Father to the tribe
Born in France in 1932, Poinsot entered the seminary at the Catholic University of Paris when he was 17. After eight years of hard work, he was ordained a priest at age 25.
In 1959, at age 27, Poinsot was sent to serve in Hualien. Back then, transportation was inconvenient and the young priest got around on a motorcycle as he ministered to people’s needs, driving up into the mountains and down to the coast in the area between Gaoliao in Yuli Township and Fengnan in Fuli Township. Dongli, Lehe, Afih… Poinsot went deep into Aboriginal areas. Even typhoons’ heavy rains wouldn’t scare him off.
The local indigenous people’s poverty made an immediate impression on Poinsot, but he discovered that they were skilled at planting lemon grass. That inspired him to acquire equipment with which they could extract citronella juice and raise the value of their agricultural production.
Most of their farmland was reserved Aboriginal land and was worth very little, which meant they typically had no collateral to speak of. As subsistence farmers, the residents were subject to the whims of the weather merely to eat, and needed badly to take out loans to buy farm equipment or pay for their children’s education. But banks would usually refuse them.
To improve residents’ financial situations and introduce them to the idea of saving, Poinsot studied the models used by savings cooperatives overseas. He discovered that the spirit animating savings cooperatives—“neither profit nor charity, but simply service”—was distinct from the for-profit orientation of banks. To get a mortgage or loan from a bank, collateral is important. It is a materialistic, property-based relationship. Savings cooperatives, on the other hand, emphasize trust, pooling members’ money to provide those in need with low-interest loans.
Consequently, Poinsot paid for locals to go to Hong Kong and learn how these cooperatives were set up. After several years of planning, they finally established Hualien’s first credit cooperative in 1967, in the Amis indigenous village of Afih (Chinese name Tiefen) in Yuli’s Dongfeng Ward, where the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes is located. “At first, we didn’t have much,” recalls coop staffer Wang Julan. “People were saving just a few NT dollars. Whenever Fr. Poinsot went to lead prayers in the homes of church members in the local tribal villages, he would extol the importance of saving.” Poinsot’s principle: First help yourself, then help others. He was constantly encouraging people to save, noting that small contributions can combine into large amounts and encouraging residents to develop a habit of saving.
Poinsot became like a parent to everyone in Afih, and he established a kindergarten to improve the community’s educational foundations. Healthcare in the area was limited in scope and difficult to access, so he purchased medical goods and set up a health station to provide basic healthcare, even personally treating children’s bruises and wounds from falls. As far as residents were concerned, he was a spiritual teacher to the tribe. Anyone who had a problem would go to Poinsot for help. “The first birthday cake I ever had was provided by Fr. Poinsot, recalls Wang with a smile. “Because our family was poor, my parents had never given me cake before.” Wang says that Poinsot was more like a father to her than her own father. Because Poinsot did most of his work to the east of the Xiuguluan River, he is known to residents as “the angel east of the river.”
Belying his foreign features, Poinsot wears Amis clothes and speaks the language fluently. He has long since become a part of the tribe. (courtesy of You Wenxiong)