Fire Bureau of Taichung City Government has dedicated to the rescues of Hualien earthquakes with great efforts. Today(12th March) Vice President, Chien-jen Chen, in person, awarded the certificate of appreciation and Mayor Chia-lung Lin awarded the honorary medals to the rescue dog team for their brave performance. One rescue dog「Tehsung」among the team was hurt while undertaking the rescue missions, it won highly recognized by everyone for its brave spirit. Mayor Lin appointed Tehsung as the「City Ambassador」and expected Tehsung to be one of the representatives of Taichung City to assist any international rescue task. Also, Mayor Lin provided Taichung rescue dogs with one month of「Super canned dog food」as rewards, accepted by Tehsung for the team.

In order to elevate the international fire rescue energy, City Government and Bundesverband Rettungshunde（BRH）had signed up the memorandum of understanding (MOU) to start the collaborations with each other. Today we have another opportunity to have a deal with the global number one certified「medium USAR team」, International Search and Rescue Germany (ISAR). This is an advanced collaborative framework to enhance the international search and rescue training and experience exchanges. Meanwhile, we’ve signed a contract with the College of Veterinary Medicine in National Chung Hsing University, the first college of veterinary medicine in Taiwan, to provide the best training and medical cares for Taichung rescue dogs.

In addition, Taichung City Government fully supported to form the 「International non government organization（INGO）center」at GuangFu Village, Wufeng District. We’ve successfully attracted International Search and Rescue Germany (ISAR) and Bundesverband Rettungshunde (BRH) to come to Taichung to set their first stops. Today is the day to attend the ceremony together with Taichung rescue dog team for the official launch of the center at GuangFu Village.

「Taichung special search team recognition and the official launch of international rescue organization stationed in INGO center」ceremony was conducted at GuangFu Village, Taichung. Vice President, Chien-jen Chen, Mayor Lin, Deputy Mayor Yi-ing Lin, Deputy Director-general of National Fire Agency, Ministry of the Interior, Jin-hsu Hsieh, Director of Fire Bureau, Huan-chun Hsiao, Director of Social Affairs Bureau, Chien-der Lu, Director of Civil Affairs Bureau, Yong-hong Chou, Director General of the German Institute, Martin Eberts, Managing Director of ISAR Germany, Michael Lesmeis, Chairman of BRH, Jürgen Schart, Minister of Department of NGO International Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ing-ming Ong, Principal of National Chung Hsing University, Fu-sheng Hsuei, Taichung City Councilor, Bii-hsiu Lin, Chia-wei Lai, Feng-yu Chang, Tsung-yi Chang, Tien-shen Lee and Ming-chen Ho etc. all of them attended the important ceremony.

Mayor Lin, as the representative of the City, signed up the contracts with both International Search and Rescue Germany (ISAR) and National Chung Hsing University, respectively. Also, he awarded the honorary medals and certificates to two groups, the dog handler, Jin-shen Lee and his rescue dog partner, Tehsung, and the dog handler, Yo-chun Lin and his rescue dog partner, Tuei-tuei, for their brave behavior. And the rescue dog, Tehsung, received a sticker of「City Ambassador」and one month of 「Super canned dog food」. The ceremony was very successful and won a lot of attentions with joy.

Vice President Chen said, thanks to Taichung City special search team joining in the rescue actions for Hualien earthquake with their bravery and outstanding performance. They are the first team to arrive at the venue while the disaster occurred; they tried to minimize any damage as if it happened to themselves. It’s not an easy job. Moreover, it’s worth to be mentioned that the rescue dogs,「Tehsung」 and 「Tuei-tuei」, can perform extraordinarily under such an emergent situation which shows the daily trainings of the Taichung rescue team are very solid and intensive.

He said, Mayor Lin is a Mayor with global vision and he’s aggressively facilitating to make Taichung to become an internationalized city. He tries to collaborate with many other countries in the world on the cultural, tourism, economic communications and even international humanitarian aids. He wants to sell Taichung to the world through all kinds of soft power. Meanwhile, he will bring the world and new life to Taichung to reinvigorate the old Taichung parks and make it become an exchange platform to connect with the world.

Mayor Lin said, Taichung is fully dedicated to build international NGO center. It takes GuangFu Village as the center of INGO to link with the 921 Earthquake Museum of Taiwan in the neighborhood and make it as a base for disaster prevention and rescue training. In addition, there are the hardware resources from the provincial council nearby. This is a big move forwards of Taichung INGO communication with the overseas stations of two German search and rescue organizations settled,

He said, disaster rescue is without borders, we can provide immediate rescue when the disasters come through a regularly updated and well prepared platform. Therefore, we can connect our rescue capabilities to the international level and elevate the disaster prevention and rescue energy of Taichung City. By connecting to the international rescue organizations, we can be the contact between Taiwan and the other countries in the world so we’ll accomplish the soft power development as President Tsai expected.

Deputy Mayor Lin said, GuangFu Village is the first one garden city in Taiwan. It suffered from the 921 earthquake so it’s fading out. However, it turns out to be an important base for disaster prevention and rescue training. Today, we’re happy to invite two big search and rescue teams in Germany to station in the INGO center. It’s a meaningful milestone for enriching the international rescue energy of Taichung. And they are also the very first partners of Taichung INGO as the international organizations. Such a kind of non profit organization connection will help to break the diplomatic dilemma of Taiwan.

The officials from Fire Bureau said, International Search and Rescue Germany (ISAR) is formed in Duisburg, Germany and is the first certified「Medium USAR team」 in the world. ISAR provides international disaster assistance and is qualified to meet the international USAR standard. Moreover, Bundesverband Rettungshunde(BRH) is a rescue dog organization with sound history in Germany. They have their own training field and 70 divisions nationwide in Germany with more than 600 rescue dogs and 900 dogs on training. They are well structured organization. Both organizations are well known globally and have involved in many disaster assistance. Their first overseas stations were set in Taichung INGO center. This is one of the important achievements of non government collaborations in Taiwan.