Father founded WIH, couldn't find Chinese-speaking caregivers, daughter donates to angel projects.

By Liu Xian-Jin ／Oakland Real Time Report / World Journal  2023-12-01 21:41 ET

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Mr. and Mrs. Chao Gang and Chen Zhongyi. (Courtesy of Tonia Chao Hsieh)

In 2022, Chinese-American donor Tonia Chao Hsieh approached the Diversity in Health Training Institute (DHTI) with the idea of donating to establish a caregiver program to serve the Chinese-speaking community. It turns out that her father, Chao Gang, one of the founders of the Chinese Economic Fellows in Taiwan and honorary professor of economics at the University of Wisconsin, has also earned a reputation as a distinguished Redologist through his study of "The Dream of the Red Chamber." After retiring from his teaching roles at the University of Michigan and Berkeley University, he now resides in the Bay Area.

The idea came to her when she couldn't find Chinese-speaking caregivers to take care of her aging father, Chao Gang, and mother, Chen Zhongyi, during the epidemic. Eventually, the Angel Caregivers program, which trains caregivers in Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese) and English, was established. Tonia Chao Hsieh describes the process of finding DHTI as a “Glass Slipper”.

Chao Gang and Chen Zhongyi are well known for their publications. They graduated from the Department of Economics at National Taiwan University, taught in the U.S., and won the 1982 National Golden Tripod Award from Executive Yuan, R.O.C. (Taiwan) for their book “A History of China's Land System”, and the 1978 Ministry of Education Academic Award for their other book “A History of China's Cotton Industry”. Tonia Chao Hsieh herself is a co-founder of KarMa Pictures, an independent multimedia film production company, the former dean of undergraduate students at Berkeley University's College of Environmental Design, and an advocate for equity and social justice.

In the spring of 2020, her father, Chao Gang, suffered a stroke, and her mother, Chen Zhongyi, suffered severe hearing loss, she told the newspaper on December 1st. Because of her unique hearing voice range, she can only hear Mandarin. The two lived in a retirement community in the Bay Area's Pleasanton neighborhood, where the outbreak had just begun, and strict controls prevented anyone but caregivers from entering their parents' home. When she and her sister, Connie Chao, were unable to visit, they couldn't find a Mandarin-speaking caregiver, and eight months later, after Chen Zhongyi died and Chao suffered a second stroke, they moved to another nursing facility.

On Oct. 23, 2021, her father passed away after losing his lifelong companion, but still bravely tried to live on his own, Chiu said. "The next day, I vowed to build a Chinese-speaking caregiver team for underserved monolingual seniors," she says.

She has a clear goal of finding an organization that trains caring bilinguals (immigrants and health care professionals from other countries) to become caregivers, and she wants to provide seed money to pay for the program's tuition. If the pilot was successful, it could be expanded to include more Asian languages and cover more areas of California and the country.

During the search, she talked to the heads of several organizations to find out who was training caregivers and which schools were being used. Suitable organizations were those that were in the healthcare workforce development field, had the ability to work with immigrants and refugees in their native language, provided English language support for information presented in the classroom, and were able to improve participants' vocabulary in the workplace. They have connections to caregiver certification programs or nurse assistant training programs, but the focus is on providing language support and career support. Because of the various limitations these individuals have with parenting, transportation, and work, it is important to minimize language barriers at the earliest stages.

In April 2022, Asian Health Services‘s directors Julia Liou and Thu Quach suggested that Tonia Chao Hsieh meet with DHTI. "It was a lucky moment for me, it was like a miracle, and DHTI was a perfect fit for my Glass Slipper", Tonia said.

Mr. and Mrs. Chao Gang (first from left), Chen Zhongyi (second from left) and their daughters, Tonia Chao (top right) and Connie Chao (center). Because her parents couldn't find Chinese-speaking caregivers during their lifetime, Tonia Chao Hsieh decided to donate to the Angel Caregivers Program to train bilingual caregivers. (Photo courtesy of Tonia Chao Hsieh)