About 8,000km from Taiwan is Syria, a Middle Eastern country that has suffered 11 years of war that began with a pro-democracy uprising. Since 2011, the devastation has forced more than 5 million refugees to flee Syria’s borders, including more than 3 million to its northern neighbor, Turkey.
In the small town of Reyhanli, just kilometers from the border is a sanctuary for Syrians called the Taiwan Reyhanli Center, built by a Taiwanese architect and largely funded by Taiwanese donors.
That architect, who is also the center’s founding director, Dr Chiu Chen-yu, and the center’s program manager, Walid Abdi, an ex-Syrian refugee join Taiwan Talks as special guests.
We also speak to Stanley Yen, known as the “Godfather of Taiwan Tourism”, who provides consultancy to Dr Chiu, and Tahan Lin, CEO and Founder of Backer-Founder a full-service crowdfunding agency, that helped raised funds for construction.
We discuss how Dr Chiu took the spirit of “Taiwan Can Help” to build a unique and award-winning refugee center, a blueprint not only for refugee centers, but for sustainable communities around the world. We find out how the center’s care, social support, education, and workshops are not only providing a sense of hope, but in very practical terms, a new start to life.
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