Students volunteer to aid foster children in south
National Chengchi University (NCCU) and the Chinese Children's Home and Shelter Association, a local nonprofit organization that helps foster children, are teaming up to send volunteers to inject a bit of life and learning into two rural orphanages in the south, university and association officials announced yesterday.
Beginning next month, 20 local and foreign NCCU students will venture deep into sweltering farmland in Pingtung and Kaohsiung counties to stay in orphanages throughout the summer.
Their mission: to expose foster children to foreign cultures, and teach them English and soccer.
Titled the "2007 Summer for a Better World," the volunteer program is the brainchild of association officials and complements the university's tradition of community service by students, said association secretary-general Hung Chin-fang (洪錦芳).
"These foster kids have very few opportunities and resources to learn English and understand the outside world," Hung said. "So, we're bringing the outside world to them."
NCCU freshman Elio Rash, a business student from diplomatic ally Belize, is among a handful of international students who will "sacrifice" his summer vacation to interact with orphans, organizers said.
"Do not think that our diplomatic allies just secure resources from Taiwan," a university press release said. "They're eager to interact and understand `Formosa' through community service here, too."
For Daniel Park, an NCCU student from South Korea, helping foster kids is the perfect way to give back to his adopted community. The business student lost his father when he was 12 years old, and has a personal mission of helping other parentless children, NCCU official Connie Chang (張瓊齡) said.
"I know what these kids are going through," Rash said yesterday at a press conference touting the program. "When I was younger, I faced [similar circumstances]."
The students and association officials will stay for three weeks at a Pingtung orphanage sheltering 100 Aboriginal children next month before moving to a smaller Kaohsiung orphanage in August, Hung said.
"The students won't live in hotels or experience better conditions than those of the children," NCCU president Wu Se-hwa (吳思華) said.
The summer program is the first step in fostering a community service initiative the association hopes will grow to the point where foreign students will come to Taiwan primarily to volunteer at foster homes, Hung said.
For NCCU, the program is part of its "Think Globally, Act Locally" community service program, which aims to channel students' skills in bettering the community, said Chen Chao-ming (陳超明), the dean of the College of Foreign Languages and Literatures.
The university hopes to spur other tertiary education institutions to encourage their students to volunteer in the community by leading by example, Chen said.
"Learning doesn't happen just in the classroom," he said.
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