Churches hold NTU youth festival

A group of teenagers sing together during a youth carnival, held at a stadium of National Taiwan University yesterday afternoon. The event -- organized by the New Life Pastoral Development Association -- was held in an effort to encourage youngsters to participate in volunteer activities. PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES

Several churches held a grand festival at National Taiwan University yesterday to promote youth volunteerism.

According to a survey conducted by the churches on how young people spent their summer, 88.7 percent out of the 811 were engaged in volunteer activities, but on average they spent less than 1 percent of their time volunteering.

"Our young people may be willing to volunteer, but the government does not have a comprehensive and integrated volunteering system. Perhaps the churches and the non-profit organizations can help in this respect," said Professor Hung Ying-cheng from Tamkang University Department of Business Adminstration.

The New Life Pastoral Development Association (五餅二魚教牧發展協會), the church mainly in charge of the activities yesterday, said that modern young people were often portrayed in a negative light in the media, and that young people were often associated with taking Ecstasy or having sex with older men to earn money, but there were still many more young people out there who had a positive attitude toward life and who are eager to help others.

"We are expecting to see a different Taiwanese youth. Young people must know that there is a different way to spend their life. Even if you cannot go abroad and volunteer like Lien Chia-en (連加恩) did, you can volunteer in Taipei too," said pastor Kou Shao-en (寇紹恩). Lien is a 27-year-old doctor who signed up for the alternative diplomatic service program and served in Burkina Faso.

Lien also showed up to share his experiences abroad.

He said that there was one time when he was dragged to a small village by a friend. The friend announced in the local dialect, which Lien did not understand, to the whole village that this Taiwanese guy was going to build an orphanage for the village. The whole village cheered and showered Lien with lots of gifts, and Lien was completely clueless. But later on with the help and funding of Taiwanese churches, the orphanage was built.

"Being a volunteer is definitely more exciting than car racing," Lien said with a laugh.

There were various stalls at the festival, offering information on diverse volunteer programs, such as one focusing on helping junior high school dropouts.