Giving Them a Hand, Liao Helped the Homeless Get Back on Track

The amazing work of a social worker from this foundation, helping the homeless population, and educating the members of the public, to be more tolerant, more accepting to those who aren’t, with as much resources, off of the Newspapers, translated…

The Homeless Taiwan Association’s female social worker, Liao, started working to help rehome the homeless population four years ago, she believes, that, everyone can be hit by the hard times; hoping to catch those who are in need in time, wanting to assist the homeless persons to break the vicious cycles of ending up on the streets, and also educating the public about the various faces of poverty, giving the help to the homeless, and help them find a better place in society.

Liao said, that her social work studies in the college years didn’t have a specialized department teaching her how to assist the homeless, after she’d graduated, she’d started working at the Samaritan Female Care Association of Taichung, and started getting involved in helping the female homeless population locally.  She’d worked with a moderately mentally decapacitated twenty-three-year-old woman who was homeless with her father, lived on the streets, then got placed in the shelters, and found work at a work center, it’d left a deep impression with her.

the social worker, teaching someone who’s homeless how to use a SmartPhone, photo courtesy of UDN.com

Homeless is a condition, NOT an identity, it can, happen to, anybody, from the societal level, it may be the pandemic, the financial crises, the changing in formation of the industries, which caused the middle age and older adults to become unemployed, and due to their age, their low levels of education, without a viable skill, they can easily turn to the streets; and there’s the other, personal factors, maybe due to illness, the lack of functioning in the homes, or the death of the parents, at age twenty, couldn’t find a viable way to make a living, no governmental, no external support, and in the end, ending up, on the, streets.

Liao said, assisting the homeless, other than helping them return back to society, she’d also wanted people to understand their predicaments, the foundation has the rehoming services, the medical, the employment assistance, and legal counseling, etc., etc., etc., and now, there’s the, “Scented Bathhouse” program, to allow the homeless to take a shower comfortably.

It’s not always easy, offering services to the homeless, Liao also felt defeated, if there were only, two, three successful cases, but the rest all fall back into the homeless state of, being, sometimes, when the organization give out the resources in the nights, for instance, if they’d started eating the meals as they received, this may be the individuals’ first meal, and sometimes, the passersby would start cussing them out, and believed, that it’s because the homeless are not working hard enough for their lives, that’s why they ended up, homeless.

Liao said, every generation is troubled by different things, seeing the struggles of the homeless population at the bottom of society, she hoped that everybody can live on with ease, it’s just, that there are different values, and different ways people make their own lives, matter, that the homeless aren’t at all, good for nothings, if everybody can try and understand that there are others who are different than s/he is, and be accepting to one another, then, this world will be a better place for all.

And so, this is the amazing work of this social worker, she’d helped those who are homeless for whatever reasons to get back on their own two feet, and she’s now, trying to help those in the society understand, that there’s more to the homeless population, than the fact, that they’re, wandering the streets, that they all have their, stories to share.

The Young Memory House, “Can’t Keep Our Memories Intact, But Can Keep the Love Flowing”

A place that’s set up, to offer the help, the support that these families with patients of early onset dementia needed, and it also, allow these patients with early onset dementia, to keep on contributing in their own means, their own, ways too, off of the Newspapers, translated…

The Stories of the Lives of Those Diagnosed with Early Onset Dementia

The day I’d arrived at Young Coffee, the servers were Chiu and Wu.

Chiu was interactive with the customers, “First time here?  Do you like it here?” as the servers delivered the coffees, he saw the reporter flipping through the stories of the lives of the early-onset dementia patients, he’d gotten activated, “I’d made one too, let me show you!”, and, as I’d turned, I saw the report on the T.V. wall, on how the early onset dementia patient, forgetting what he was gong to do.

Twelve years ago, the fifty-three-year-old owner of the transportation business, Meng fell into a coma from arrhythmia, and days afterwards when he woke back up, he couldn’t, recognize his own wife, Chuang, forgotten how to write, bathe himself, putting his clothes on, his wife thought that this was the side effect from his stroke, and he’d gone into physical therapy for a whole year, but, no improvements, that’s when his wife took him to the neurologist’s for a test, and, Meng was diagnosed with vascular dementia.

