For more than a decade, come rain or shine, Lin Chao-hsiung (林昭雄) has made the 24km journey from Nantou County’s Caotun Township (草屯) to Greater Taichung at the beginning of each month to make a donation to World Vision to sponsor children around the world.
At the organization’s 50th anniversary event held in Greater Taichung on Thursday, the 71-year-old Lin said that he had not known about the organization until a decade ago.
“I was passing by a convenience store in Wufeng Township (霧峰) in then-Taichung County when I saw a banner for the 30-Hour Famine in front of the store. I joined out of curiosity,” Lin said, adding that he has participated in the organization’s events ever since.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
The 30-Hour Famine is an event in which volunteers voluntarily fast to raise money and awareness for world hunger.
Although Lin does not have much money after his retirement — a pension of NT$10,500 from the Labor Pension Fund and the NT$3,500 from the city’s subsidy for the elderly — he donates NT$2,000 a month to help children go to school.
“I can get by with just the basics in my old age,” Lin said, adding that he hoped to be of some help to others.
Lin said that although he does not understand the update letters the organization sends him because they are written in English and he can only guess their meaning from the pictures drawn by the children, he feels good about himself.
Over the past decade the people working at World Vision in Greater Taichung never saw Lin miss a drop-off, except one time when he hurt his ankle and was unable to ride his bicycle.
When asked why he insisted on cycling to the donation drop-off point and did not simply wire the money to save himself the trouble, Lin said the journey was good exercise.
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