Ministry of Education honors 3 TMU international service teams

The 2018 Young Overseas Peace Mission awards  （青年海外和平工作團隊競賽）encourage youths to participate in overseas volunteer work as citizens of the world, to establish benchmarks for such work and to provide diverse, innovative services to achieve the United Nations’ sustainable development goals.

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The ceremony also shares the learning and results from volunteer work, and is managed by the Youth Development Agency of the Ministry of Education. The agency evaluated 98 overseas volunteer teams in 23 different countries.

• Gold and silver award medical service teams in Eswatini and Cambodia

Kingdom of Eswatini medical service team: TMU has sent teams to Eswatini for 5 consecutive years, and has continued to innovate and improve by adapting to the environment and understanding the difficulties people face when seeking medical treatment. An innovative rocket stove project reduces health risks associated with open-flame cooking and helps the environment, women and health.

Cambodia service team: Cambodia teams have offered health services since 2015, and carried out a parasite prevention project that investigated head lice infection rates and made health records for schoolchildren. At Dontri elementary school in Battambang province, the TMU team and Shih Chien University worked together to establish a water tower with sterilization functions and a health center to provide the school and nearby inhabitants with clean water, greatly reducing parasite infections.

The team members said every trip teaches them new aspects of service. When they recalled the break times between consultation sessions, there was not one complaint from the people quietly waiting in long lines outside. It made the students feel their work was worthwhile as long as it improved the quality of life in their host community.