As I was drinking the coffee, the shy Wu came over, and used his salesmanship to sell me some cakes, not really many words, thought for a very long time, then told me, “This tastes amazing!”, and, as everybody started getting the whole sentence to try to figure out what Wu meant, then they’d come to known, that this was Wu’s bakery, “The Sweet Memories Bakeries” pound cakes, that’s sold here only on the weekends.

The Fifty-Two-Year-Old Husband Had Dementia, Causing the Whole Family to Fall into State of Panic

When Wu was fifty-two, he had a stroke, which caused his dementia, the day he was formally diagnosed, his wife, Chen and he held each other at the hospital and cried hard.  Wu due to his condition, could not work, and had needed to be taken care of around-the-clock, and needed to take the classes to help slow down the progression, his wife, Hsin-Yi had to keep the household economics, she’d stayed on working, and placed her husband into the daycare programs. Zheng-Bang worked hard for several days, placed himself in the seventy, eighty year old elders, did the physical therapy exercises with them, do the activities of singing, art, being younger, with a good physical health, he’d had a future of work ahead of him, it’d made him feel embarrassed, and refused to go to the daycare center again.

the photo of the cafe

from online, operating every Saturday from 10 to 4p.m

Hsin-Yi found, that the activities are all designed for the elderly population, that there’s a different set of challenges for the families, the patients of early onset dementia.  She’d looked for a very long time, and found Young Coffee, my first call was with “Huei-Jen, we’d talked for two hours straight, it was like I’d finally found that piece of wood in the vastness, that someone finally, understood me.”  Chen’s panic, loneliness, and feeling lost, is common to the loved ones with early onset dementia.

There’s No SOP, Only Learning as They Go

“The early onset is quite different than the elderly dementia, as the elders become demented, they were already dependents of the families, are in need of care.  The younger type would feel, that they needed to find work!  They are faced with loss of job, family conflicts, and other problems relating to these, the education of their young, as well as the caretaking of their, aging parents too!”, the assistant secretary of the Alzheimer’s Foundation, Lee is the driftwood that offered the chances of not drowning to Chen on the other end of the line.

Lee worked with the cases of early-onset dementia patients for many years, is the families’ go-to-person, she’d told, that there are, too many different and complex situations with the early onset cases, there’s no standard means of handling the cases, to even now, she’s still, learning as she goes.

For instance, a few years back, the foundation received a call, a woman who held a higher up position in a firm in her fifties, she was in the beginning stages, single parent, raising a child of only a little older than three, her parents are gone, with no one else she can rely on, she’d come to inquire, what arrangements she can make for her own child.  A year and a half later, the woman deteriorated to the point of not being able to live on her own, the foundation accompanied her to the treatment sessions, helped her retire successfully, found a facility for her, and filed for the adoption papers for her child, each problem came too quickly, “there are a lot of case like this one, before you can think about what to do, you are, forced, to make the choices!”

The Youngest Worker is Forty-Five, with the Café as His Driftwood that Helped Him Stay with Head Above Water

In Young Coffee, everyone has a bitter story.  Currently, the youngest is a man born in 1977, as another individual was diagnosed, he just had twins.  And, for some, because formal diagnosis was hard to get, the individual was labeled as mentally ill, lazy, irresponsible, forced out of their work, gotten divorced from their spouses.

the early onset individuals mixing the dough to make the cookies…photo from online

And so, Young Coffee is a café from the outside looking in, but, it’s actually, a place where the families and the early onset patients’ place to go to learn, and to breathe in, also, a base for the foundation to help the families of these early onset dementia patients.

“Shen-Jen no longer recognized me, he can’t take care of his own needs anymore”, Liu, is also a family member of an early onset dementia patient, her husband, Lin was diagnosed at age fifty-four, in the beginning stages, he’d worked at Young Coffee, taken the classes too, but, dementia is like a long goodbye, no matter how attentive Liu took care of her husband, how much she’d put her mind into caring for him, it still, can’t defy the scripts of life that dementia had written down for her husband.  And even as she’d known how it would end, his wife, Feng-Lien told, that there’s still the heartaches, the losses that come with it.

