A group of Mexican students that participated in last week’s 2016 International Children’s Games went out of its way to help a street vendor sell her goods on the group’s last day in Taiwan.
Twenty-nine students, aged between 12 and 15, from the Acuatica Nelson Vargas swimming school were in Taiwan from Monday last week to Sunday to take part in the event held in New Taipei City.
Before their departure, the students opted not to tour Taipei as was originally planned and instead joined the Genesis Social Welfare Foundation to help single mothers sell roasted sweet potatoes on the city’s streets.
Photo: CNA
The students called out “delicious sweet potatoes” in Chinese to attract customers to a sweet potato stall on Zhongxiao E Road and cheered each time someone stopped to make a purchase.
They helped 47-year-old single mother Lai Kuei-fang (賴貴芳) sell 33 bags of roasted sweet potatoes in less than one hour, earning her NT$1,650.
The foundation helps single mothers make money by providing them with traditional ovens to roast sweet potatoes for sale.
“I am so moved. [The sweet potatoes] would not have sold so fast on a normal day,” Lai said.
She said the students not only helped her sell sweet potatoes, but they also bought all her potatoes then donated them back to her so she could sell them again.
She insisted that they eat some, Lai said.
Lai’s younger sister, Lai Mei-chun (賴美君), said “it was great encouragement for single mothers like my sister.”
“Who says travelers should only seek out entertainment and go shopping when they visit a place?” she said.
Fernanda Diez, who headed the student group, said the children decided to change their travel plans after learning about the possibility of doing charity work through a travel agency.
“We were very surprised by how nice Taiwanese are,” Diez said. “We wanted to give back.”
Alvaro Baillet, 14, said Sunday’s event was a deviation from their original plans, “but I am pleased, because it was for a good cause.”
“I feel good,” he said. “I think we are really helping in a good and direct way. We are not just donating money.”
However, he said they still can only speak one phrase in Chinese: “Delicious sweet potatoes.”
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
CHANGES: After-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during vacations or after-school study periods must not be used to teach new material, the ministry said The Ministry of Education yesterday announced new rules that would ban giving tests to most elementary and junior-high school students during morning study and afternoon rest periods. The amendments to regulations governing public education at elementary schools and junior high schools are to be implemented on Aug. 1. The revised rules stipulate that schools are forbidden to use after-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during summer or winter vacation or after-school study periods to teach new course material. In addition, schools would be prohibited from giving tests or exams to students in grades one to eight during morning study and afternoon break periods, the
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
Advocates of the rights of motorcycle and scooter riders yesterday protested in front of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in Taipei, making three demands. They were joined by 30 passenger vehicles, which surrounded the ministry to make three demands related to traffic regulations — that motorcycles and scooters above 250cc be allowed on highways, that all motorcycles and scooters be allowed on inside lanes, and that driver and rider training programs be reformed. The ministry said that it has no plans to allow motorcycles on national highways for the time being, and said that motorcycles would be allowed on the inner