standing friendship.

Following H.E. Ambassador Chow’s speech, H.E. President Waqa delivered his speech and also started with “Ni Hao” in response and then thanked the Taiwan government for their assistance to Nauru, and vowed to continue to enhance the friendship between the two countries. At the end, H.E. President Waqa asked H.E Ambassador Chow to convey his blessings to the Taiwanese government and the people for the coming new year.

The Embassy prepared typically traditional food “Niángāo” for the New Year’s celebration. All the guests enjoyed it very much. It was a pleasant din- ner banquet. H.E. Ambassador Joseph Chow and Madam Michelle Chow wished all Nauruan people a healthy, happy, and prosperous New Year.

Page 2 TTM Anibar Farm Open Day

On the 21st of February, The Taiwan Technical Mission (TTM) hosted an Open Day at Anibar Farm. Invited Guests included H.E. President Baron Waqa and First Lady Louis Waqa, the Hon. Cabinet Ministers, and the Hon. Members of Parliaments and their wives.

Before touring around the farm, H.E. Ambassador Joseph Chow said in his welcoming speech: I believe many of you may be curious about what’s happening inside the farm when you pass by the gate. Especially when you hear hens singing egg songs, pigs snoring and see sweet corns growing in the field. In order to help you understand what TTM is doing here, we specially organized these Farm Open Day activities. But before we start the tour, I would like to take this opportunity to provide a brief introduction about TTM’s mission and what we have achieved since it established in 2006.The purpose of set- ting up TTM is to enhance the agricultural cooperation between our two countries and to work with the people of Nauru to achieve the goal of sustainable livelihoods. The current two main projects of the TTM is local vegetable production and nutrition enhancement project.

The local vegetable program promotes the family vegetable garden. The locals are welcome to come to the farm to get the seeds and to learn how to plant vegetables for their own kitchens. At present the farm has small tomatoes, cucumber, eggplant, cabbage, lettuce, long beans, okra, sweet potatoes, sweet corn, pumpkin, papa- ya, cauliflower and other fruits and vegetables. On average, TTM produces about 5,500 kilograms of fruit and vegetables each year for school kitchens and the state-owned Eigigu supermarket to sell.

For the nutrition enhancement project, TTM raises over 1,000 hens to supply 3,000 boiled eggs to the students from kindergartens to secondary high school students per week and provide eggs for sale in Eigigu to stabilize prices so that the people of Nauru can enjoy fresh and cheap eggs. The locals are also welcome to come here to get their free chicks to raise in their own yards.

Soon after the opening speech, the director of the TTM, Dominic Lee led the tour and gave the visitors a de- tailed explanation about activities on the farm i.e. water dripping system and the compost pit to improve the soil fertility. The tour took around one hour.

H.E. President Waqa said that the people of Nauru sincerely thanked the Republic of China (Taiwan) for its long-term assistance in the field of agriculture. President Waqa and the MPs appreciated the efforts of the Tai- wan Embassy and the TTM for helping Nauru’s agricultural development. At the end, all the guests enjoyed the traditional Taiwanese tea eggs.

Page 3 Madam Chow’s Karaoke Afternoon Tea Party

On the 7th of February, Madam Michelle Chow hosted an after- noon tea party to celebrate the Lunar New Year of 2017 at the R.O.C Ambassador’s residence. Around twenty ladies attended the afternoon party, including Mrs. Sharon BuramanIn (spouse of Speaker of the Parliament), Mrs. Corrina Cook (spouse of Minis- ter of Untility), Mrs. Rubyka Kam (spouse of Minister of Trans- portation), Ms. Ann -Marie Cain (Clerk of the Parliament), and the spouses of Members of the Parliaments and the Heads of De- partments and other distinguished ladies in the public service. The First Lady Louisa Waqa sent an apology. She was not able to at- tend due to a sudden business trip with President Waqa to Singapore.

First, Madam Chow made a brief welcome speech and then started the karaoke singing. Almost all the ladies are very good singers. Once the karaoke started the singing and laughing did not stop, except when Mrs. El- eanor Detsiogo demonstrated how to make a facial mask with avocado and how to maintain healthy and strong hair. All the ladies watched the demo carefully and wrote down the recipe for it.

Madam Chow also prepared some fine refreshments and traditional Taiwanese Tea eggs for the guests. The tea party was supposed to end at 5:00 pm but because of the warm and enthusiastic atmosphere the party did- n’t finish until 9:30 pm. What a lovely and enjoyable afternoon tea party!