But, it’s not all loss.  When Liu was younger, she sustained a brain injury, lost all the physical abilities of her body, as a registered handicap person, Liu had always been the cared for in her life, but she’d become stronger, with her husband’s early onset dementia, and became, a caretaker, even now, as her husband is of severe dementia, Liu still spoke for the early onset dementia individuals, fought hard for more resources for them, to get a facility set up to take care of all the early onset dementia patients, she said, all of these resources, her husband is no longer in need of, but they can help the families like them, who are in the same situations, to find that driftwoods, so they can all, float back to shore, without drowning.

with a professional leading the patients of early onset to do some physical activities…photo from online

And so, these are, the stories, of the families of the early onset dementia patients, and, this is a place, that offers the vocational trainings, the opportunities for work, so these younger generations of dementia patients can still continue working, until they can’t work anymore, and this is also a place, where the families can come together, to find that social support they’re all in need of, in taking care of their loved ones who’d been, diagnosed too.

Helping the Mothers Return Back to the Workforce, a Company was Set up to Match Their Skills

This is a program, that helps women, get OUT of the, traditional gender roles, to help them find work outside the homes, off of the Newspapers, translated…

The Der-Jen Human Resources Agency’s goal is to “help moms find work”; the founder of the program, Tsai saw a lot of women her age, because they had children, and after they took their maternity leaves, it’d become, harder for them, to return back to the workforce.  As she’d set up an independent agency, helping the women to have a friendly work environment, that they can take care of their families, as well as work at the same time, and her company received the “Enterprise Friendly Work Environment Contributions” award.

“What we’re doing may not bring in the big bucks, but, it’s, more than, meaningful!”, Tsai stated, that their workspace is put together with the desks, and the employees don’t need to follow the strict work schedules of nine to five, the flexibility of workhours allowed the employees to have more freedom, “the company is an example of allowing women to not get limited by the time of work in the offices, nor working in a specific space, and they can, all shine still”.

Tsai originally worked in the high-tech industries, in 2016, she’d given up on her high pay job, and set up a company on her own.  With only eight employees, and the objective of her company was to help match the female workers with the fitted workplaces fitted to their needs, the members of the families had the need of caretaking, and needed to go to and from work and home quite a lot, needed the flexible workhours, also, the balances of home and work too; and there were those women who’d left the workforces for way too long, lacked the self-confidences, and aren’t professional enough in their skillsets, they’d all needed the help.

Tsai told, that “combining the work and the families’ needs” was her original thought when she set up her company, “Der-Jen” is also the first human resources company that promoted the flexible work schedule in all of Taiwan, and called itself a social enterprise; from the very beginning of her company being set up, the hardships that they endured, most of the enterprises were all doubtful toward the “homemakers” returning back to the workforce, from the communications, the education, currently, the foundation offers about 3,000 women who are looking to return to work after they had their children.

so women can work, and take care of their children at the same time! Photo from UDN.com

The Der-Jen Human Resources recently combined workforces with the academic units, and started up the forum of setting up a friendlier environment for working mothers, and complied with the government’s program of “Women Returning to the Workforce”, designed many courses, to help reconnect the women with their going back to work, and it’d, set up the human resources classes for the private enterprises too; Tsai hoped to design a more flexible work schedule for women all around.

Making the Work Environment Friendlier, Tsai: What I’m Doing is Meaningful

Tsai worked in the technology industries for more than a decade’s time, she had already been promoted to a managerial position, and her career is on the rise, but as she’d found, that other women around her, due to getting married, starting their families, giving up on their dreams, and the achievements they get from work, leaving their stable workforces, and their wages, she’d pushed forth a friendly environment for mothers.

“People’s choices are related to their personality traits!”, she’d said, in the technology field she’d worked in the “innovations, and the most advanced” job, including before the government’s expansion southbound, she’d led the workers in her company to expand her company to Southeast Asia, to going into the 3-Dimension printing, the resources shopping sites.  But being creative in her thoughts, and with that strong sense of justice, she’d slowly wondered, “are the technologies working in helping people live better, or are they, controlling, our behaviors?”, and she’d started, having a different belief system.

In 2012 in a chance encounter, Tsai came into contact with “social enterprise”, she was in the midst of contemplating wanting to do something meaningful, and, she’d, matched to the programs perfectly, in the end, she’d left the technology industries, and set up a similar social enterprise, the Der-Jen Human Resources Agency.

