Within the Happy Mount Facility, decorations are ubiquitous, bringing color into the otherwise dull facility.
Happy Mount — like the Lo-sheng (Happy Life) Sanatorium — was established as a facility for Hansen’s disease patients, but is currently a home for the mentally challenged.
It was founded in 1934 by George Gushue-Taylor, the founder of Losheng.
Photo: CNA
All decorations were made by the facility’s residents under the guidance of members of the Sandwishes Studio, a team of artists from the Taipei National University of the Arts who make creative products, as well as run design courses.
The workshop was founded last year after three graduate students, Lee Wan-keng (李萬鏗), Tseng Yun-chieh (曾韻婕) and Hsieh Ruo-lin (謝若琳) visited Losheng as part of a course on the arts and social participation.
After finishing the course, the students said they returned to the sanatorium not only because of the good memories, but also because they were moved by the children living there.
The workshop has met with enthusiastic support from students from the university’s different departments.
Utilizing their specialities, the students sought to design and create a brand that would not only help promote the workshop’s image as a social welfare organization, but also promote the visibility of disadvantaged groups.
Hsieh said the first thing the workshop did was enlarge the drawings of the facility’s residents and use them as billboards and direction signs for visitors.
Hsieh said the workshop had produced postcards, one of which had been chosen by the Thinking Taiwan Foundation as its card to thank donors or to wish them a happy Lunar New Year.
The facility has received calls from people who had received the postcards asking how they could make a donation, Hsieh said, adding that the cards helped spread the name of Happy Mount and aided its fundraising.
Hsieh said that after she visited the facility and took courses on how to care for disabled patients she saw some works made by children with special needs and saw the potential of starting a business for creative and cultural products.
Hsieh said the visit prompted her, Lee and Tseng to found the workshop last year.
The three students were further encouraged when they received an award of excellence from the Ministry of Education after they submitted their project ideas on the workshop’s establishment to the ministry’s Junior College Entrepreneurial Service contest.
Hsieh said that after founding the workshop, she understood how the majority of social welfare facilities struggled to adequately manage their financial affairs.
Taiwanese companies have raised about NT$40.9 billion (US$1.3 billion) in funds for social welfare facilities, but the money did not seem to be evenly distributed, Hsieh said, adding that the more renowned facilities seemed to get more, while the less known or more rural ones received less.
“I hope the Sandwishes Studio can use the art and design skills of its members to help make resource distribution fairer,” she said.
Although the students started the workshop as a non-profit organization, Happy Mount director Yao Yu-ching (姚雨靜) said she felt that something should be offered as a reward for the people who helped the facility so much, so she gave the students paychecks for their first designs.
The students helped Happy Mount’s younger patients cultivate their artistic talents, she said.
The enlarged drawings on billboards not only surprised residents living near the facility, but also made the patients happy and proud to see their creations displayed to promote the facility, she said.
Yao said that she wanted to thank Sandwishes Studio for not taking a short-sighted approach when handling their projects, but stationing many members at the facility to spend time with the children, asking about the patients’ feelings and what they thought of their own works.
“Art shouldn’t be just about aesthetics. It should have soul, and it is they, the students and the workshop, who have accurately portrayed the souls of the patients who had drawn the pictures,” Yao said, adding that it was through the workshop’s efforts that the patients at the facility were able to show society what they were capable of.
The first global hotel Keys Selection by the Michelin Guide includes four hotels in Taiwan, Michelin announced yesterday. All four received the “Michelin One Key,” indicating guests are to experience a “very special stay” at any of the locations as the establishments are “a true gem with personality. Service always goes the extra mile, and the hotel provides much more than others in its price range.” Of the four hotels, three are located in Taipei and one in Taichung. In Taipei, the One Key accolades were awarded to the Capella Taipei, Kimpton Da An Taipei and Mandarin Oriental Taipei. Capella Taipei was described by
EVA Airways today confirmed the death of a flight attendant on Saturday upon their return to Taiwan and said an internal investigation has been launched, as criticism mounted over a social media post accusing the airline of failing to offer sufficient employee protections. According to the post, the flight attendant complained of feeling sick on board a flight, but was unable to take sick leave or access medical care. The crew member allegedly did not receive assistance from the chief purser, who failed to heed their requests for medical attention or call an ambulance once the flight landed, the post said. As sick
The Taichung District Court yesterday confirmed its final ruling that the marriage between teenage heir Lai (賴) and a man surnamed Hsia (夏) was legally invalid, preventing Hsia from inheriting Lai’s NT$500 million (US$16.37 million) estate. The court confirmed that Hsia chose not to appeal the civil judgement after the court handed down its ruling in June, making the decision final. In the June ruling, the court said that Lai, 18, and Hsia, 26, showed “no mutual admiration before the marriage” and that their interactions were “distant and unfamiliar.” The judge concluded that the couple lacked the “true intention of
INDUSTRY: Beijing’s latest export measures go beyond targeting the US and would likely affect any country that uses Chinese rare earths or related tech, an academic said Taiwanese industries could face significant disruption from China’s newly tightened export controls on rare earth elements, as much of Taiwan’s supply indirectly depends on Chinese materials processed in Japan, a local expert said yesterday. Kristy Hsu (徐遵慈), director of the Taiwan ASEAN Studies Center at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research, said that China’s latest export measures go far beyond targeting the US and would likely affect any country that uses Chinese rare earths or related technologies. With Japan and Southeast Asian countries among those expected to be hit, Taiwan could feel the impact through its reliance on Japanese-made semi-finished products and
RSS