Book drive helps migrants feel at home in Taiwan

2015-03-13

A book collection campaign launched by an ROC national with a genuine interest in improving the lives of Southeast Asian migrants residing in Taiwan is paying handsome dividends.

Initiated in February by Chang Cheng, former editor in chief of Southeast Asian migrant monthly magazine 4-Way Voice, the undertaking encourages locals to obtain new or secondhand books from across the region and drop them off at 80-plus collection points around Taiwan proper and the outlying Matsu and Penghu islands. The titles are then loaned at no cost through such outlet as mobile libraries.

“Southeast Asians play a significant role in the development of Taiwan,” Chang said March 12. “Helping ease their homesickness through books in their languages is an outstanding way to express our appreciation.”

According to Chang, there are close to 500,000 migrant workers and 300,000 immigrants from Southeast Asia in Taiwan. “They often cannot find anything to read in their mother tongues in the local libraries,” he said.

Of the 3,000-plus collected books, the majority are in Thai followed by Vietnamese and Indonesian in that order, Chang said, adding that there are also small holdings of titles in Burmese and Cambodian.

But the program requires more than just published material to continue its success.

“Financial donations and volunteers assisting with sorting and deliveries are more than welcome,” Chang said. “We urge all and sundry to pitch in and play a small but invaluable role in improving the lives of our Southeast Asian friends.”

Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=228197&CtNode=413)