Tsai told, that as she got deeper in, she’d found, that the matter of gender in the workforces is quite, complicated, in the process of helping, she saw the stories of others unravel before her eyes, and it’d, helped her accumulated the experiences, and felt, that she’d become, a source of power that can, help the society move forward.  She said, “the various people in their various positions, playing their roles well, finding how each can contribute to the society, I’m really glad, to have found the work I really enjoy doing, that’s also, meaningful too.”

And so, this, is a good program, that this woman set up, to help mothers who left the workforce to have children, who wanted to, return back to work again, as the work environment usually isn’t that friendly toward women who’d had children, and most of the enterprises would think twice before they hire mothers, because of how the mothers needed to consider the welfare of their own children, and this woman’s agency, is set up, to help the women find the jobs that can help them do both: work to bring in the pays, and to take care of their young.

Placing My Demented Wife into a Nursing Home Temporarily, I Have Found a Way, to Alleviate the Stress of Caretaking

From the Newspapers, translated…

In order to put everything into caring for my demented wife, I’d filed for retirement early, ended my career as a public service worker.  Seeing how my wife had stashed the fruits inside the closets, causing it to mold, and contaminating our clothes, and would often take things from the freezer section of our fridge, without cooking, and just, started eating them, I’d finally realized, the extent of her dementia, but, other than placing her on medication, I couldn’t think of another way, to help resolve the situation.

Especially my wife couldn’t stabilize herself as she walked, and is very insecure, and totally dependent on me, would cling to me all day long, and, it’d severed me from my social activities, as well as the outside world, and, I’d strayed from my friends and families, and, the get-togethers after my retirement, the class reunions, I couldn’t manage to get myself to, it’d made me feel so very isolated, so tired, so sad, and so helpless, even to the extent of feeling, that there’s NOTHING in my life worth living for anymore.

Until I’d gotten note that the nearly sanitations department’s Tsaotun Nursing Home had a daycare program for the elderly, that specializes in placements of demented elderly patients, after my wife went for an evaluation, the center took her, and, would schedule various classes and activities for her to do, for example, karaoke, handicrafts, drawing, and, simple exercise routines, it’d allowed me room to breathe from day to day, and, the quality of my life improved, and I’d gotten the chance, to do what I enjoy doing every single day.

In taking care of my wife for almost twenty-five years, and now, I’m out of the shut-in world, out of the sadness, no longer fatigued, strained, or stressed out, no more negative feelings left………But, unfortunately, there are just not enough facilities that offers daycare programs for the demented elderly population, I hope, that the government could set up more facilities like this, to alleviate the economic and the caretaking burdens of the families.

And so, this, is a social welfare issue, isn’t it?  Because, if you’re the SOLE caretaker of a demented elderly person, you’d eventually feel the stress, especially like from the case above, when the wife became too codependent on the husband, and, if you can’t find a place, that you can place your demented loved ones into, for even just a couple of hours a day, then, you will surely, feel crushed, and, that, is not good at all, because if you, the caretaker isn’t feeling well, how, can you possibly have the strength, or the heart, to take care of the one you’re looking after???

Opening Up the Umbrella of Social Welfare, Allowing the Children of Migrant Workers to Have a Home

From the Front Page Sections, translated…

The predicaments of these migrant worker children had gotten the world’s attention.  Chen from the Labor Department yesterday told, that even IF the parents had gone missing, or are illegally living here, the government should still assist in the placement of these children in a fitting home; the manager of the Labor Development, Liu said, if the legal migrant workers gave birth in Taiwan, the government could use the public nursing systems to assist, so the workers wouldn’t have to constantly worry about their young.

The CEO of the Industrial Development Department, Tsai suggested, that Taiwan is lacking in people-power for the future, that the government is trying hard, to keep the students who came here to study here, that if these children can have a chance to become experts in their separate areas of studies, then, why not?

The legislator, Wang suggested, that there should be laws set up to protect the benefits of the migrant workers after birth, like how if they were to take their child back to their home countries for a year to care, and they wouldn’t have to worry about losing their jobs here; to break the boundaries of the current adopting restrictions, allowing these children born to migrant workers, to be entered into the welfare programs of Taiwan, to be adopted, by the social welfare programs or societies here.

