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Valuing the time, leading
the future: A case study of the time
banking
program of an educational institution in Taiwan
Leemen Lee
Dharma Drum
Buddhist College, Taipei, Taiwan. E-mail:
lmlee@ddc.edu.tw.
Tel.: +886-935 801804.
Accepted
21 June 2009 |
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Time
banking, a reciprocal service exchange system, uses units of
time as currency. It has received increasing attention as an
effective way for community empowerment. It is mainly used
to provide incentives for services such as community mutual
help, health care, education, and caring for the
underprivileged. This study illustrates a time-banking
initiative of an educational institution in Taiwan.
Participants were given the opportunity to be volunteers in
exchange for a tuition waiver. This study explores how the
time-banking program contributed to the goal of empowering
learners and scrutinizes the advantages and challenges of
this program from the sustainability perspective.
Key
word:
Time-banking, sustainability, empowerment, volunteer,
Taiwan. |
