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Youth awarded for their contributions to community

Wu Han-lin, center, joins his work team members for a group photograph after he won the prize for the non-student community action category in the first Youth Public Participation Awards on March 25. PHOTO: LO PEI-DER, TAIPEI TIMES

It was 2am. Wu Han-lin (吳漢霖) and his gang were drunk and stoned and on their way to meet another group of friends at a karaoke bar. From afar, they saw their friends arguing with men who turned out to be undercover cops.

Wu recalled that moment years later when he won a prize in the Youth Public Participation Awards for helping students in his community in Pingtung City stay away from drugs and violence.

The government-sponsored awards were given out for the first time this year on March 25 at Zhongshan Hall in Taipei, to a student and non-student in five categories.

Wu, who won in the non-student community action category, once lived a life bordering on juvenile delinquency. Now, his behavior has changed so much that he plays an active role in helping students in his hometown community.

With tears in his eyes, Wu said that he never expected that a "bad kid" like him would win such an honor.

Wu comes from a family of five and his high school years were rife with booze, drugs, fights and gambling.

He did not like school and enjoyed hanging out with his buddies. They joined the "Eight Generals" troupe organized by a local temple.

Such troupes are a form of temple-procession art that combine self-flagellation with martial arts and dance. Members traditionally acted as religious policemen entrusted with the task of arresting evil spirits. In recent years, however, many of the groups have been taken over by gangs and now attract tattooed, teenage gangster wannabes.

Drinking, smoking and doing drugs were common activities for troupe members, Wu said.

Amphetamines were popular and cheap at that time and easy to get. Wu first tried drugs when he was 12.

"We were hiding at a deserted campus snack bar. I was so high that I couldn't sleep that night, but I was like a flattened balloon when the drugs faded," he said. "I slept like a log afterwards and couldn't get up to go to school the next morning."

Wu said that he did not particularly like drugs, but was afraid that others would think that he was a coward if he didn't take them.

The gambling ring and pool hall were among his favorite hangout places. Wu gambled away the money he won from billiard games.

Wu bid good-bye to his stormy adolescence at the age of 18 when his mother died of uterine cancer and his father sent him into the military.

A couple years later, after he got out of the military, his life took a dramatic turn when Chiang Jia-huang (蔣家煌), the president of the community development association in his community, invited him to join a softball team.

"At first, I thought it was a good way to release my energy, but later I found out that it was great to be able to do something for other people," he said. "What really changed me was when he told me that people had to make themselves useful for others. It suddenly hit me that I used to be a useless person. How can I make myself useful?"

Wu, now the director of the association, leads members to collect recyclables and sell them to raise funds for community scholarships. The association also offers after-class assistance to students.

Traumatic past

Lu Li-wei (呂理維), who won in the student volunteer service category, burst into tears when receiving the award. He thanked his mother for introducing him to volunteer work and recounted the days when he and his family lived under the shadow of his alcoholic and abusive late father.

"When he didn't have money to buy alcohol or when he was drunk, we knew we would be in big trouble," Lu said.

Lu said that one autumn day, his unemployed father was so drunk that he chased them with a knife. Lu's mother was once beaten by his father so badly that she had to get 12 stitches on her head.

Lu was very shy and did not feel comfortable talking to people until the fifth grade, one year after his father died of liver diseases caused by alcohol abuse. He first began volunteering at a hospital near his home seven years ago, after his mother encouraged him to spend his free time caring for hospital patients.

The 18-year-old Lu still works part-time in the emergency ward and hopes to become an art therapist helping needy people in remote areas.

He is still emotional when talking about his late father, but he said he is gradually coming to terms with his traumatic past.

Big difference

When Hsu Hsiao-wei (許小薇) began leading her students at Hualien Girls' High School to clean up the campus in 1997, only 30 students volunteered. Now, more than 1,000 out of the school's 1,300 students have participated in the "Roots and Shoots" program initiated in 1999.

In addition to cleaning the school, participants also tidy up public roads and beaches, collect recyclables and visit senior citizens' homes, orphanages and physically disabled people.

Hsu, who won an award in the non-student volunteer service category, said that she had not expected "fools" like them to win the award.

Inspired by Jane Goodall, a British primatologist who came to the school in 2002 and last year, Hsu said that people must be taught to help and care for others.

"I think it is a very serious thing if students have a technological brain but lack a compassionate heart," the 32-year-old civics teacher said.

Like most high school students elsewhere in Taiwan, Hsu's students are preoccupied with their heavy school workload. To encourage them to participate in volunteer work, Hsu gives them generous "bonus points" as an incentive.

"It doesn't matter whether they do it for 24 hours or 20 minutes, I want them to know that their small contribution makes a big difference," she said.
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