Red Cross Around the World

The Red Cross Society of the Republic of China (Taiwan) Welcomes American Red Cross Employee Jill Orton

A vocational visit to the local Red Cross was my primary request as a Rotary Group Study Exchange member. The Chungli Area Rotary provided not one visit but two!

Rotarians Younger, Tony and Jeff arranged and accompanied me on my first meeting. I had the pleasure of spending over two hours with Alice and her paid and volunteer staff at the Red Cross Society Taoyuan Branch. A volunteer Instructor, Iain Chao, did a superb job of interpreting and giving a presentation about the services provided in Taoyuan Taiwan. Some of the interesting information that I gathered was that their most successful program is Home Care services . The government has selected them as one of three organizations to provide this service to it’s citizens. CPR training is primarily free. Businesses/Schools pay a small membership fee to the National Headquarters.

The most interesting class I learned about was Driver’s First Aid. (Learning to respond if there is a traffic accident.) The Taoyuan Branch trained over 6000 students in their classes last year. They are very interested in the “practice-while-you-watch” training concept and are just starting to think about training with the Automated External Defibulators (AED’s). We talked about Blood Services , volunteers, disaster relief and more. Alice was very gracious in answering my many questions! The visit ended with the giving of gifts and taking pictures. A big thank you to everyone for making my request become reality!

A few days later when our team was in Taipei Rotary member s Finance and Tony went out of their way to arrange an impromptu visit to the National Headquarters. The Red Cross Communications Department provided a warm welcome to the GSE Team and Rotarians. We took pictures and exchanged gifts including pins!

A thorough “Introduction to the Red Cross Society of the Republic of China” was provided in Englilsh. It gave a historical sketch that during the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, the Chinese and foreign citizens in Shanghai formed what eventualy become the Red Cross Society. The Red Cross Society of the R.O.C. is a 3-leveled national civil organization, with the headquarters, the chapters, and the branches. There are chapters in Taiwan, Taipei and Kaohsiung subordinate to the headquarters, while there are 21 branches under the Taiwan Chapter. The national headquarters of the Red Cross society of the R.O.C. is in Taipei City, comprised of 5 departments (training, social services, junior and youth services, planning, and international & public affairs). Each unit has its different mandates: promotion of voluntary service, training & consultation service, disaster relief and preparedness service, social relief service, junior and youth service, cross-strait humanitarian service and International humanitarian assistance.


The commitment is “where there is catastrophe, there is the Red Cross; where there is the Red Cross, there is hope.” The Red Cross Society will continue to provide timely and needed service to the people under the founding principles of brotherhood, humanity and voluntary service.

I was so proud to be a member of the Red Cross and get a broader perspective of how my organization provides services to people around the world!