How Taiwan's Shen Hsin-ling helped poor through computers

Shen Hsin-ling changed the lives of poor, struggling Taiwanese farmers by setting up a website to sell their fresh produce - a feat even a computer-savvy adult would find challenging. Shen was 11 when she finished the project.

The following year, she established a website for children unable to afford tutoring that offered free help with their studies. At 17, Shen set up a website to teach women from overseas who have married local Taiwanese men how to adjust to the island's culture and understand dialects.

Shen, now 23, was in Hong Kong last week and told members of Rotary Club Kingspark and students at City University about how the internet was a powerful tool to give disadvantaged communities new ways to help themselves.

Her story is already familiar to students in Taiwan as her accomplishments have been lionised in many textbooks schools across the island used to teach Chinese, English and civic education.

A household name now, Shen, who is a graduate student in journalism at National Taiwan University in Taipei, came from humble beginnings.

Her parents were night market vendors selling knick-knacks such as toys, plastic balls, fruit and soft drinks, and had to travel to make a living at markets scattered across Taiwan. "We travelled a lot and didn't have a home, so we would often have to sleep inside the van," Shen said.

When she started school, her aptitude for computers and information technology became apparent, and her parents, though struggling to make ends meet, did what they could to help develop their daughter's talents.