KENG SHENG DAILY NEWS
HUALIEN NEWS Tuesday, May 18, 2004
[Reporter Lin Su-Hua]
Hualien Family Support Center received support from Sindiatai Skid-Proof Technology Co., who provided free service of nonskid treatment on their tiles to reduce the chance of accidents in the bathroom of the center where female teenagers were housed. Yesterday, the director of the family support center, Chen Ching-Hui, awarded a trophy as a token of appreciation to the consideration extended to their unfortunate young girls by Lai Hung-Cheng, the chairman of board of the company. Meanwhile, due to the limited space at the family support center, it has become more crowded in the past years. In order to seek a permanent solution to the problem of housing accommodations, they hope to find a site in Meilun area for the construction of a proposed Yishao School. But the huge project would cost a lot of money, human resources and material resources. They need assistance from goodhearted people in our society.
Since the year 1996, in view of ever-changing and increasingly sophisticated problems of young children and teenagers, and in order to extend services to include help to abused children, teenagers who suffered growth obstacles, and family adaptation, etc., Hualien Family Support Center has referred to the Statute of Prevention of Sexual Transactions of Children and Teenagers and set up an accommodation center Hualien Family Support Park, providing accommodation to children and teenagers who ran away from school or home, straying on the street, suffered abuse, involved in the Statute of Prevention of Sexual Transactions of Children and Teenagers, or the Code of Processing of Teenager Incidents.
According to Chen Ching-Hui, Director of Hualien Family Support Center, with the expansion of range of services, the number of beds in Family Support Park has increased from 20 to 50, accommodating a total of 321 teenage girls. At the current stage, an average of 60 girls or more have been admitted to the Park every month. Through the temporary home care function of Family Support Park, dropouts could return to their schools, and young girls straying on the verge of society could learn enough skills to return to mainstream society.
As Chen Ching-Hui indicated, the existing space of family support park is limited. To provide a better environment to the accommodated girls, the center has resorted to resources to locate an appropriate location in the Meilun area for the construction of Ishao School, which was estimated to require about 150 pings of land to house a building area of about 350 pings, costing about NT$30 millions. He hoped our society and the general public could provide kind help for early completion of the hope project of Ishao School.
Lu Po-Chi, a legislator who had paid a visit to Family Support Center to show his concern over the problems of teenager accommodation, indicated he would provide assistance as much as he could, and he appealed to the social public to support the services conducted by social welfare agencies.
Nonskid compound is applicable also to general residential environment, especially when there are pregnant women or elders in a household, it will effectively reduce the change of injury in residential homes. The school located on the upper floor of the family support center, particularly its wet and slippery bathroom, could be the place where accidental falls may happen. The chairman of board of Sindiatai Skid-Proof Technology Co., Ltd., Lai Hung-Cheng, provides the Solomon nonskid compound produced by their company. Lai Hung-Cheng appealed to the social public to extend more help and more care to the children staying at the family support center, to the residential safety of family members, and he would try his best to contribute to the construction project of Ishao School.