News update

1. Nauru Police Superintendent, Iven Notte, was invited to attend National Development Course in Taipei from 1- 25 January, 2017.

2. His Excellency President Baron Waqa and Madam Waqa were invited by the President of the Republic of China (Taiwan), H.E. Tsai, Ing-Wen to pay an official visit To Taiwan from 7 to 12 March 2017.

3. The mobile medical team from Taichung Veterans General hospital (TCVGH) will be visiting on Nauru from 7th - 17th of May. Team members include a cardiovascular surgeon, ENT (Ear, nose, and throat) doctor, radiologist, and a registered nurse. Page 4 Screening of a Film of Nauru College Students visiting Taiwan

Eleven Nauru College students and two teachers were invited by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of ROC (Taiwan) to visit Taiwan from the 22nd - 27th Sept, 2016.

On the morning of November 16th, the Embassy held a forum with 12th grade students and teachers to share a video of the trip in the audio-visual classroom at Nauru College. They watched the rec- orded documentary video film for this trip. At the same time, the students also displayed some items that they brought back from Taiwan, for example, homemade soap, souvenirs, clothes, and their written trip reports.

H.E. Ambassador Chow said the friendship between Taiwan and Nauru is so strong not only at the high-level officials interaction but also the link between the grassroots. Hence, in August 2013 and August 2015, the stu- dents in the Able Disabled Center were also invited to visit Taiwan.

H.E. Ambassador Chow thanked H.E. Nauru President Baron Waqa for his support and Richard Lewis, Princi- ple of Nauru College for his assistance to make the trip possible. The trip was positive and educational, as demonstrated by the one-hour long documentary film, which enabled the students to share their experiences with their friends. Nauru college principal, Richard Lewis, also thanked the Taiwan government for organiz- ing the trip for cultural exchanges.

During the video screening, the audience were in a happy mood and laughed constantly, and there was a desire by the students who had not been able to participate in visiting Taiwan too.

After the video watching, the participating teachers and students expressed their thoughts about the trip and appreciated the Taiwan government invitation. They were most impressed by the well-preserved culture (i.e. tea ceremony), ancient antiquities, neat and clean environment, green plants everywhere, and school uniforms with embroidered student’s name on it, etc.

Visiting Taiwan NOW you can APPLY your TAIWAN VISA on-line. Visit this website: www.boca.gov.tw At the top right-hand corner, click ‘English’ and fill-up your VISA/On-line Application Form. Page 5 Paul Tien from TTM’s Nutrition Class

TTM project assistant, Paul Tien, who is the specialist of nutrition held a series of lessons for the eighth graders of Nauru College on the topic of “Nutrition Introduction” and “Obesity” to enrich basic knowledge on nutrition and to help students understand the risk of be- ing overweight.

In the first topic, he talked about the concept of nutrition, including the definition of nutrition, balanced energy, three main nutrients (carbohydrates, protein, fat) which provide energy, and how to calcu- late the calories in the food.

In the second topic, he introduced the risk of ignoring the importance of nutrition—being obese. He explained the definition of obesity, and how to define obese by BMI (body mass index). He then talked about the most dangerous complication of being obese—diabetes.

Finally, Paul Tien explained the solution for obesity which includes diet and exercise. Paul hoped through the lessons that the students not only learned about nutrition, but can also apply what they have learned in the class into their daily life to have a healthy future.

SimplyHelp Foundation Donation

On the morning of the 22nd of March, H.E. Ambassador Joseph Chow, on behalf of the SimplyHelp Foundation, donated a con- tainer of household items to Nauru. The honorable Minister of Home Affairs, Charmaine Scotty, on behalf of the government of Nauru received the donation. H.E. Ambassador Chow stated that the donation valued at USD 123,000 included clothing, foot- wear, stationery, children's toys, sports equipment, home care products, LED lights and other items (in total 395 boxes). He introduced the "SimplyHelp Foundation" which was founded in 2000 by an overseas Taiwanese, Tina Bow. It is a non-profit or- ganization based in Los Angeles dedicated to relieving poverty. SimplyHelp is active in 23 countries with a strong presence in Central America and South East Asia and has been highly recognized by the international community.