Liu said, the babies of migrant workers should be divided into to parts: children born to illegal migrant workers, and children born to legal ones.  For the children born to legal workers, if the individuals couldn’t send the children back to their homeland to raise, and that the child had no one legally to rely on, the government could provide the cares, and the pricing should be reliant on how much the workers are making; and there are plans, to encourage the enterprises here, hiring the foreign workers, to set up their own childcare centers locally, for the migrant workers to use.

But toward those migrant workers who’d “gone missing”, Liu told, that “it would be more difficult”, that they might have to follow the laws, and send the mother and child back to their homeland.  Chen however, believed, that just because the parents are illegals, the child is still innocent, and, on a humanistic view, while the immigration offices is still looking for the missing parents, they should try to discover these illegal children, to help lace them, and the government can ask the nonprofit organizations for the placements too.

Chen said, that right now, the migrant workers can work up to twelve years total here, there are lawmakers who proposed, to elongate the time to fifteen years, the Labor Department is not against it, but the migrant workers had given so much time and energy to this country, plus the number of the labor workers are sloping down, it’s time, that the government and the society start discussing the immigrations policies.

And so, these, are some ways, to resolve this problem of unwanted children, but, it’s quite ideal still, because, if this policy is implemented, guess WHO will be picking up the tabs?  The taxpaying citizens, and, yeah, maybe you wouldn’t mind, but, someone might, because, why should we CARE for someone else’s kid?  And, they’re here, illegally, so, why should we give them the benefits, that not all of us even have?

Hearing the Music with Love, Helping to Make the Dreams of Those Who’d Damaged Their Spines Come True

Giving back to the society, acts of charity and kindness, from the Front Page Sections, translated…

The Spinal Injuries Foundation and the Taipei Symphony on February 1^st will be holding a benefits concert, with the conductor, Lin, and violinist, Su, to perform the classical symphonies, using music, to help the society hear the difficulties, and the needs to get a job for those with spinal injuries in the population of over 20,000, and all the proceeds of the concert will be going to help those with spinal injuries get a job, offering them occupational trainings and such.

The consultant of the foundation pointed out, that there is a yearly increase of almost a thousand individuals who injured their spinal cords due to multiple accidents in Taiwan, and the average age of those injured is twenty-seven.  He’d stated, after these youths had gone through this serious impact of their lives, the only dream that they have is to “help oneself stand back up again”.

Chien said, that those with spinal injuries may be paralyzed, but they have strong wills, and could still use their intelligences to make a living, to care for themselves, and establish their sense of self-confidence and dignity.  He said, getting them a job offering is equivalent to solving their economic difficulties, that the Foundation hoped to help these injured individuals to get assimilated into the society with the practice job skill training programs.

This, is the third time that the Foundation had worked with the Taipei Love Symphonies, all the proceeds of the concerts will be donated, entirely to the foundation, into job skills trainings, entrepreneurship assistance, helping to make the workspace more friendly, and it could also help those who wanted to start their own business with funding.

And so, this is something good in the world, and, because these individuals were hurt, and are now, in need of funding, to help them stand back up, so, the symphony joined into the cause, to help them get more funding for the programs that are to be set up to assist those who need it.  That just shows, that there are many private sector nonprofit organizations that are still doing wonderful work all around.

The Ninety-Year-Old Man Started Smiling Again After He Had Company to Eat with Him

On social welfare, from the Front Page Sections, translated…

The spirits of accompanying elderly in meals, through the communities, came into play.  The An-Kang Church member, Chang, after the death of his wife three years ago, hadn’t stepped out of the house because of his losses, had gotten together with the elderly meal program, and slowly, was able to get out from the loss of his wife.

Chang came to Taiwan with the nationalist government, operated a small food shop with his wife.  They were married for seventy years, and, three years ago, his wife passed away, he’d lost the center of his life, he’d given up on the Tai-chi he’d done since he was a young child, just sat by the window, gazed out, not only was his sight going bad, his hearing also deteriorated, even his legs which were very muscular, could no longer walk anymore.

