Last Sunday we looked at the history of epidemics and diseases that most affected Taiwan over the past century. Tonight, in Part 2 of our special report, we take a close look at the work done by thousands of individuals, at home and abroad, to lead Taiwan into the ranks of the world''s developing countries.A group of children holding cups wait to receive milk at this stand established by UNICEF. In the period from 1955 to 1968, almost 500,000 women and children drank milk provided by the United Nations. They made meals with 22-kilogram bags of flour, printed with the words “China-U.S. Cooperation” and an image of two hands joined together. Through American financing, Taiwan was able to offer children school lunches.Whether it was nutritious school lunches or stations providing milk, internationally funded programs dramatically improved the welfare of Taiwan’s children.Lin Jui-hsiungPublic health researcher In those first five or 10 years after the R.O.C. came to Taiwan, the U.S. provided much assistance. It’s true. In those days, we couldn’t even afford to raise chickens. The nation was trying to take back the mainland – where were we to get the money for other things? It was the Sino-American Joint Commission on Rural Reconstruction that helped with all those other things. It helped us with matters including vaccination. We used vaccines it provided. In those days, everybody had to be vaccinated. Otherwise you weren’t allowed to attend elementary school. Good public sanitation in the early days of Taiwan was made possible by the U.N., the U.S., and the Sino-American Joint Commission on Rural Reconstruction playing very important roles. At the time, the U.S. gave large amounts of money to public health agencies in the Philippines and Taiwan. The Philippines constructed the most modern hospital in Asia at that time. Taiwan directed the money to the Sino-American Joint Commission on Rural Reconstruction, which worked on improving conditions at the grassroots level. A health center was built in every town and village – in all, over 300 clinics built. It began training wave after wave of nurses who spread out to households to promote sanitary practices. These nurses were known as “community nurses.”Lin Jui-hsiungPublic health researcherIn those days, each health clinic had several community nurses. They knew how many children were in each household. If you had three children, they would tell you not to have any more. Community nurses would make the rounds and would be responsible for knowing whether there were any sick people in each home. Those nurses did everything. They did public health campaigns. They administered prophylactics. They even delivered contraceptives – we had those at the time. These community nurses would go from home to home to visit families. They coached families on good public health practices. They would provide expectant mothers with prenatal health checks, and teach new mothers how to bathe their newborns. They even set up desks in front of temples to give mothers lectures on child nutrition.Chen Chien-jenEpidemiologistTaiwan''s mortality rate for mothers giving birth was very high. So the first job in neonatal and natal care was to train community nurses to become midwives. The midwives were willing to travel throughout the countryside to help with births. This is very touching. After a typhoon, when the rivers were full to overflowing, they would ride bicycles, climb mountains and wade through water to help with these births. Their efforts and those of their public health colleagues were rewarded with a rise in the birthrate and the rate of people who could help with childbirth. There was an obvious reduction in the mortality rate for women giving birth.The nurses would go to schools to help clean lice out of children’s hair. They went to homes to make sure children were fed and to give them measles vaccinations. Their work became a foundation for the success of Taiwan''s public health system.Yeh Chin-chuanPublic health scholarWhen I was a child, public health workers gave us eye drops, killed parasites, and treated trachoma. They would come inspect your home to see if you were keeping it clean. My home was always listed as unclean. It was stuff like that – those were the early days of public sanitation work. One important aspect of the nurses’ work was promoting family planning. But many farming communities maintained the idea that the bigger the family, the better. Public health nurses worked to upend the traditional mindset, with slogans such as “two kids are just right,” and “boys and girls are equally good.” But much of the time, the slogans were lost on deaf ears. Lin Jui-hsiungPublic health researcherFor example, there were six kids in my family. There were families with seven, eight, or 10 kids. There were also families with four or five kids. In the 1950s, the average Taiwanes...
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