With three years of experience and a great deal of compassion, three groups of NTHU international volunteers brought hope and friendship to different corners of the globe. All participants of last summer's projects, despite of the fact that they went to different societies and performed different types of services felt that they had learned a great deal from the people they served and in the places they visited. They learned to appreciate the cultures of their hosts and acquired new perspectives and developed an attitude of respect toward different ways of life.

The team that want to Ghana implemented a program entitled "Taiwan Bike, Bike Ghana" because they had learned from previous service corps that Ghanaian farmers usually had to travel distance, on foot, to and from their fields. With the support of Giant Cycling Foundation, they brought with them one hundred bikes and set up bike rental stations that are conveniently located in the rural areas, allowing Ghanaian farmers to rent a bike and ride to their farms and transport their produces more efficiently. A large portion of the fee collected from this operation went to the local orphanage to support their programs. This innovative project not only provided the needed transportation, it also highlighted the fact that Taiwan is the place where the world's best bicycles are produced.

With the IT technology developed in Taiwan, the Indonesian corps went to Aceh and provided the local high schools students and teachers with an "IT Information" workshop and assisted them to develop programs to protect the diminishing tropical rainforest and better manage their waste. The corps members also demonstrated and taught the technique of using internet to publicize one of the local products, rainforest coffee which would not only promote the sale of this unique product in international market but also introduce the abundant natural resources and the beauty of Indonesia to the international community.

Before departure, members of the Nepal corps were busy learning how to make cotton panty liners. Women in rural Nepal do not have the kind of female hygiene products that their counterparts in more urban societies have. Consequently many of them suffered from some gynecological problems that could be easily avoid if they can use hygienic products during their menstruation. To cope with such a situation, the corps arranged for a group of Taiwanese physicians to come to Nepal with them not only to give free medical treatments but also conducted, with the help of corps members classes on how to maintain one's personal hygiene. In addition they also share with them the new skills they so diligently learned before their departure on how to make cotton panty liners with Nepalese ladies so that they can take better care of themselves.

The team that went to Tanzania was very well prepared. Before their departure, they have already learned the basic of Kiswahili which allowed them to communicate more easily with the local people with whom they lived and served during last summer. They learned to appreciate the local manner to take thing "pole pole" (meaning not to rush and take things as they come.) One of the team members recalls that she met "an angel in Tanzania" because the local culture taught her to reevaluate her own attitude toward life in general and work in particular. She learned to relax and pursue her tasks in a leisurely and confident way.

All these volunteers travelled far, live and served in places where they never been before their trips last summer. The service programs they provided were different but they all came home with the same feeling. They all felt they learned and received more than what they taught and gave.