"Food For The Poor is making the most for the people in need. It is a very reliable partner to my government when engaging in humanitarian assistance in the Caribbean and Latin America. To work with Food For The Poor, we feel mutual respect, mutual trust and high efficiency through project development," said Ambassador Mou. "The tree-growing program is a wonderful education opportunity for the students in St. Lucia to be friendly with the environment, to learn the meaning of sustainable development and to take responsibility."
Food For The Poor has been working to serve the people of St. Lucia for more than three decades. Thanks to the charity’s in-country partnership with Caritas, the government of Taiwan, Taiwan’s Tse-Xin Organic Agriculture Foundation, and donors of Food For The Poor, students from the Vieux Fort Comprehensive Secondary School eagerly have begun planting their gift of fruit trees.
"The people and the government of Taiwan are a tremendous people with a generous spirit. Food For The Poor is extremely grateful for the support they have provided over the years and now for the gift of fruit trees," said Robin Mahfood, President/CEO of Food For The Poor. "Mr. Mou is making great strides in helping the less fortunate in St. Lucia, especially local farmers. I want to compliment Mr. Mou for the difference he’s making in the limited amount of time he’s been in St. Lucia."
Food For The Poor also will build 20 greenhouses to assist schools with their individual feeding programs. In addition to the trees, 30 solar-powered and 30 electric-powered NComputing systems will be divided among the 60 schools. Each NComputing system can turn one PC into a multi-user host with seven workstations. Each workstation will have a monitor, keyboard and a mouse to provide computer access to students in St. Lucia’s remote areas.
Food For The Poor also will provide beekeeping training to15 farmers from various rural communities. Each farmer will receive bee farming equipment and honey production training. Beekeeping has the potential to generate a consistent source of income through the production of honey and hive byproducts, such as beeswax.
"I hope this cooperative project can bring the philanthropic NGOs in Taiwan closer to Food For The Poor so they can achieve more together," said Ambassador Mou.
Food For The Poor, one of the largest international relief and development organizations in the nation, does much more than feed millions of the hungry poor in 17 countries of the Caribbean and Latin America. This interdenominational Christian ministry provides emergency relief assistance, clean water, medicines, educational materials, homes, support for orphans and the aged, skills training and micro-enterprise development assistance, with more than 95 percent of all donations going directly to programs that help the poor. For more information, please visit www.FoodForThePoor.org.
The gift of 10,000 fruit trees were made possible by Ambassador Ray Mou of the Republic of China Taiwan.
