This is a good question. It is a very big question. The Da Jia Charity Foundation is actually a public welfare group. In fact, many things cannot be taken care of in the entire government mechanism and in the operation of the machine, so we established the Da Jia Charity Foundation. Many things cannot be done within the government’s legal regulations, but for social groups like us, because our regulations are not included in the country’s rule of law system, we are a public welfare group in another world, so we established this public welfare group to serve places that are not illuminated by the searchlight. Places that are not illuminated by the searchlight mean that few people will pay attention to them, so they need more attention from groups like us. In the past, we have always paid attention to people in need through news events, but because we were under the spotlight, we also gained a lot of resources, so we went out to find people in society who needed help. This was the purpose of our establishment of the Da Jia Charity Foundation.

The establishment of Da Jia Charity Foundation was divided into two stages. It started as a local group and then was changed to a national charity group as more and more friends participated. It has been 12 years now.

Charity groups gather the love and donations from the public to carry out service activities. Kind-hearted people give us money and materials and ask us to provide services. The most difficult part for us at the beginning was how to raise funds and how to allocate resources to those who need help. Because capable people usually don’t easily know that there are so many people in society who need help, and we need to use various means to discover and find these facts to let kind-hearted people know and be more willing to provide resources to everyone’s merit association. In addition, how do we know whether these resources are used in the right places? Are they helping the right people? Later, we spent a lot of time and energy tracking whether the conditions of the people we helped were consistent with our service goals at the time, rather than just providing assistance and then leaving it alone. I think donating money is easy, but putting the money to the right use is difficult.

The feedback from society has given us great encouragement. I think this is very useful. The so-called feedback is not just verbal thanks. Let me give you an example of a little child. We have helped this child for many years. One year, she received a scholarship to high school, and she donated the scholarship money to us so that we can help people who need help more. This is what I mean by feedback. When these children grow up and have the ability, they know how to help others. I call it the "cycle of virtue."

I remember a grandmother who was about 70 or 80 years old. She took out NT$1,000 from her pocket and said she wanted to donate. Then she took out another NT$1,000 from another pocket and said she wanted to donate for her sister. Then we started chatting. She lived in Nantou and took the bus to Taichung. I didn’t ask why she did this, but just kept this memory. I am very grateful to all the volunteers or kind-hearted people in the Merit Association, no matter how old they are, they are still willing to help others.

The Da Jia Charity Foundation is usually composed of people from all walks of life who are enthusiastic about public welfare. The members have diverse backgrounds, including entrepreneurs, retirees, religious believers, community volunteers and ordinary citizens. These people have different motivations for participating. Some want to do good deeds, while others hope to use the power of the group to help vulnerable groups in society, such as the elderly, poor families or disaster victims. Religious believers are also important participants in merit-making assemblies, especially believers of Buddhism and Taoism, which emphasize karma and charity. They believe that participating in merit-making assemblies can accumulate blessings and benefit themselves and their families. In addition, many entrepreneurs and business groups are actively participating and giving back to the community through donations or practical actions. In addition, students and young volunteers have gradually become an emerging force in the Merit Society. They hope to enhance their sense of social responsibility through practical actions and learn how to help others. Regardless of their background, members who join the Merit Club share a common goal - to do good and help others, and make society a better place. This virtuous cycle enables the Merit Association to develop over the long term and exert a greater influence.

We will increase exposure through social media, websites and physical events to let more people know about the philosophy and contributions of the Da Jia Charity Foundation. We will also hold charity lectures, volunteer experience activities or testimony sharing sessions to allow people to personally experience the value of doing good and to attract more people to participate. In addition, we work with schools, businesses, and religious groups to encourage students and employees to participate in charity, and provide certificates or rewards to increase their willingness to participate. Use word of mouth to encourage existing members to invite their friends and family to join and expand influence. Finally, emphasizing the personal gains of participation, such as cultivating love, making friends with like-minded people, and even gaining spiritual satisfaction, will make more people willing to participate. Through diversified promotion methods, we can attract more enthusiastic people to join and contribute to the society together.

In fact, strictly speaking, I think social services are better provided by government agencies, so we rarely cooperate with government agencies. We are doing what government agencies cannot do. As we all know, the government has a limited budget and has prescribed methods. It is impossible to provide assistance to everyone who needs it. So government agencies have been coming to us for cooperation. They awarded us awards, one is called the Stock Exchange Silver Award, and the other is called the Ministry of the Interior Silver Award.

The Da Jia Charity Foundation currently has more than 1,000 members. For example, I see many people who need help every day, so I will report these cases to the association. After the CEO and the financial officer know this information, they will conduct home visits. After the visit, a report will be submitted to the committee for review and approval, and then the subsidy will be provided. We hope that the subsidies we can provide are not short-term and one-time but long-term, until the other party is able to provide them or their financial situation has improved. We believe this will be more helpful to the recipients. Of course, we also have the Dream-building Field and the Dream+ Program, which are programs that require applicants to submit applications and then undergo review.

This is what I said before, the question of how to best allocate resources. The public donates resources to our charity, and it is our responsibility to study and think about how to get the resources to those who really need help. Our charity mainly focuses on children, but this is divided into "emergency relief". For example, when something happens at home and there is no one to take care of the children or when they cannot pay tuition and living expenses, we will intervene to help. There is also the "Dream-building Field" program to help students with special talents so that they can learn and develop their talents without worries, and the "Dream+" program to help schools develop distinctive courses.

