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THE BANDAGE ROLLING GROUP at the Taipei municipal Jen-Ai hospital is a volunteer group organized by the members of the social service committee of the Taipei International Women's
Club. It has been functioning as a liaison between the TIWC members since 1980. To most of the TIWC
members, this volunteer group represents the White Elephant Sales Booth at the TIWC annual
bazaar. Each volunteer makes her contribution through both cash and salable
items. As a consequence, the proceeds of the White Elephant Sales Booth is quite outstanding among the others in the annual fund-raising
event.
THE BANDAGE ROLLING GROUP was founded by Ivy Chi in 1960. Ms. Chi was a TIWC board member and a teacher at the Provincial Nursing
School. Seeing the heavy workload of the nurses, she thought to alleviate their works by helping them perform small tasks such as gauze
folding, cotton ball making and bandage rolling. Ms. Chi would bring cotton or gauze materials to her friends at the rented TIWC
office, and they would work many hours to complete their tasks. This work continued until the office building was torn
down.
In 1975, Frances Waska, a social service committee member, thought gauze folding for the hospital would be a very significant community service and brought this idea to the
S.S.C. meeting; thus, the task was revived by S.S.C. as its sub-committee
project. At the beginning, it was performed for the Mackay Memorial Hospital. The Mackay Hospital offered a small room in its basement without
air-conditioning. It was suffocatingly hot. In replace, Ms. Waska managed to find a
room, located on Shin-Yi Road and paid by the volunteers, where it was too far away from Mackay
Hospital. In order to continue this task, the Jen-Ai Hospital agreed to supply and deliver the needed materials to the volunteers on a regular
basis.
By 1980, the room charge became too exorbitant for the volunteers to continue to operate
there. At the courtesy of the superintendent Dr. Hsian-Chong Ko, one room was offered in the newly erected building
of the Taipei Municipal Jen-Ai Hospital. By that time, the members of volunteers has increased to more than 50
people. These volunteers met every Wednesday afternoon in the Laboratory Building on the sixth floor and had been meeting there regularly ever
since.
All of the volunteers enjoyed the friendships they build through their mutual
mission. Occasionally, they even shared some medical knowledge provided by doctors through
speeches. They also held an annual picnic and frequent coffee breaks with other homecoming members to stay in
touch.
The TIWC is very proud of these women who contribute themselves to society through volunteerism and make the core of this group grows
strongly. That is why this group has continued to operate for this long. With Amy Wang and Marion Ko's
effort, this group will continue to do so for a long time.
Back to Social Services page.
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