Taiwan donated 100,000 pounds’ worth of rice to Palau to help with the response to COVID-19 on September 24th.
Currently the rice is kept inside a container at Marine Law in Malakal. Five (5) ministries were each given 606 sacks of rice and were given authority to distribute them.
The Ministry of Education has distributed the sacks of rice to various schools in Palau. Chief of School Management Raynold Mechol said that the schools will have enough rice for 5 months.
Mechol added that schools like Palau Mission Academy and Emmaus-Bethania are dormitory schools where they do dinner meals as well.
He said that these schools have thanked the Ministry of Education saying that they do not have to worry about purchasing rice for a while and can focus on other expenses.
Public Information Officer Jose Ise of the Ministry of Justice said that the Ministry will get the rice from the container for the Division of Corrections.
Director of Bureau of Health Administration Darnelle Worswick, Ministry of Health, said that they only accepted 10 sacks of rice and gave the rest to other ministries.
She said that due to their work in response with COVID-19, they do not have the capacity to get the other 600+ remaining sacks of rice.
Chief of Division of Aging Isola Ebibei Solang said that the Ministry of Community and Cultural Affairs is in planning process for the distribution of their share of the rice.
The Ministry of Natural Resources Environment and Tourism still have their rice and Director of Bureau of Agriculture Fernando Sengebau was not available to disclose to disclose their plans for distributing their share of the rice donations.
Taiwan rice donation being distributed during pandemic
