Written by: Li Lao-Man and Robert Huang
Translated by: Jeff Lu
Proofread by: Mindy Chen

On the morning of September 14, Mr. Wang Ying-Wei, the Director General of Health Promotion Administration, Ministry of Health and Welfare, made a keynote speech: Health Promotion By Means of Compassion. In the speech, he mentioned preventive medicine, health promotion, medical treatment in remote areas, education improvement, life quality, friendly environment, quitting smoking and betel nuts, cancer screening and so on. His interesting presentation received a nice round of applause. 

In the beginning of his speech, he stated, “Today I’d like to share you two things. Firstly, I will talk about my affinity with Tzu Chi and secondly, as the Director General of Health Promotion, I would like to encourage everyone to improve health through good deeds. As a matter of fact, Tzu Chi’s contributions to health promotion receive government’s recognition.”

His humorous, witty expressions frequently brought the audience’s laughter. “The donator donated an ambulance but forgot to donate a driver; however, I appreciated it” He was the first doctor that drove the ambulance to the remote areas thereof.

As a matter of fact, Dr. Wang Ying-Wei has thought about serving in remote areas since he studied at Medical School. For twenty seven years, he has been the Director of Palliative Care Unit, the Director of Family Medicine Department, Hualien Tzu Chi Hospital, and the Director of Humanities and Medicine of Tzu Chi University Medical School. In addition, he was assigned as the Deputy Director General of Bureau of Health Promotion.

Caring about aboriginal health, he frequently visited the aboriginal communities in southern Hualien and told the community residents to report to the hospital if the disabled or the elderly in the community in need of medical treatment.

In 1994, a terrible civil war and genocide took place in Ruanda; more than five hundred thousand people died and there were more than four million refugees. Tzu Chi cooperated with Medecins Du Monde (MDM) in providing emergency medical relief services. Tzu Chi was the first medical relief group came from oriental and Dr. Wang Ying-Wei was the first doctor on behalf of Tzu Chi to participate in the services. He said with gratitude, “In this August, we celebrated the twentieth anniversary of TIMA, also, it’s the 20th anniversary for the Heart Lotus (Palliative Care) Unit of Hualien Tzu Chi Hospital. Many countries sent related people to learn from Tzu Chi’s Palliative Care experiences.”

“Health is the human’s right. Do whatever you haven’t done for it; do more if you have done something for it; do much better if you’ve done a lot for it. How to help people improve health? How to help people quit smoking and betel nuts? Mr. Wang Ying-Wei emphasized that it cannot be done without the participation of both the government and the society. What’s more, it must start with educating children to give them a good beginning of life.

Because of the aging society and the low birth rate, Wang pointed out that education is the only way to free the underprivileged from the poverty. Children of the underprivileged can borrow books from the moving library established by Tzu Chi; besides, volunteers and social workers frequently go to remote areas to visit the underprivileged.

He encouraged everyone to exercise more, take reasonable amount of rest, make more communication with each other and do more good deeds. He mentioned, “We cannot add more days to the life after passing away, but, we can live a meaningful life when we are alive.” He feels that doing good deeds as what Tzu Chi volunteers have been doing is the best way for health promotion.