Civil engineering student Huang Chun-ju attends Miaoli County’s Union College along with Chen Yu-hsian, a student in the department of Electronics. Both have elected to take a social services course this semester. The “Social Service Practicum” is an extracurricular course, sending students to the Genesis Foundation’s Miaoli branch as volunteers, where they work with others helping people in a persistent vegetative state. The students perform tasks such as helping the patients bathe, etc., experiencing the difficulties of the families of such people. In the wake of such experiences, they are now calling on society to care more about these patients.

Huang Chun-ju says that helping the patients bathe is very meaningful, and to him it is a Christmas present to himself. When his grandmothe had a stroke, his mother had to take on the duties of lifting her and helping her wash. Today, as he himself helps the patients with the same tasks, Huang has the feeling that he is helping a member of his own family.

Chen says that before, he couldn’t imagine what it must be like to have a person in a coma in the family. It was only after he had gone through the volunteer experience that he realized what a burden such a patient was on the family and what difficulties the family members faced. Moreover, the families of many such patients are in economic difficulties.

Chen says that the bodies of coma patients become stiff and weak, and bathing them requires great care. The patients cannot express anything to the helper, of course, but in the evening, when they slide into sleep, the helpers feel better for what they have done to help another human being.

When the families of the patients try to thank them, Huang and Chen shake their heads. Both agree in their response: “Thank you for letting us help out. It’s really made us happy, and helped us to keep a good perspective.”

(The Chinese-language version of this article was published on December 22, 2009.)

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