Taipei, March 6 (CNA) Paul Lien, a young doctor who spent 20 months doing humanitarian relief work in Burkina Faso, shared the life lessons he learned by living in the poor western African country, touching the 300 participants in a seminar held over the weekend.
Lien applied for the alternative military service program and was sent to Burkina Faso in November 2001 as a military surgeon. During his 20 months there, Lien helped build an orphanage which now houses 100 children and collected more than 70,000 articles of clothing for people living in poverty in the country.
"It was a learning experience, " Lien said at the seminar. "Since high school, I have thought a lot about 'higher values' than just focusing on academics. The experience in Africa was a starting point for me. I wanted to make the best of those two years."
Lien said he told himself there was nothing to lose before applying for the service. "I thought that there wasn't any risk to my life and that I could learn French there."
Lien did more than that, winning praise and appreciation from people in Burkina Faso and the Burkina Faso government.
"Coming from a middle-class family where I didn't have to worry about anything in life, I thought I needed to show my appreciation by helping the less fortunate," Lien said.
"Life there was not easy, and there were so many obstacles in the way when I tried to help people," he said.
Lien said that his time in Burkina Faso, where the average life expectancy is only 42 years, made him think about life and death at a younger age than most people in Taiwan.
Lien was awarded a medal of distinction from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs after returning to Taiwan in 2003 for his work in Burkina Faso. He also published a book detailing his life in Africa.