Learning How to Serve the Community
2012/03/11
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This weekend, as the temperature ducked under 10 degrees (Celcius) and students wrapped themselves in the warmth of their quilts, a group of first year students set out for Wan Hua – a district about an hour away from Danshui. Their mission: to help physically disabled citizens tour the historically and culturally rich Wan Hua region. The activity was part of the TKU service learning program, a required part of first year learning, and comprised freshmen from the Department of Banking and Finance.
The event was organized by Sunable – Access for All in Taiwan, an association dedicated to helping the disabled, as a means of enabling disabled members of the community discover a new area in Taipei and have fun doing so. Prior to the event, Sunable came to the TKU Tamsui Campus to help train students to assist the disabled. During the training, students took turns in slowly pushing other students up and down campus slopes in wheelchairs. In doing so, they learned how to empathize with the disabled and developed a positive attitude toward volunteering.
The area chosen for the outing was one steeped in history and culture. It is one of the last remaining “historical streets” in Taipei and was the site for the filming of the popular 2010 film “Monga”. The students helped push the participants from site to site, conversed with them and made new friends. One of the disabled participants, Chiu Bi-hsia, commented: “the Tamkang students provided great assistance! They treated us like family, accompanied us throughout the tour and engaged us in conversation”.
First year overseas Chinese student from Malaysia, Liu Jin-xing, commented that “although we sacrificed a bit of sleep and the warmth of our quilts, we learned how to interact with and assist the disabled. I now can better understand their lifestyle and the difficulty of being in a wheelchair. What’s more, I learned a wealth of historical information that you don’t find in your average textbook and got to see another side of Taipei. It was great!”
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