Helping others became a “collective effort”, from the Newspapers, translated…
The compassions of the youths in Hsinbei City is flowing nonstop, “Save Lives with Old Shoes”, was handed off in March to the students and teachers of Chuangjing High School, a lot of students are from poor households, “If we can’t give monetary donations, then, we give time”, a month ago, the students started showing up every single day, and now, the cargo container with fifty thousand pairs of shoes is almost filled up, and, by May, the shipment will be arriving in Africa.
“Old Shoes Save Lives”, was started by Yo-Ren Yang, Chi-Yu Chiao, and other instructors in the English department, primarily, because Yo-Ren Yang’s father-in-law spread gospels in Kenya, Africa, he’d learned that the locals didn’t have shoes to wear, and that the sand ticks will get into the human bodies from the soles of feet, and so, he’d initiated the “Old Shoes, Save Lives” activities, hoping that the public can donate secondhand shoes to the three hundred thousand residents in the region; the Asian American High School answered the requests first, and in March, the baton was handed off to Chuangjing High School, and, in a month’s time, there would be thirty to forty students who sorted through the donated shoes.
Most students had entered into the actions of shoe donations, only Yang, from the drama department, who was from the lower end of the socioeconomic status couldn’t donate as much, only two pairs, but his father said, that helping out is a good thing, and after he’d watched the footage of how the sand ticks are infesting in Kenya, he’d believed, that “if I couldn’t donate the shoes, then, I can help out in other ways”, he’d reported for duty every single day, to do inventories of the donations; Shao from the Childcare department was also a recipient of assistance, and she hoped to offer assistance whenever she can.
Wu, from the performances arts department, although he’d taking the examinations in July, he’d still put in four hours of volunteer work, at the same time, he’d donated the nine pairs of his limited edition Michael Jordan sneakers, and, the asking price for each pair started at $3,000N.T., some were limited editions, but, after he saw the videos, he felt empathic, and was willing to donate his collection, so it could become more valuable.
The Assistant Principal of Chuangjing High School, Wang said, through the answering of the calls of compassion, the students will learn to be thankful for what they have, and, they hoped that they could manage to receive fifty thousand pairs of donated shoes to send to Africa, originally, there were just five thousand pairs by the end of that first week, he was worried, that the cargos won’t get filled up, but then, toward the end, came over 100,000 pairs, and, there were, new shoes donated from the manufacturing factories, and, they’d turned over the extra shoes that the cargo shipments couldn’t take to the sponsoring charities.
So here, helping out is still a collective effort, and, by reading or watching the stories of what’s happening in Africa, these teens gained empathy of other people’s bad situations, which drove them to want to help out, and, everything still starts small. These, are the acts of kindness in the world we live in today…
Life, the Obstacle Course 