N the support of his children, the member of the Ankeng Church, Chang took him out, and had him attended the church functions.  The leader of the church, Cheng said, that Chang would inquire everybody, “how old am I?”, and now, he’d picked up his Tai-Chi practices, warmed up, along with every single pose in the system, and, everybody would get rowdy and asked Chang to teach them, and, he now called out to everybody he meet, energetically, “I am ninety-three this year!”

The church was set up by Pastor Kao, and the church had been in place for over forty years to date, passed down from father to son, to keep showing care and concern to the community.  From the earliest days, there were only three members, to now, almost forty, at the start of this year, the church registered for the elderly club programs, and, the original meetings now have more functions, taking care of the elderly in the areas.

And so this, would be a community outreach program for the elderly, because the elderly man lost his wife, he couldn’t walk out of the gloom, but, with the help of the members of his church, he was able to find a new sense of purpose, which lifted his moods.  That just shows how socialization is still very important, even in the elderly years.

Education and Social Welfare, Shouldering the Responsibilities for the Society, Helping the Less Fortunate

Everybody chips in here, from the Newspapers, translated…

The focus of today’s education being on morality, the parenting-related fields also shouldered up the responsibilities, like how some of those communities would ask for funding on the Cultural Affairs Department, to push forth the children’s art books, to help develop more mind boggling games, and some had offered free experience coupons, so the less fortunate and the families with handicapped children can also have a chance at an enriching childhood.

The Three-Out-of-Three Group, two years ago had helped with the organization and operations of the public childcare program of Sanchung in Hsinbei City, back then, Wu who was in charge of overseeing the operations said, from the angle of giving back to the community, the Three-Out-of-Three Group had gotten involved in the operations of the public childcare programs, but, in the two years, they’d realized that there was still a difference between what she wanted to see happen, and how the organizations operated.  “From the standpoint of the government, the public childcare programs focused more on the number of people it’d served, back then, the Sanchung Public Childcare Program took in seventy-five children of zero to two years of age, and the teacher to student ratio was one to five, and, you can imagine how anxiety-stricken the instructors/caretakers must have felt.”

The five-year-old, the Fort of Knights had, in the past, long-term supported the China Trusts Foundation of Lighting Up the Fires of Life, the CEO, Tsai stated, that from the moment the school was working, the Fort of Knights had provided free coupons for those less fortunate, Last year, they’d donated 3,500 tickets for the Taipei city government, to be given out to less fortunate families.  But, the usage of these free coupons isn’t at all that high, a lot of the moms from the less fortunate families said, that they would not take their kids to the malls, because the kids would ask them for things, and, the Fort of Knights couldn’t do anything, but feel helpless of the situations.

Even so, the Fort of Knights had no intentions of getting into the communities yet, the settings in the malls are beneficial, because there’s parking, it’s convenient, and, if they opened up centers away from the shopping malls, then, the parents may have to get out of their ways to take their kids there, and, it would cause survival issues for the company, and, the continuation of bringing in profits would be the only way to keep the spirits of how the Forts of Knights planned to combine education and art.

Tsai said, the Fort of Knight had been a long-term supporter of Lighting Up the Fires of Life, to sponsor the Hope Choir Group to come to Taipei, Kaohsiung to perform, and had once sponsored for the school of special education for their students to come to visit, but, because there was a class of regular students there already, the regular kindergarten took the kids away immediately, after this event, the Fort of Knights were even more careful and took in more considerations in hosting these events.

Sister Hua-Hua’s Story House in the past year, had scheduled for Syinlu Organization, the Da-Tong Orphanage and allowed children with ADHA, autism, or have developmental delays to visit there, and, designed the programs according to the mental development levels of the children.

Wu told that sometimes the special eds kids would scream aloud, and, normally, the family restaurants wouldn’t want them to come, “but we believe, that education should serve the purpose of helping children who are different than the rest.”

And so, this, is a privately owned organization, that’s helping out with the social welfare of the communities, and, if there are more programs like these set in place, then, there would be a hell of a lot less problems in the world.

