Chia-chia (佳佳), A-ta (阿達), Yen-hao (彥豪), Che-wei (哲緯), Chen-hua (振華), Hui-ying (慧瑛), Meng-hua (萌鏵) and Yi-ning (藝寧) used to live in despair — and even felt lost. However, they were a picture of hope yesterday, as they showed the world that they have grown up and are able to help others like how they were once helped.
The eight people are all from economically disadvantaged families and received financial and academic assistance as children from volunteers and social workers at the Taiwan Fund for Children and Families (TFCF).
Now they're in high school or college and they decided to spend their summer vacation in the Himalayas helping children in a remote village in Nepal as a way of giving back to society.
“In the past, I was always the one who received help and said 'thank you.' I never thought I would one day be on the receiving end of the 'thank yous.' It's a wonderful, wonderful feeling,” said Yen-hao, a college student and captain of the fund's volunteer team in Yilan.
Yen-hao had worked in many different jobs — as a worker in a candle factory, a porter for a shipping company, a baker and even a construction worker — since he was in high school to help his family because his father was unable to work after getting hit by a car a few years ago.
Recounting his experience in Nepal, he said: “I didn't do much. I only taught the Nepalese kids how to make a notebook, but they were so excited.”
“I hope this simple skill could help make some change in their lives,” he said.
Chia-chia also grew up in a single-parent family after her parents divorced.
With six sisters and brothers, it was a great burden for Chia-chia's mother to raise the kids alone.
“We were fortunate enough to get help from the TFCF and many other [groups], which ease a little the economic burden on my mom,” Chia-chia said.
“But what really helped was being in a peer group, since I used to feel that I was inferior compared to others because of my family situation,” she said.
She was very excited to serve as a volunteer in Nepal.
“It was quite an experience because not many people could actually get to the Himalayas, and there are even less people who could work as a volunteer there,” Chia-chia said.
Grateful to have the opportunity to help others, Chia-chia said that she had decided to make helping others her “mission in life.”
“We appreciate their participation in the volunteer project, especially when they're not so well off themselves,” TFCF executive director Miguel Wang (王明仁) said. “We hope that all kids living in disadvantaged conditions could look up to these eight volunteers as their role models and never give up.”
Taiwan would benefit from more integrated military strategies and deployments if the US and its allies treat the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea as a “single theater of operations,” a Taiwanese military expert said yesterday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a researcher at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said he made the assessment after two Japanese military experts warned of emerging threats from China based on a drill conducted this month by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Eastern Theater Command. Japan Institute for National Fundamentals researcher Maki Nakagawa said the drill differed from the
‘WORSE THAN COMMUNISTS’: President William Lai has cracked down on his political enemies and has attempted to exterminate all opposition forces, the chairman said The legislature would motion for a presidential recall after May 20, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday at a protest themed “against green communists and dictatorship” in Taipei. Taiwan is supposed to be a peaceful homeland where people are united, but President William Lai (賴清德) has been polarizing and tearing apart society since his inauguration, Chu said. Lai must show his commitment to his job, otherwise a referendum could be initiated to recall him, he said. Democracy means the rule of the people, not the rule of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), but Lai has failed to fulfill his
A rally held by opposition parties yesterday demonstrates that Taiwan is a democratic country, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that if opposition parties really want to fight dictatorship, they should fight it on Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) held a protest with the theme “against green communists and dictatorship,” and was joined by the Taiwan People’s Party. Lai said the opposition parties are against what they called the “green communists,” but do not fight against the “Chinese communists,” adding that if they really want to fight dictatorship, they should go to the right place and face
A 79-year-old woman died today after being struck by a train at a level crossing in Taoyuan, police said. The woman, identified by her surname Wang (王), crossed the tracks even though the barriers were down in Jhongli District’s (中壢) Neili (內壢) area, the Taoyuan Branch of the Railway Police Bureau said. Surveillance footage showed that the railway barriers were lowered when Wang entered the crossing, but why she ventured onto the track remains under investigation, the police said. Police said they received a report of an incident at 6:41am involving local train No. 2133 that was heading from Keelung to Chiayi City. Investigators