We once helped a student whose dream was to get into medical school, but she failed in her first year and failed again in her second year. Her family was poor at that time, and she and her grandmother were the only ones living at home. One day, my grandma came to me and asked if I was eligible for the subsidy from the Merit Society. However, this situation does not conform to the regulations of our Merit Society. We are only managing resources on behalf of the kind-hearted people, and we must follow the rules of the Merit Society. But we wanted to help her, and the only way was to pay for it ourselves. Later, this student would bring us the certificates she had received every semester, and often mentioned that she wanted to give back to society in the future. This left a deep impression on me. I think our love does not require any return. As long as the people who need our assistance can work hard to create a positive life for themselves, they can also give back to society when they have the ability in the future. This will be the best reward for our Foundation".

It is true that we are often recognized by all walks of life. We just received the Silver Medal from the Ministry of the Interior a while ago.

I hope that the children of Tongan Elementary School can work hard to realize their dreams and don’t worry about funding. In addition to the Da Jia Charity Foundation, there are other groups in the society that will continue to help children with dreams.

I have served for about 6 years. My previous job was a professional soldier. After I retired, someone asked me to join Da Jia Charity Foundation as the CEO. You can ask me anything about the Association.

The job of a CEO is quite complicated. I manage a group of people who are doing work, that is, this team. I am responsible for everything the team has to do. For example, regarding our service routes, there is a traditional social assistance route where some lonely people in the society who need help report to us through various means. We will then go and see their actual situation and make home visits. I must master these. The other type is large-scale cases, such as cooperation with schools...all belong to the student area, which is also the part I am in charge of.

Because we are a corporate entity, I must report the status of our work to donors on a regular basis. At the same time, the cadres of the Merit Society will also propose the services they would like to see provided, and I will then implement them. That is to say, members are responsible for donating money and supplies, the administrative group is responsible for distributing the money or supplies to people in need, and I am the bridge between the members and the administrative group.

One key point in our recruitment of members is that we need human contact. Maybe now that the Internet is well developed, we can promote what we do through the Internet, but most of our members are introduced by friends. Friends will talk about what kind of public welfare they have done and through what groups they have done it. They become members based on their trust and belief that the Association will be able to carefully and properly utilize donations from all walks of life. Also because of the same philosophy, once you become a member, you will hardly leave.

Yes, I just mentioned that our Foundation is a corporate entity. Those who join because of the ideals and good intentions often become permanent members. In fact, membership is not mandatory. They will often come to care about the Merit Association and may support us by donating money and materials. Because they think that joining the Merit Association can help many people realize their ideals of doing good, they usually continue to do so.

To put it simply, what we do can be divided into two types. The first is social assistance. For example, if someone suddenly falls ill or there is a fire in their home, their family will fall into financial difficulties. When this happens we will be notified and we will send personnel to understand and assess whether they really have difficulties and need our assistance before deciding how to help them. The second type is the children and teenagers section, such as a large-scale project in cooperation with schools called "Dream+", which provides large sums of funding to help schools develop special courses or clubs, so that children can get more learning opportunities. We also provide students with specialized skills to continue to cultivate and develop their skills, such as dancing, swimming or taekwondo. This is called "Dream-building Field". These students may not be able to continue learning and practicing due to family reasons. We have this plan to give them peace of mind.

As for social assistance, we send people to visit the families after receiving the notification. After actually understanding the situation, we come back to discuss what kind of help is suitable for the person. Once it is confirmed, we will provide financial or material assistance.

For children and youth, applications are accepted at a fixed time each year. The applications will be reviewed by credible experts and scholars in different fields, and subsidies will be provided according to the applied projects such as "Dream+", "Dream-Building Field" or scholarships.

Let me give you two examples that impressed me deeply.

1. We once helped a kid from a baseball team. He lived with his father because his parents were divorced. However, his father worked in another city, so he left him alone in his hometown and only gave him NT$200 a month. In Taiwan, it is difficult to survive on NT$200 for a day, let alone a month. So the Merit Society was responsible for taking care of the child, allowing him to go to school and practice baseball with peace of mind. We thought he could complete his studies smoothly, but unexpectedly one day he did not come to school. After asking, we learned that he gave up his studies and interests and followed his father to work on the construction site, and he lost contact with us.

2. One day a citizen said he had some rice to donate to the charity, and made an appointment with us to go there at 3pm. My colleague and I drove there only to find that the rice was piled up like a small mountain. My colleague and I had to transport the rice back to the charity again and again. I was supposed to have dinner with my family to celebrate my birthday that day, but it was already late at night when I finished transporting the rice. I was so tired when I got home that I fell asleep without taking a shower.

Other activities related to children and teenagers include scholarships, character camps, and after-school care classes; and those related to social services include blood donation activities, regular distribution of supplies in remote areas, and care for elderly people living alone.

Because everyone has their own work on weekdays, many activities are held on holidays. Just like the example I just mentioned, whenever people want to donate supplies or need services, we have to accept them no matter how late it is. We also have to hold various activities on holidays, which of course will take up personal time. When I finish these things, I always feel that I have helped a lot of people. Although it is hard work, when I see the joy and gratitude on people’s faces, I feel that it is all worth it. I always remember what Mother Teresa said: “Hunger is not just about food, it is about the thirst for love; homelessness is not just about needing a roof over your head, it is about being excluded and abandoned. After poverty and hunger, the biggest problem in the world is loneliness and indifference.”