The Support for the Caretaker of Families, 6,500 Individuals Received the Assistances They Needed

A much needed assistance, for those in need, a social welfare program here, translated…

Four years ago, Mr. Song’s wife was diagnosed with a deterioration in her brain stem, at first, she could still manage to talk, to walk, and now, she’s completely, bedridden, and, the life of the family had completely gotten turned upside down because of it, in the program to offer assistance to caretakers, it’d made Mr. Song feel that he’s not all alone, in caring for his wife.

The Department of Sanitations yesterday had an exhibition of outcomes of the Family Care program of the year 2014, the person in charge of the division, Huang stated, that the city government started putting forth this social supportive network program for the families, and had already offered assistance to 6,500 individuals now, allowed the caretakers, along with the ones, needing the care, to have a better quality of life.

Mrs. Huang, who’s 67 years old, her husband had been paralyzed because of his stroke a decade ago, she said, “at the very start, I didn’t know how to care for him, I’d set my alarm for three in the morn, to check his vitals, to flip him over, and I’d feared that he might get hurt physically, if I weren’t careful enough, I hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in such a long time, I’m about to crack.”

Last year, she’d applied for family support, and learned, that there are courses, offered, to caretakers, and, she’d entered into the program sponsored by the Department of Sanitations in Hsintien District.  Mrs. Huang said, “the courses are amazing, I’d learned a lot of tricks and learned a lot of the correct views to caretaking of the ailing.”

“We should learn to love ourselves, taking good care of myself, so, I can accompany my husband down the road.”  She’d said, every day, she’d taken time, to go out for exercise, to go to the libraries to read, and used the techniques she’d learned in the courses, to adjust her husband’s schedules, and used a more effective way, to take care of her better half.

This, would be a program that we’re in need more of in the world, because, the population IS aging, and even IF you’re not directly involved in the matter, you will become either the caretaker, or the one being taken care of, and, this program helps educate people on the matters of aging well.

 

 

 

Helping the Handicapped Individuals with Employment, “Their Persistence Became My Motivation”

A do-gooder, a story of inspiration, found on the papers, translated…

The twenty-nine-year-old Lu turned theories into actions, helped the people who have psychological difficulties find work, she’d accompanied them, with great patience, smiled and told, “Their persistence is my motivation”, she’d viewed the group of people she helped as a lesson in life, yesterday, she was commended for her hard work by the Labor Department.

In the six years, Lu had helped those who are emotionally troubled build up a ladder, finding a fitting job is very difficult for them, and, the regular passage to getting a job became especially difficult for these individuals, she said, “their unrelenting, never giving up spirit moved me.”

“What they need was not compassion, but a chance,” Ling, someone Lu had counseled and accompanied for over a year’s time, was matched for over ten job opportunities, even though, Ling is very active in finding work, but, because she is imbalanced in her perceptions, that’d caused her to get overly anxious, become delusional, and slow to act, she needed medications, to subdue her symptoms, and she’d gotten shot down when she’d looked for work.

The defeats that the cases met had caused Lu to feel passive, but she’d felt Ling’s persistence in working hard, to find a job, she’d helped her set a goal, which they could work towards together, and slowly, helped her, to make changes to her behaviors, and, Ling walked on eggshells, with every opportunity she helped her case get, until two years ago, she’d finally helped her case find a fitting job.

Based off of statistics, it takes 202 days for a person to go through the employment trainings, to getting a job; in the process, Lu would offer counsel step-by-step, from taking the transportation, to interview, to working at the posts, she’d did everything to show her cases herself, to help her cases become independent, “seeing how much they’re improving, it’d motivated me to work hard alongside them even more.”

When Lu was in technical high school, she’d once wanted to be a veterinarian, but, before she started help saving lives, she’d had to kill a live rooster in class, and, in order to become a veterinarian, she must first, take a life, it’d filled her up with guilt, and, she’d tossed out her dreams of becoming a vet, instead, she’d earned herself a social worker’s certification, and started working in the friends of the rehabilitated individual organization of Hsinbei City, and found a path, that’s suitable to her.

Yesterday, Lu received an award for outstanding assistance for handicapped individuals; and there were many others just like her, who’d received the awards, for helping the handicapped individuals in the population.

And so, this woman gave it her all, in helping people with disabilities, find out what they’re good at, what they can do, and assisted them in getting a job, and we need more stories like these, and more people who do this, to help inspire the world all around.