Whenever noticing people in need of help, Li-Ping Wang never walks away. Instead, she offers her help as much as she could.

When Li-Ping started her volunteer service at Eden’s Yilan Education and Nursing Institute, she explored this different world and provide her care to those in need with her heart. Li-Ping said, “I’ve always wanted to try volunteer work and now my wish finally come true.” She has been wanting to offer her help for a long time but the plan never works out due to her schedule.

Li-Ping’s eyes were caught by the green environment while she stepped into Yilan Education and Nursing Institute. She was amazed by this comfortable living environment dedicated to  persons with disabilities.  Her role was to assist the educare giver to take care of the service users. In the institute,  service users may make sudden yells or roll on the ground unexpectedly but Li-Ping never felt anxious or panic. That’s because she had been trained to deal with these situation prior to her volunteer service. “I am well prepared because of the training from Eden” Li-ping grinned smugly.

Sometimes, the curious stare from service users may make visitors uncomfortable. Li-Ping explained with sympathy, “They are not aggressive. They just express their curiosity in a direct way.”  Not only advocate for service users, Li-Ping would also convey her love to service users as much as she can in her volunteer time.  For examples, if someone with mobility issue drops things, she would help to pick it up; if another person drools constantly while eating, she would help to wipe the mouth.  “I often think one step ahead to be able to help.”

In her service time, Li-Ping got to know people from different disabilities, for example, people suffer from cerebral palsy, people with speaking difficulty, and people with strokes etc. Through the interaction with them, Li-Ping realized that everyone in this institute came with their own life stories. In one conversation she had with the educare giver, she sadly learned that most of the service users’ families are so busy that they only afford to pay one visit to them once a year, which is in the Lunar New Year. This situation really make service users feel homesick. Hence, the companionship really brings meaningful comfort to the service users.

During her volunteer time, Li-Ping observed that service users come with different caring needs: some of them have drinking issue and need to hold the water in their mouth for a long time before swallowing while the other have eating issue and require a big amount of time to finish a meal.  “Being a caregiver is not an easy job at all, who must have patience and devotion in order to do it.” She expressed her admiration and respect towards the caregivers’ dedications.

After several days of volunteer work, Li-Ping finished her volunteer service with loads of heartwarming feelings.  She concluded her service with the quoted from Roman 12:15 “Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.”  Volunteer work led Li-Ping to walk the life journeys with service users’ families. The experience she had positively assured her decision in helping people as a volunteer. She knows that her companionship would bring meaningful comfort to people she serves.