Taipei, June 11 (CNA) A fundraiser in Taiwan aimed at crowdsourcing enough donations to purchase an ambulance for Ukraine exceeded expectations, receiving enough money to buy two ambulances, with the second vehicle scheduled to leave Germany on Sunday.
In a statement, charity organization "Taiwan Stands With Ukraine" said it had originally pledged to raise NT$300,000 (US$9,780) over the weekend of May 6-7 at the Europe Festival held at Taipei's Huashan 1914 Creative Park.
By selling merchandise such as a popular cat T-shirts depicting the Ukraine and Taiwan partnership alongside charity donations, the group had aimed to use the funds to purchase a secondhand ambulance through OBOZ -- Humanitäre Hilfe für die Ukraine e.V (OBOZ), a German-Ukrainian nonprofit organization that procures ambulances all around Europe to be delivered to Ukraine.
Speaking with Focus Taiwan, Alex Khomenko, an organizer with Taiwan Stands With Ukraine, said on Sunday that the organization actually raised NT$576,000 at the two-day event, exceeding its original pledge.
In addition, Taiwan-based Swedish Youtuber Lukas Engström also received at least NT$113,000 in donations to add to the funds.
Lukas Engström's Youtube video featuring Alex Khomenko, an organizer with Taiwan Stands With Ukraine.
The organization said it was "incredibly grateful" to the European Economic and Trade Office in Taiwan for hosting the event, adding that it was also thankful for the kind verbal support and financial contributions of attendees.
The organization was able to send the money to OBOZ to purchase two ambulances instead for distribution to the city of Rivne's Regional Clinical Hospital and to Municipal Multi-field Clinical Hospital No.4 in the Ukraine city of Dnipro.
Khomenko revealed that the ambulance for Rivne, which costed 11,400 euros, has already been delivered.
Meanwhile, the one bound for Dnipro, which costed 14,200 euros, is scheduled to leave Germany on Sunday.
According to Khomenko, OBOZ works with hospitals such as the ones in Rivne and Dnipro to determine the specific kinds of equipment needed, such as the gurney and medical supplies with which the Dnipro-bound ambulance is equipped.
Because emergency rigs procured by OBOZ come from all over Europe, the secondhand vehicles that go to Ukraine medical facilities are delivered in a plethora of colors with the logos of OBOZ and the partnering organization that helped acquire them, such as Taiwan Stands With Ukraine, added on and imposed on the body.
"In Ukraine, they often get repainted again if they go to the east or south, because the Russians are known to actually target ambulances," Khomenko said. "Sadly, this is just the pattern; it is terrorist acts against civilians that Russia has been engaged in from the very start of the full scale invasion."
Taiwan Stands With Ukraine said the organization will continue raising money for Ukraine and promote Taiwan in Ukraine to cultivate and advance bilateral relationship.
