Youth Overseas Peace Volunteer Group Provide Borderless Service
2017-12-18 10:25 By Li Yen-Chi of Economic Daily News
The “Youth Overseas Peace Volunteer Group Sharing & Presentation Ceremony” of Youth Development Administration, Ministry of Education was held in on December 17. The Ceremony honored 16 outstanding youth overseas volunteer groups and organized the first youth overseas volunteer exposition, and invited multiple groups dedicated to promoting overseas volunteer services to install 40 presentation booths.
When giving the speech, Vice President Chen Chien-Jen mentioned that the youth overseas peace volunteer group is founded in order to encourage the youth to stand out and engage in the overseas volunteer, do what they are good at, and help more countries who need the services. Vice President Chen also recalled his experience in co-founding the NTUKK with his classmates when he was young, and mentioned that “volunteer service” should be a required course for students and encouraged the youth to join the overseas volunteer group, so that Taiwanese youth’s strength may be seen by more people in the world.
The 16 groups which won the award among a total of 60 groups attending the competition this year have engaged in the service in Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Nepal, Salvador and Swaziland, et al. Among the other things, about 80% of these countries refer to the countries included in the New Southbound Policy. Therefore, we hope that this may facilitate the exchange of Taiwan with the countries of ASEAN and South Asia and inject new vitality to the New Southbound Policy.
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Photo of Vice President Chen Chien-Jen (the fourth from the left side) and the youth overseas peace volunteer group which won the championship. Photographed by Li Yen-Chi
The two groups winning the “golden” prize included Taipei Medical University’s “Feng-Xin Overseas Swaziland Medical Team” and CYCU’s “CAM with Me-Cambodia 12 Classes”. Taipei Medical University’s medical team arrived in Swaziland this year and offered the dentist’s volunteer clinic service locally. Meanwhile, it engaged in the health education to communicate the most correct medical knowledge to the local people. It extended the service to child students and taught them about preventive health care, trying to do its best with the limited resources.
This year, CYCU’s Cambodia 12 Classes worked with the local NPO in Cambodia, KAKO, and also promoted the long-term “Village Seed English Teacher Workshops” plan together with Department of Education (DOE) of Puok County, in order to train local seed teachers and fulfill the program dedicated to getting rid of poverty through education.
At the same time, the first youth overseas volunteer exposition was also held on the site and the overseas volunteer groups presented their service results. The AIT spokesperson, Sonia Urbom, and Secretariat of Global Action, Lai Shu-Sheng, were also invited to share their own stories about overseas volunteer services. For the details about Youth Overseas Peace Volunteer Group, please visit the website of Youth Development Administration, Ministry of Education (https://www.yda.gov.tw).
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Minister of Education, Peng Wen-Yen, was visiting the booths at the youth overseas volunteer exposition. Photographed by Li Yen-Chi
