wfn.org | Taiwan's Children Thank "Grandpa Lo"

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

Taiwan Church News 2681, July 14-20, 2003
Reported by Gu Hao-jan, Translated and rewritten by David Alexander

    "Grandpa Lo, how are you?"	Seven year old Yu-han timidly approached her
benefactor, Dr. M. Samuel Noordhoff, founder of Taiwan's Noordhoff
Cranio-facial Foundation, at a picnic for children who had benefited from the
foundation's programs early in July.  Yu-ting shows no trace of having been
born with a cleft palate.  She underwent three surgeries to correct the
condition.
    Dr. Noordhoff, whose surname in Taiwanese is "Lo", is known as "Grandpa
Lo"
to the children whom the foundation has helped through facial corrective
surgery.  Now retired in North America, he returned to Taiwan for the picnic,
which the foundation now plans to hold annually.
    Several years ago Taiwan's Bureau of National Health Insurance took over
paying for surgeries, so the foundation shifted more of its resources to
training doctors in Taiwan and in South East Asia in the techniques pioneered
by Dr. Noordhoff in Taiwan 40 years ago.
    Children attending the picnic were encouraged to greet Dr. Noordhoff, who
speaks fluent Taiwanese, by name. Yuh-han managed to do so in English.

For more information: slnoordhoff@earthlink.net
Taiwan Church News is published weekly in Taiwan's local languages.
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