The Peng Wan-Ru Foundation held its “First Annual Angel Awards” ceremony on December 13, recognizing 10 home care companions and four helpers who do in-home postnatal and child care. The average age for the home care companions was 52, and they had an average of three years’ service. The average age for the elderly being cared for was 84.

The Foundation currently has 377 trained home companions throughout Taiwan. They cook, clean and do laundry for elderly people who can care for themselves, and also accompany them on walks as well as when seeing doctors.

The home companions serve between two and seven days per week. They can be scheduled each day to help four, six or ten hours at a stretch for NT$120 to NT$180 per hour.

Tseng Tiao-hua, 58, used to only make NT$25,000 a month delivering newspapers on a motorbike by traveling a maximum of 95 kilometers each day, but her take-home was actually NT$22,000 after paying for traffic tickets. Not being able to make her house payments on that income, she changed her path by caring for a 95-year-old shut-in gentleman three years ago. She worked six days a week, twelve hours a day, and made NT$32,000 a month, allowing her to improve her life considerably.

Tseng says: “The man I helped was quite autonomous, and everything had to be done his way. He would watch TV and yell at people. (President) Ma Ying-jeou was stupid, (Former President) Chen Shui-bian was an idiot, the people on the soap operas were terrible, etc. I would yell right along with him, and he loved it.”

Tseng says that the man was a former soldier, and he talked about nothing but his military accomplishments. “The old man was so loud that they could hear him inside the elevator,” she recalls. When they went out walking, if she said quietly to him, “Grandpa, let’s go this way”, he would ignore her, but if she reverted to military terms, he was quick to comply with an “About face!” or “Forward march!”

Li Yi-fan, owner of an insurance brokerage, says, “Thank goodness for the foundation and how it allows young people to work without worries!” His 88-year-old mother, who suffers from dementia, is able to get help from three companions through the foundation. Li praises Liu Mei-yu, who has looked after his mom for a year, for doing things like laundry or sweeping the floor for the family. Best of all, Liu is able to communicate with his mother, who only speaks the Ningbo dialect, which takes a load off his mind while he is out of the house.

Liu says modestly that six years ago, when her children were grown and her husband at work, “I went out to find someone to keep me company.” Only then did she learn of the home care companions, but she never imagined that she would “get back far more than I pay out.”

Chen Yuan-jung, 60, has worked with five households. Her current charge is an elderly woman whose only daughter is living in Australia. Chen accompanies the senior when she does calligraphy or paper-cutting, even playing mahjohng, as well as using the Internet to talk to her daughter, keeping her close to her family.

(The Chinese version of this article appeared on December 14, 2009)

More Info: http://www.taiwanheadlines.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=174100&CtNode=39