Taiwan is right on the Circum- Pacific seismic zone. Also due to climate change, earthquakes and torrential rains have become a common occurrence and a nightmare for the Taiwanese. Civilian rescue groups are often held back by limited resources. As such, the Foundation decided to donate rescue trucks to Taiwan Elite International Rescue Association and held a “Rescue Truck Donation Ceremony” at the Evergreen Plaza Hotel (Tainan) on the 27th. The Foundation has also set up the Rescue Strategies Alliance together with GeoThings Inc. to allow relevant departments to keep track of real-time disaster information and arrive at places with the most urgent needs.

The rescue trucks donated by the Foundation features a pull-out side tent that serves as an impromptu command center and a rear hook for towing lifeboat, conducive to pre-disaster training and the actual rescue. GeoThings Inc. is a Taiwanese tech company recognized for developing an App to help Austria and southeast Asian countries build their rescue systems. Its CEO, Zhuang Guo-Yu, gifted the Foundation and the rescue association with geoBingAn Real-Time Disaster Information System which will support later software/hardware integration and strengthen rescue capacity. Taiwan Elite International Rescue Association also presented a demo training for rescue dogs who were seen agilely executing the trainer’s instruction, e.g., Heel, Remote Directional Control. The rescue dogs showed great stability when waiting and won themselves a riotous applause.

The Foundation used the February Hualian earthquake as an example to illustrate its collaboration with the rescue association utilizing combined Evergreen Group resources to deliver a three-step rescue operation including search and rescue, disaster relief and after-disaster rehabilitation. The Foundation expressed its deep respect for the rescue association’s instant arrival at the site, its members dotting all over collapsing buildings to save people. The Foundation also promised to become staunch support for the rescue association, while thanking GeoThings Inc. for offering tech support and presenting real-time disaster status in a map format so that the rescue groups can be better informed of the disaster information. Taiwan Elite International Rescue Association’s CEO, Zhang Bin, recalled the Foundation’s immediate dispatch of personnel to assist with the disaster rescue soon after the earthquake struck and commented that the Foundation is their best back-up support. Now the Foundation is donating rescue trucks and a real-time disaster information system App to better facilitate rescue work in the future. According to its CEO, Zhuang Guo-Yu, GeoThings Inc. is the first social enterprise catalyzed by the Industrial Technology Research Institute. GeoThings Inc. also works with Taiwan Foundation for Disaster Relief (TF4DR) to set up the geoBingAn platform on which to conduct information analysis and forward it to the 119 Hotline while integrating text and images from the public or rescue groups and presenting them as simple-to-grasp maps and graphs for everyone to get a picture of the disaster status.

When a major disaster strikes in Taiwan, e.g., the 921 Earthquake and the Typhoon Morak, the Foundation has always immediately mobilized a task force using combined Evergreen Group resources to start a three-step rescue operation. In the future the strategy alliance will be in place converging all wisdom in handling the disasters and protecting our people and homes.