Making our communities stronger

Erica Hung’s passion for giving back and charity work

At Cook, we believe in making our communities stronger by sharing our time, skills, and resources.

Erica Hung, a Reimbursement specialist at Cook Taiwan, truly embodies this value. Five years ago, she joined Zhi-Hao Charity Foundation. The foundation is a non-governmental, volunteer based organization made up of philanthropists, entrepreneurs, and helpers who are keen on social welfare and providing care to under-privileged parts of the local communities. They have been active in Taiwan for several decades, but their foundation wasn’t officially established until 2016.

After learning about this organization through a friend, Erica went to some of their lectures and read several of their books. From the beginning, this experience taught Erica another approach to life in general.

“I think they inadvertently touched my heart,” Erica said. “Since I joined them, I have become a better, more optimistic, and stronger person. I have been learning that there are several, more focused ways to approach an issue, like an argument with my friends or a problem within my family.”

Giving back

Throughout the years, Erica has been involved in many different projects with Zhi-Hao Charity Foundation in kindergartens, primary schools, and colleges.

Some of these projects include self-discovery experience courses and the organization of spiritual growth programs every year, which are targeted at college students and younger members of society. The courses, which last four days and three nights, cover a variety of topics including emotional psychology, vegetarianism and environmental protection issues, blessing parties, writing to parents to express gratitude, young people’s parties, entrepreneurs sharing, and Chinese cultural classics sharing.

“Through these courses, we have seen many people change, and I believe we are helping youngsters to get out of the haze of life and face their paths more bravely,” Erica said. “We also encourage them to try and participate in volunteer services, if they feel up to the experience.”

Erica has also been involved in what are known as rural camps. The main objective of these camps is to allocate more stable teaching resources to rural communities in Taiwan, so that children in these areas can achieve excellence at school.

“School and education can give kids a more complete and vital childhood while shaping their characters,” Erica said.

According to Erica, over the last few years, the foundation has called on college students across Taiwan to spend several months designing courses and activities related to building social and life skills to help guide the new generations. Some of the values that these projects aim to teach younger members of society include responsibility, fairness, caring, trustworthiness, respect, and citizenship.

Being involved in these activities has positive effects for both the volunteers and the recipients. Many of the college students involved continued to give back to their hometowns and to pay more attention to social welfare issues.

“One of my favorite ways to describe how I feel about dedicating some free time to this foundation comes from Martin Seligman, an American psychologist and educator,” Erica said. “He said that if you want happiness for an hour, you should take a nap. If you want happiness for a day, you should go fishing. If you want happiness for a month, you get married. If you want happiness for a year, you should try and inherit a fortune. But if you want happiness for a lifetime, you should help someone else. Being able to give myself to others is the happiest thing to me.”

It is not easy, but we will not give up!

Erica’s experience with Zhi-Hao Charity Foundation has given her several stories that have greatly impacted her. Some of these inspiring, yet difficult, stories involved very young children.

In recent years, the foundation has rented elementary school classrooms in the communities where they offer non-profit courses and school assistance, pre-class coloring lessons through which children can meditate, and parent-child reading classes.

“In these sessions, participants can learn the knowledge of traditional books, such as the Di Zi Gui, which outlines the Sages’ teachings to be a good pupil and child,” Erica said. “These sessions also help nurture kids’ goodness, politeness, and cultivate civic habits and love for learning. Most of all, they allow closer parent-child relationships to bloom again.”

However, this was cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic. Moreover, in 2021, the school increased their rent, which posed a new challenge to the organization.

“We issued a leaflet about this problem and distributed it at the school gate among the students as they arrived for their classes. We wanted everybody to be aware of the issue and that we also offered free classes,” Erica said.

While some parents signed up after the free trial sessions and others continued to support the foundation, the problem is far from being over. However, the organization will continue to introduce new families to their projects.

“I will use all my energy in this experience, because I can see so much change in our pupils,” Erica said. “For instance, there is a significant difference in the way they draw and learn. When they joined our support classes, some children could only scribble, but now they can produce very beautiful works. Additionally, at the start, some youngsters seemed to be in their own small world when they were in class, but now they can raise their hands and speak up.”

Make it happen

When she talks about her experience with the Zhi-Hao Charity Foundation, Erica smiles and explains that volunteering her time is something she will never regret. It has enriched her life, familiarized her with her community, and connected her to people and ideas that have positively impacted her perspectives and attitudes. Her involvement with younger generations was a substantial opportunity to grow as a person and it made her understand how she fits into the world around her.

“I am a member of this huge global village and I believe that we can live on this planet by exchanging help from all the corners of the world,” Erica said. “We all have the ability to give back and nurture each other. We can take the resources from our society and use them again in our local communities.”

Going forward, Erica will continue to help others as long as she can, walking alongside like-minded individuals and friends. Through volunteering, the planet can become a unified cosmos in which care and support are available to all disadvantaged members of society. This includes children, widowed citizens, orphans, childless seniors, disabled, and unemployed.

“But most of all, I cannot be thankful enough for the potential and the energy that comes from dedicating time to volunteering locally,” Erica said. “It taught me that the purpose of life is not to get something, but to lose something: lose bad habits, let negative mentality go, drop greed and attachment to individual needs.”

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