H.E. Minister Scotty expressed gratitude on behalf of the Nauru government, saying that the donations from the "SimplyHelp Foundation" could improve the lives of the people of Nauru and directly benefit vulnerable groups such as women and children, and that the Nauru government would distribute the items through the church and the private charity group to the people in need. To ensure that the love from Taiwan is conveyed to the hearts of people in Nauru. Page 6 Dengue Fever Rapid Screening Reagent from Taichung Veteran General Hospital

H.E. Ambassador Joseph Chow, on behalf of Taichung Veteran General Hospital, donated 200 dengue fever rapid screening rea- gent to RON hospital. H.E. President Waqa, Acting Minister of Health on behalf of the Department of Health received the dona- tion.

H.E. Ambassador Chow said that the Taichung Veteran General Hospital was aware of the outbreak of dengue fever in Nauru, and RON Hospital was short of the dengue fever screening kits, so kindly donated 200 doses of rapid screening reagent to assist with quick dengue screening.

H.E. President Waqa expressed his gratitude and said that Taiwan is the best friend of Nauru and always pro- vides support at any time when Nauru is in trouble.

Stationed doctor Hsu from Taichung Veteran General Hospital, Director of TTM, Dominic Lee, Deputy Di- rector of the Ministry of Health, Rayong Itsimaera, Director of the Nauru Public Health Center and Director of the RON Hospital Dr. Ola Ajayi and Nauru Television and Nauru Bulletin journalists attended the ceremony.

Donation for Market Day of Nauru College Incoming Medical Specialist

Nauru High School held a "Market Day" event at Dr Chen, Hong-Jhe (Tim) the school on 21 October, 2016. H.E. Ambassador is a specialist in family med- Chow donated AUD 200 on behalf of the Taiwan icine. He arrived in Nauru on government and 200 eggs from Taiwan Technical Wednesday 29 March to Mission (TTM) for the students to sell. "Market support the Public Health Day" is an annual important event of Nauru College, Centre. Dr Chen is experi- the purpose of which is to train students to learn enced in prolotherapy, ( a teamwork, selling skills and experience to equip treatment for chronic pain), them for the future. osteoporosis treatment (for fragile bones, particularly for menopausal women and old- er men) and smoking cessa- tion. Dr Chen hopes that he can help people in Nauru who want to quit smoking.

Dr Chen’s interests are jogging and watching mov- ies. He likes to jog in the morning with the sunrise as a companion. He looks forward to jogging every- where in Nauru.

Page 7 Outgoing Dr. Hsu, Chia-Tien

On the 27th of March, Nauru TV interviewed Dr. Hsu, Chia-Tien in the Public Health Center. The interview questions and responses follow.

Question 1: What kind of medical specialist are you? Answer: I am a specialist in nephrology from Kaohsing Veterans Gen- eral Hospital. Nephrologist is a medical doctor who specialize in kidney care.

Question 2: How long will you be staying here?

Answer: I have stayed here for almost three months since early January. This week will be the last week.

Question 3: How many patients do you see?

Answer: 291 patients in outpatient clinic; 13 consultations from inpa- tient setting; and 4 home visits.

Question 4: Is there anything else you want to say?

Answer: My hospital (Taichung Veteran General Hospital) is going to set up a “Diabetes and Chronic Kidney Disease follow-up “computerized program specially for the use in Nauru. This program includes a patient’s history of illness record which can trace each patient’s blood test results, the prescribed drugs, and the time to return to the hospital for a checkup again. As many people have diabetes here and it is a chronic dis- ease requiring regular follow up for management, I believe this software program will be a lot of help espe- cially to the diabetes patients.

Also I would like to announce that the mobile medical team from Taichung Veterans General hospital (TCVGH) will be visiting on Nauru from 7th - 17th of May. Team members include a cardiovascular surgeon, ENT (Ear, nose, and throat) doctor, radiologist, and a registered nurse. Locals who require medical advice on ear, nose, throat or heart conditions are urged to visit RON hospital to make an appointment now. Page 8 TAIWAN ~ NAURU

His Excellency President Baron Waqa and Madam Waqa were invited by the President of the Republic of China (Taiwan), H.E. Tsai, Ing-Wen, to pay an official visit To Taiwan from 7 to 12 March 2017. President of the Republic of Nauru, Baron Waqa and First Lady Louis Waqa were accompa- nied by a nine-member delegation and enjoyed the six-day state visit.