Yu-cheng Carwash (
"I feel good working here," said Lee, a 20-year-old mentally handicapped worker at the site, which is operated by the Yu-cheng Welfare Foundation for the Handicapped.
Lee and his colleagues, who number over 40 in total, say the first anniversary of the car wash center yesterday gave them a sense of accomplishment as they were able to learn skills there to survive on their own. All are either mentally or physically challenged.
"I am very happy that the center is one year old now. It has created a workplace for the disabled," said section chief Huang Yu-hsueh (黃玉雪), who suffered third degree burns during a car explosion in 1997.
"It's like a big family here. The kids [referring to younger workers at the site] respect me, and I treat them as members of my family," said Huang, who was unable to leave her home for over three years after the accident, fearing what people might think of her appearance.
Ke Pang-sing (
While nobody says handicapped workers are the fastest car-washers around, Kenneth Chu (朱欽浩), the owner of the vehicle Lee and his colleagues were cleaning, cited "efficiency" as the reason why he prefers to use the services of the Yu-cheng site whenever he wants to have the interior of his car cleaned.
"They [workers at the Yu-cheng carwash] do a better job here, as more workers clean the car simultaneously, and [the interior of] my car is far cleaner after the service," Chu said.
However, financial worries cast a shadow over the center's future. It has lost between NT$100,000 and NT$300,000 per month since operations began last October, said Chen Chieh-ju (陳節如), chairwoman of the foundation.
Attributing the losses to rental fees in excess of NT$120,000 per month, as well as a less-than-ideal driveway design, Chen has turned to city officials for help.
Taipei City Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
The current rental subsidy for the site, which is located under the Chienkuo overpass, is 70 percent, said Jeng Tsuen-chui (
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)