The Taiwan Fund for Children and Families’ (TFCF) Changhua branch on Thursday held a ceremony to thank a farmer who donated a truckload of cabbages to help the group purchase protective armor for its kenjutsu team.
Lin Chin-te (林進得) donated a truckload of about 1,000 cabbages early this year after cabbage prices plummeted, it said.
About the same time, the group formed a kenjutsu — Japanese swordsmanship — team for students it was looking after.
Photo: Yen Hung-chun, Taipei Times
Branch supervisor Lin Hui-mei (林惠媚) said it did not have the money to purchase the armor, which costs NT$13,000 apiece, so she had an idea to sell the cabbages to raise funds.
She launched an online fundraiser titled “Raising funds for kenjutsu outfits for TFCF kids,” which sold the cabbages at NT$10 each.
Much to her surprise, all the cabbages were sold in just three days, she said.
The fundraiser attracted the attention of a local columbarium, Damao Biotech, a local bakery, Taipei-based Lei Ying Co and nurses at the Yuanlin Christian Hospital, who donated more items to the group.
TFCF made NT$444,000 from selling the donations, surpassing its goal of NT$400,000, Lin said.
Recounting how the team was founded, Lin said many of the children had behavioral issues and nothing she tried could control them.
She then thought of working with kenjutsu practitioner Chan Chih-yuan (詹智淵) to instruct the children in the martial art.
With Chan’s help, the group established contact with former national kenjutsu team coach Chuang Yi-yuan (莊益源), who agreed to coach them.
Kenjutsu made a significant change in the children, Lin said.
“For example, they used to ignore me when I asked them to mop the floors, but now they take the initiative to clean,” she said.
She said she is proud to see the children focused and competitive while practicing kenjutsu and show good manners outside of class.
“Acts of kindness will be rewarded by more kindness,” Lin said, thanking people for their support.
The German city of Hamburg on Oct. 14 named a bridge “Kaohsiung-Brucke” after the Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung. The footbridge, formerly known as F566, is to the east of the Speicherstadt, the world’s largest warehouse district, and connects the Dar-es-Salaam-Platz to the Brooktorpromenade near the Port of Hamburg on the Elbe River. Timo Fischer, a Free Democratic Party member of the Hamburg-Mitte District Assembly, in May last year proposed the name change with support from members of the Social Democratic Party and the Christian Democratic Union. Kaohsiung and Hamburg in 1999 inked a sister city agreement, but despite more than a quarter-century of
Taiwanese officials are courting podcasters and influencers aligned with US President Donald Trump as they grow more worried the US leader could undermine Taiwanese interests in talks with China, people familiar with the matter said. Trump has said Taiwan would likely be on the agenda when he is expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) next week in a bid to resolve persistent trade tensions. China has asked the White House to officially declare it “opposes” Taiwanese independence, Bloomberg reported last month, a concession that would mark a major diplomatic win for Beijing. President William Lai (賴清德) and his top officials
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday expressed “grave concerns” after Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) reiterated the city-state’s opposition to “Taiwanese independence” during a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang (李強). In Singapore on Saturday, Wong and Li discussed cross-strait developments, the Singaporean Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. “Prime Minister Wong reiterated that Singapore has a clear and consistent ‘one China’ policy and is opposed to Taiwan independence,” it said. MOFA responded that it is an objective fact and a common understanding shared by many that the Republic of China (ROC) is an independent, sovereign nation, with world-leading
‘ONE CHINA’: A statement that Berlin decides its own China policy did not seem to sit well with Beijing, which offered only one meeting with the German official German Minister for Foreign Affairs Johann Wadephul’s trip to China has been canceled, a spokesperson for his ministry said yesterday, amid rising tensions between the two nations, including over Taiwan. Wadephul had planned to address Chinese curbs on rare earths during his visit, but his comments about Berlin deciding on the “design” of its “one China” policy ahead of the trip appear to have rankled China. Asked about Wadephul’s comments, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Guo Jiakun (郭嘉昆) said the “one China principle” has “no room for any self-definition.” In the interview published on Thursday, Wadephul said he would urge China to
RSS