Date:2014-08-15
Since the Kaohsiung gas explosion accident, young volunteers around the country have distinguished themselves and traveled in a wave of sympathy to the disaster area. Lo Ching-shui, Director-general of Youth Development of the Ministry of Education said that the Youth Volunteer Center in Kaohsiung and Penghu set up a command post in Wucyuan Elementary School right after the accident. They called on 6,813 youth volunteers with a variety of expertise to the disaster area in accordance with the needs described by Kaohsiung City Government and local borough chiefs to provide assistance to victims. On August 5th, Deputy Director-general Shi Jian-chu paid a special visit to the command post to encourage and thank the youth volunteers for putting aside their time and offering their service to help victims to return to normal life as soon as possible.
The Youth Volunteer Center in Kaohsiung and Penghu state that since they began recruiting volunteers on August 1st, there has been a steady rush of people coming to register. Whether they are high school students, college students or young people from all walks of life; regardless of age, all hope to do their part to help the affected areas. At present, the volunteer teams are divided into groups: materials distribution, electrical and plumbing repairs, household advocacy, cleaning, basic medical support, maneuver deployment, administrative support, and logistics support. On any given day, there are about 60 volunteers awaiting orders to set out.
Household advocacy volunteers are divided into two teams to assist local borough chiefs to deliver service messages. Borough offices provide free medical consultation and religious ceremonies to help in recovery from extreme shock in the hope that it can soothe the pain of the residents who suffered from the gas explosion incident.
Because the gas explosion damaged houses on a significant scale, home-repair related work is in high demand. Mr. Zhang, an owner of an electrical and plumbing service shop in central Taiwan headed south along with his five employees on August 3rd to be electrical and plumbing service volunteers and stayed there for three days at their own expense. They used their expertise to help the victims repair the related damage.