A Wish is Heard, and Hope is Sparked

In July 2016, Samsung Electronics Taiwan (SET) received an invitation from the Make-A-Wish Foundation International to donate a Samsung Galaxy S7 to make a courageous child’s wish come true. This led to an introduction with A-Fu, a 15-year-old boy diagnosed with leukemia. Before undergoing challenging medical treatment, A-Fu enjoyed taking pictures of the beauty in everyday life, particularly in the Buddha statues found in temples around Taiwan. Despite hospitalization, A-Fu’s passion for photography has endured. A-Fu yearned to record the bright side of his life in the hospital, but needed a smartphone in order to do so, leading him to make his wish. SET heard of A-Fu’s wish through its partnership with Kaohsiung Medical University Chung-Ho Memorial Hospital. On August 10, much to his surprise and delight, SET gifted A-Fu a Samsung Galaxy S7 to help him capture the beauty he sees in everyday life.

Helping More Children in Hospitals

After fulfilling A-Fu’s wish, SET discovered that an average of 500 children are diagnosed with cancer in Taiwan every year. Like A-Fu, they’re in hospitals undergoing challenging treatment, which see many hospitalized for an average of three months. Unfortunately, such medical difficulties make the concept of going to school to learn with their peers more dream than reality. With these children’s pressing educational needs in mind, and in an effort to introduce more fun to help alleviate their pain, SET proposed to build a Samsung Smart School within a hospital, and invited Kaohsiung Medical University Chung-Ho Memorial Hospital to partner in the effort.

Opening Up the First Hospital-Based Smart School

Thus, on January 4, 2017, the first hospital-based Samsung Smart School officially opened at Kaohsiung Medical University Chung-Ho Memorial Hospital. Featuring two spacious classrooms equipped with tablets and TVs, the facility’s design reflects those of other Smart Schools established in Taiwan. Both classrooms have been enhanced to create a motivating and entertaining digital learning environment, and feature tablets pre-installed with educational apps that enable children to learn in convenient and engaging ways.

More Partnerships Bring More Fun to Learning

Having successfully implemented the first-of-its-kind Smart School, SET is now inviting more hospitals, social workers, volunteers, art therapists and other relevant parties to partner in efforts that will provide more children access to diverse and enriching educational resources. Hospitals may utilize tablets as a new means to carry out routine health education initiatives with parents and children. Hospital volunteers may also adopt digital content as an innovative way to promote more learning. Through hospital-based Smart Schools and promising partnerships, Samsung believes more enriching, child-oriented resources may be adopted and more educational content may be delivered. Most importantly, initiatives such as this will help SET achieve its goal of providing hospitalized children equal access to digital learning opportunities in smart and fun ways.