When unsure of what the future has in store and troubled over which career path to take, or when making difficult choices seems too overwhelming, many choose to stay where they are and take comfort in familiar surroundings.
However, nine volunteers, who were equally confused about their career options, instead chose to set off on Sept. 27 to Calcutta in India on a 17-day trip to volunteer at various care centers for the dying, destitute and physically disabled.
The International Volunteer Association (IVA) of Taiwan started recruiting volunteers for the trip earlier this year and after a series of interviews and training sessions, nine people were sent to India to volunteer at the Kalighat Home for the Destitute and Dying, the Prem Dan Home for the Sick and Mentally Ill and the Dayadan Home for Mentally and Physically Disabled Children, all homes established by the late Mother Teresa.
One of the nine volunteers that gathered yesterday to share their Indian experiences, Lin Shu-hui (林淑惠), said that she had been working as a nurse for five years, but felt that the monotonous routine of work was not something she was satisfied with.
"During my trip to India, I saw true happiness and what a simple thing it can be, how even washing a patients' clothes and blankets can be a happy experience," Lin said. "I saw how optimistic those poor patients were despite their plight, while I was sitting around and complaining about my own life." The trip deeply affected her and Lin has since decided to quit her job in Taiwan and become an international volunteer in Central and South America.
Another volunteer, Lin Ya-chi (林雅琪) said that she did not have the courage to go to India at first and that it took a lot of self-persuasion to take the final step.
"I'm really glad that I went to India. Seeing the patients' will to live makes me wonder why so many people are committing suicide here in Taiwan when they are lucky to have what they have," Lin said.
Even though the they encountered three floods, lost airplane tickets and gastroenteritis, volunteer Chen Pi-lian (
Luan Ching (
"What differentiates Taiwanese children and children in the West is that children here don't often have the chance to go abroad to explore and learn about themselves because of protective families," Luan said.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods