Israel’s representative office in Taiwan has donated over 100 earthquake-proof tables to Tainan in southern Taiwan, which was struck by a magnitude 6.6 earthquake in February.

Following the Tainan earthquake, Israel’s representative to Taiwan, Asher Yarden, decided to cancel the office’s annual celebration for Israel’s Independence Day in May, and instead used the budget to purchase 117 Israeli-designed tables and donate them to Tainan.

His office also looked for a way to commemorate the 117 victims of the disaster in Tainan, “The earthquake-proof tables serve both purposes well, and show how Israeli innovation and creativity can be utilised to save lives in Taiwan,” said Yarden.

The earthquake occurred on 6 February, leaving 117 people dead and hundreds injured. Among those who died, 115 were in a single apartment complex located in the city’s Yongkang District.

The first batch of 60 tables have already been given to Tainan, with the second and final batch scheduled to arrive soon, the representative office said.

Two of them will be put on display in an exhibition on disaster-prevention education at the city’s Fire Bureau, and the rest will be donated to eight elementary and junior high schools that were damaged in the quake, the city government said.