A college lecturer who has collected bread rolls and loaves from bakeries for three years to distribute to people living in remote mountain villages every week is now known by indigenous children in Pingtung County as their “bread winner.”
Wang Chang-ju (王常如), a lecturer at Fooyin University in Kaohsiung County, has never taken time off distributing food in Sandimen Township (三地門), a mountainous area populated by the Rukai tribe, since being told more than three years ago that children there needed “bread” far more than money or video games.
Wang, currently a doctorate candidate in dentistry at Kaohsiung Medical University, was in the area doing research on betel nuts and their impact on indigenous culture when she discovered that children in the township were generally shorter and thinner than their counterparts elsewhere in Taiwan.
She learned that Sandimen was an economic backwater lacking basic necessities because of poor transportation links. Because of the lack of access, most children suffered malnutrition.
“There wasn’t even a bakery there,” she said.
Because children in the isolated village dreamed of “having bread to eat,” Wang launched her bread donation program. But it got off to a bumpy start.
When she asked bakeries in the Kaohsiung area to donate their unwanted bread to the cause, many mistook her for a fraudster trying to con them into giving away their bread.
Undaunted, she visited one bakery after another throughout Kaohsiung City and County, telling them she wanted to collect unwanted but edible rolls or toast for malnourished children living in the mountains of Pingtung County.
Her persistence paid off. She eventually recruited 16 bakeries to regularly contribute bread.
After collecting the bread, Wang and two friends drove from Kaohsiung to Pingtung to deliver it to the eager children. Over the years, Wang and her friends have brought more than 50,000 rolls to the township annually, and their compassionate deed has inspired others.
Members of the Chiayi Charity Organization based in Chiayi County decided to rebuild a bridge in Wutai (霧台) — another Rukai township bordering Sandimen — that had been damaged by a typhoon many years ago. After raising NT$10 million (US$304,800) for the project, the organization began construction of the bridge early this year and completed it on May 23. It was the 400th bridge that the charity group has built in Taiwan at its own expense.
Wang said the bridge would serve as a new lifeline for residents of the township.
Wang has also helped Sandimen farmers sell their crops to several restaurants located near Kaohsiung Medical University, and has arranged for the restaurants to give their leftovers to the farmers to be used in making soap or organic fertilizers.
All of these activities, Wang said, have only one purpose, one that she remains committed to.
“I hope our ‘bread trips’ to the mountains will have an even greater impact on improving the well-being of people living up there,” she said.
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
RSS