Not my photograph…
Because he was once one of them, and realized how important it is, for their stories to be known to the world too, from the Front Page Sections, translated…
“Nobody is born, a tramping man!”, Liu, who came out of the homeless shelter in Tainan was once, a business man, but his business venture failed, and he’d become homeless, with the help of the Tainan Friendship Grace Center, he’d finally got out of his life of being homeless for five ye3ars; in the two years, Liu used his Facebook page, “Grace of the Friends in Tainan, Friend Who are Poverty-Stricken” documented forty-six of the homeless persons’ tales, hoped to get the world to care about the homeless population, to help them return to the society.
The forty-nine year-old Liu grew up in the Hakka village in Miaoli, he had success as an entrepreneur before he was thirty. Being into sports, he’d once collected over two hundred pairs of name brand sneakers, a lot of them still had the labels; but, when he’d gone to China to discuss the terms of agreement of a contract, all of his life’s savings were taken by his friend, whom he’d trusted, his wife divorced him, and he’d become homeless, tramped to Changhwa.
In the assistance of the police, Liu went to the Friendship Grace Center, the pastor, Lee tapped him on the shoulders, told him, “There should be more to you than this!”, it’d made Liu, who’d not talk for a month cry.
Liu accepted the assistance from Friendship Grace, three years ago, when he’d gone to Tainan to help, his personal experiences allowed him to know, what blessing it was, for the homeless to get a bath, he’d immediately raised funds to build a proper shower area; after he’d learned that someone, in order to get a meal at Friendship Grace, the person had to walk for two, three hours, he’d worked hard to set up more homeless shelters to provide food.
Liu said, as he’d raised the funds for the homeless population, he’d believed, that a lot of the public believed, that the homeless are lazy, that they’d set themselves into exile, “Rather than donating to the homeless, they’d rather donate to help feed the needy children instead”; in order to change the stereotype that the public held of homeless people, Liu started interviewing the homeless population, and shared the stories he’d encountered on Facebook.
As Liu was homeless himself, there was an entire month that he’d gone, without talking, so he could understand the mindset of the other homeless community, how they were distrustful of others, and, it’d taken him nearly half a year, accompanying a homeless person, to get the material he’d needed for his first story.
“Big Sister” who’s very open, a woman who’d become homeless, was one of the main characters on Liu’s Facebook pages, she’d managed to provide for her own daughter all the way through grad school, saw her daughter marry well, and her daughter “disowned” her, because she’d done something bad for a job once, she’d ended up as a homeless person on the streets.
“Dragon”, who’s over six feet, weighed over two hundred pounds became homeless, Liu followed him for a year, and found that he’s developmentally slow, that after his parents died, his older brother and sister kicked him out of the house, he’d found his “home”, in the underground walkways of Dongfeng Street. After Liu took him to Friendship Grace, he’d started getting his zest for life back again, he’s now working in the Life Rehabilitation Career Training Centers, making handicrafts, to make his own way.
And so, this, is the story of how someone who’d been through it all, managed to get himself back up, and now, he’s using what he has, to help those who are like him once out, and, those people on the streets are on the streets, not by choice, but because of life’s circumstances, whatever they may be, and, they shouldn’t be mistreated, because they all have what normal people have too: pride, sense of shame, and, nobody would want to actively become a homeless person.
not my photo…
Life, the Obstacle Course 