Tr Rony Story

By: Anonymous submission

Campaign: Anything and Everything

#literature

Sometimes, the most impactful decisions are not the ones that change your life, but the ones that change someone else’s. This summer, I found myself back in a tribal village in India, with less resources and available information, the school there was struggling with  issues. The batteries of their solar panel have broken, with the failure of those batteries, it meant for them complete isolation from electricity, no access to computers, where the students have less resources to learn from, citizens of the village suffer in the state of constant terrorization of unknown attack launched by elephant and snakes without the support of light. After a tour around the school we visited a parent, whose legs were injured and lost his ability to walk due to an elephant attack. Seeing this situation, I have thought to myself back and forth, maybe I should save the money for better use. The first option is to walk away as if I have been told a good story. Second one is that I can gather friends and use some of my own budgets to help. At first I didn’t promise, because there is no guarantee of how much this might cost. Then I consider the logic behind, someone has to fix this, that amount of money will be spent. We have a lot of resources in the current environment we live in, which they do not behold. So I have made the decision. I told the principal that I will be handling this, although this is a small step for me, maybe just cut down budgets on other things, but the impact it brought to the student there is way bigger, because now they have access to computers. As a teacher, I know how much this meant to them. 

The journey of me doing charity has been continued for 15 years, and it all started from a student named Ricky Hung. We have started this activity where if the students in tribal school have gotten a good score, we will invest in them with budgets according to their score to buy necessities used for studying. With him we started the idea called TaiKu, where we donate books to libraries in mainly tribal schools, where they have insufficient funds and resources. We know that libraries are a very important way that students can acquire knowledge from, and each library should have at least 5000 books, so we will donate books to libraries that are in need until they reach 5000 books and move on to the next one. 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we also shifted our focus from education to health. From Taiwan, we sent thousands of masks, temperature guns, and blood pressure machines to those villages. It wasn’t a massive project run by any organization, it was simply us helping people in need. We knew that even the smallest support could make a big difference in a place where resources are scarce.

Over the years, I've developed a code of practice that I set out for myself, giving back. What I mean is that I allocate 25% of what I earn every month to give to charity. With the rest for my personal use or wealth accumulation. This principle keeps me grounded, it reminds me of the ability I have, and  to share what I have been given.

Of course, sometimes life changes that balance, there are years when I give more, and years when I have to give less when things are tight for me. Once in India where I tried to host a Taiwan Film Festival for the purpose of sharing Taiwanese movies and culture, so that people there could understand Taiwan better, but things didn’t go as planned. It ended up costing much more than expected, the reviews were blasting, people asking for more information about Taiwan and Films. Although it was a loss in financial decision, it opens the path of connecting culture and appreciation. This reminds me that success and charity doesn’t limit not only the financial factor, but also by the happiness and true feeling of appreciation it creates.

Dedicating myself to charity for over 15 years has also led me into many questions, sometimes not necessarily to wonder about the righteousness of my choices, or the whether or not I should have made the diction of helping others. I never dissect the act of kindness into questions for reflection, I only think about it once, before the decision of providing help. Once I have understood the meaning and purpose of it, I do it right away and never look back and cause trouble to myself, because there is no need of spending precious time on repetition of thought and process that have already been done when I can spend this effort on more people, bring a bigger impact to the world. The real question I face along this journey is how can I, as an individual, make such changes that allow people in need to have access to more resources, the evaluation between impact and cost. Every time with a new method being tested, an extra budget will inevitably be spent, but considering the situation of those in need, I can’t help it but always choose to oblige, because compassion outweighs any form of calculation.

I also understand that everyone contributes differently. Some people give money, some give time, and some share awareness online. Some are suitable for me and some are not, not necessary by mimicking others actions. There is no standard in spreading kindness, as long as it impacts the ones you wish to help. No act of kindness is too small. Even a message that inspires others to care is meaningful. We each have our own way of helping, and that’s what makes our world a better place.