RESPECT Taiwan Spreads the Word

by Julia & Yu-shun
RESPECT Taiwan

RESPECT Taiwan is working with other RESPECT affiliates and other organizations from around the world, such as iEARN, on the "RESPECT & Refugees Project."

Since early February 2003, with constant assistance and information provided by Mr. Marc Schaeffer, RESPECT's International Coordinator, we have implemented the first step to raise awareness of refugee issues among Taiwanese youth and adults. More than 10 volunteer teachers assist 284 students in Taiwan participate in a snail-mail pen-pal letter exchange with refugee students.

We exchange snail-mail with refugee pen-pals, including, 224 students in Guinea, 20 students in Somalia, and 40 students in Uganda. The first time I heard we had a chance to exchange letters with international friends, I was really happy. But I also felt deeply sorry for their situation. Their communication equipment is not very good. In the refugee school, they only have one computer.

When I read their letters I was really sympathetic to the refugees. In their letters, they told us not only their life was very difficult, but also their government was not fair to them.

One of the projects we had for the refugees was to write a poem. We sent our pen-pals the poems we created. I want to share a great poem from my classmate Anne Chen.

On April 26, 2003, we had our first fund-raising activity at Kaohsiung Municipal San-min Vocational High School's 16th anniversary party.

When we are planning projects we remember four letters, "PDCA."

• P is Planning. We need to prepare a plan, so we made a list of what we could sell, Then we contacted some companies and some clubs to support us.
• D is Doing. We know "To say is one thing; to do is another." We had to take charge of our work. When we finished work, we could help others. The most important thing is "Do everything with your whole heart." That means you have to be diligent. If you aren't diligent, you won't achieve anything.
• C is Checking. After the activity, we should inspect the process and the details of the plan. It is important to do self-criticism. A problem we found from our first find-raising activity was we did not allow sufficient time to prepare this activity. And we didn't distribute the work clearly and fairly. Furthermore, unexpected things happened continuously. That's why we had to solve many problems. Additionally, we wasted too much time in planning. But through the checking process and the precious experience we got, we are sure that we can do a better job next time.
• A is Acting. I hope every activity we do will help our society. Feedback is important, isn't it? Our next goal is raising money to send a package to our pen-pals with things they need.

We took action and received friendship.

This was my first time raising money for my pen-pal. I was feeling so sorry for my pen-pal's environment when I read their letters. I knew that they had no textbook, no computer, etc. That's why I really wanted to help them. So I took pains in this activity.

Joining this project was meaningful to me. It let me know more about the refugees. I hope their life is not as tough anymore. In the end, I'd like to spread our love to help the refugees; together.

In the future, we hope to promote the project to all parts of Taiwan and help refugee students gain access to the Internet.