A wealthy Taiwanese wanted to help people in difficulty.
He chose four European countries, including France, to send envelopes of money.
Report from TF1 news in Duravel (Lot), where around fifty residents shared 95,000 euros.
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“It fell from heaven, because I live next to the church”laughs Régine Giordano at the microphone of TF1, in the report on the 1 p.m. news to be found in the video at the top of this article. This retiree, residing in Duravel, a Lot commune with 942 inhabitants, still can’t believe it: she has just received “1,500 euros in donations”inside a small red envelope with his name on it, after believing it to be a scam. The matter is nevertheless serious: like her, around fifty locals received, in person last week, without having asked for anything, checks for 1,000 to 2,500 euros.
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All these happy beneficiaries share two things in common. First, they are part of the SOLIHA association, which fights against substandard housing across the country by rehabilitating old degraded heritage or rehousing households in very precarious circumstances. Afterwards, “These are people that we usually don’t hear about, who have experienced hardships, life’s accidents, and yet who have never given up, who have always tried to get by “specifies Christine Piette, director of SOLIHA Lot, who therefore worked to distribute the generous gift.
He (also) runs a foundation with his wife
This comes from the pocket of Chang-Ta Hsieh, Taiwan’s fifth-richest, estimated at 9.3 billion dollars (8.3 billion euros) by the magazine Forbes (new window)via the TX Foundation, which he runs with his wife, revealed La Dépêche du Midi (new window). After having financed the construction of schools in Africa in recent years, this time the man wanted to extend his aid to Europe. And the Lot branch of SOLIHA was contacted this summer, through a joint relationship. “He is someone who comes from an extremely modest backgroundreveals to TF1 Christiane Robichon, the administrator of SOLIHA Lot. He built himself up and made lots and lots of money. He’s the Taiwanese Bill Gates.” Precarious people from three other localities in the Old Continent, linked to associations, were also given envelopes directly from his hand.
