IofC Taiwan Recognised for Promoting Youth Volunteerism

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IofC Taiwan received a national award for its long-term youth volunteer programs, international outreach, and commitment to service, fostering global citizenship, diversity, and meaningful connections among young volunteers.

I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.' - Tagor

 

On 28 November, 2025, at an awards ceremony in Taipei that was attended by 25 teams and 777 individuals from across Taiwan, IofC Taiwan received an National Award for Outstanding Volunteer Service. Ouyang Huifang (Oufang), Secretary-general of IofC Taiwan, and two colleagues drove 4 hours from Tainan to Taipei for this event hosted by the Ministry of Health and Welfare. This national award came two years after IofC Taiwan received a similar award from the local government of Tainan City, where the IofC Taiwan office is located, and it was granted based on a rigorous assessment of IofC Taiwan’s track records of voluntary services over the past 3 years.

This award is also a recognition of IofC Taiwan’s unique approach to volunteerism, which engages youth they work with, often for a duration of 6 years or longer, by inspiring, equipping, accompanying them to “Be A Giver”.  Various service opportunities are created along the pathways so that young people can also make a difference, starting from where they are and by doing small things like helping set up and/or tidy up the venue used for regular events and visiting senior citizens at a day-care center. Volunteering can be such an empowering process for youth as they learn how to contribute to a worthy cause in ways that are appropriate for their age and ability. Over time, volunteers more experienced or mature are invited to join a special youth volunteer team of IofC Taiwan. They meet regularly for fellowship, take initiative to organise activities in response to their shared interests and concerns, and learn through hands-on experience what it means to see one’s responsibility in others’ needs.

Young volunteers are encouraged  to “Start Small” but also to “Dream Big”. As a response to their aspiration of reaching out to the world beyond Taiwan, for the past three years IofC Taiwan has been working in partnership with IofC Malaysia and schools and NGOs in Malaysia to implement a service/outreach program in July and August with a visiting team of youth and adult volunteers from IofC Taiwan. The 2025 program covered 7 schools and 1 kindergarten in Port Dickson and Malacca in 10 days to deliver educational workshops, mostly interactive and experiential, on topics like SDGs, environmental protection, and values and morality.

In a highly-connected world, global citizenship also means engaging one’s heart and mind with the world right where they are, and IofC Taiwan welcomes foreigners visiting or living in Taiwan to interact with the local youth by sharing about their countries, cultures and personal life stories. Such encounters often provide precious insights into the unity in diversity of humanity for both the visitors and the hosts and create genuine connections at a personal level in a world that is increasingly divided due to polarisation.

At this award ceremony, the three representatives of IofC Taiwan were joined by International Council member Yofrina, from Indonesia, who is doing a post-graduate program in education at Donghua University in East Taiwan. Yofrina reflected on her experience of this event, 'The award is also a symbol of appreciation for people who give their time and energy to others.' and that 'real service is often unseen, yet deeply meaningful.' Prior to the event, they also met with two senior IofC friends in Taipei, Shelly Huang and Jean Hung, for lunch. Shelly and Jean both met MRA/IofC while at university and have been serving as volunteer guides for over 3 decades at the National Palace Museum. They had fond memories of their visit to Caux in the 1970s, the highlight for them being washing dishes together with participants from all over the world. It’s about 'people serving side by side, without status or titles,' thought  Yofrina. The same can be said about volunteerism as a way of life, which can be grounded in honesty, purity, unselfishness, and love.

Reported by Hsu Shoufeng