a video of Father Moal winning a humanitarian award here!
The dedication of a foreign man who loved Taiwan like his own home country, from the papers, translated…
The French father, Yves Moal from the Catholic Church in Yuli, Hualien, dedicated his whole life to caring for the physically, mentally handicapped in Taiwan. The French Catholic father came to Taiwan in 1996, by the church in Paris, to spread Catholicism, and he’d dedicated fifty years worth of his life to Taiwan in a blink of an eye, and although he’s French, he’d loved Taiwan more than a lot of the people in Taiwan.
A French Youth Floated Overseas, to Hualien
At first, Father Moal couldn’t bear to watch people who are homeless, who’d slept in the train stations, or those who were once jailed, or abused drugs who can’t be accepted by the society, he’d once opened up a shelter in Yuli, Hualien, to take in those who were unemployed, from low income households, handicapped, and taught them a viable skill. He’d also poured his heart and soul into caring for the developmentally delayed children, set up a long-term care facility for them, he said, “there are still many dreams I have yet to see come true”, as long as I’m here on earth, I shall, never rest for a day.
When he was still a twenty-five year-old young man, in that time when there are no major airplane transportations, he’d packed up his things, took a boat ride lasting over a month, set out from Marseille, France, passed through the Suez Canal, Yemen, Mumbai, India, Sri Lanka, Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Hong Kong, then finally, arrived in Taiwan.
Father Yves Moal felt the deep impact from not speaking the local language and couldn’t understand the locals, for that, he’d gone to Hsinchu for two years, to learn Chinese, and now, talking to him, if you don’t listen close, you may not hear that “foreign accent” he’d carried. After he’d mastered speaking in Chinese, he was sent to the back mountains—Hualien.
photo from online…
The Trash Father, Saving Lives of Many Who Were Living in Bad Conditions
He’d laughed and told, that forty years ago, Hualien wasn’t as populated as it is today there weren’t that many tourists either, no tarp roads, no cement bridges either, just those muddy tracks, alone in a foreign place, he’d ridden his motorcycle on the muddied paths, and would need to walk on the train tracks, and needed to be on the watch out for trains, he’d trekked across Hualien using this method.
And because he’d gotten deep into the community, he’d found that a lot of the children, because of their poverty stricken background, couldn’t have a desk, or a lamp to study with. He’d recalled, how the television was just created, that a lot of the kids would squat by the T.V. to do their homework, to study. He’d made up his mind, to set up public libraries in Hualien, Ruisuay, and other places too, with the separate study rooms, so the kids can have places to go to study.
In 1986, Liu came to the Catholic church in Yuli, he’d thought on how he can help out more who are from the lower economic statuses. Back then, Taiwan slowly developed the sense of environment, he’d started recycling, sorting, other than reusing, and selling the recycled materials for money, he could also help out those in the lower end of the economic spectrum. He was nicknamed “trash collecting father” once, but he’d not minded the nickname one bit, hoped that people can be more environmentally aware and start recycling too.
Helping Those on the Edge of Society to Return Back to the World
Once Liu heard of how a man had, slept for four, five days at a bus station, after inquiring, he’d learned, that the man was kicked out of his own home. He’d felt, that there are those without home, without work, without warmth, that’d gone down the bad roads, he’d taken this man, Chen with him back to his church, helped him found a place to live in, had him work in recycling, encouraged the man to get a truck license, to work as a driver for his church, he’d changed Chen’s life completely.
From that moment forth, Liu helped those who were unemployed, those who’d served in jail, drug-addicts, or handicapped work in recycling, taught them to make a living on their own, and set up a place for them all to live in. And at the time, the town of Yuli was called, “a town without any homeless population”. Now, the Catholic Church in Yuli had taken in thirty-three unemployed and homeless individuals, Liu took them out to work, and, with their hard work, they were all able to, make the amounts of earnings they’d needed, to live off of.
What made him happiest, was seeing how those once unemployed had, found their self-confidence back, returned to the world again. A little over a decade ago, he’d met another man who’d served in prison before, he was without a place to live in, without work, Liu set him up with a place to live in, and helped him start on using recycling to make a living, once a business owner needed someone to help plant some flowers, he’d sent the man over, and the man got the acknowledgments from the owner of the business, and was hired by the man.
Treated Everybody with Kindness
Other than giving them all a home, a job, Liu’s kindness toward the volunteers, his staff members, and kindness, are worth noting. He was sitting in the living room, being interviewed, and the truck driver from collecting the recycled material came back, entered into the living room to rest, he’d immediately called out to me, “these drivers headed out early in the morn, and we must let them rest fully in the noon hours”. So we’d switched to another room, and continued this interview.
“The public in Yuli all knew, that when they’d had recycling material, they should hand it to Father Moal”. Ms. Lee carried the old newspapers, and plastic bottles, came to the Catholic Church in Yuli, she was in awe at how Father Moal was able to set up a home using the money he’d made from recycling, and so, every time she had some recycling materials at home, she’d brought them over to the church to help out. And, there are, more and more recycled materials, books, small appliances, and Liu worked with the local hospitals, set up a thrift shop, to put these old items to good use again.
the father used recycling, to help the less fortunate in the community…
Taking Care of the Developmentally Delayed Children, His Responsibilities for Life
What worried Father Yves Moal other than unemployment, members of the community living in low standards, there were also, children who were developmentally delayed in the An-Der Home. Seventeen years ago, as the man in charge of the An-Der Home passed away, he’d taken up the responsibilities to look after these developmentally delayed children. With a mild temperament, with that warmth in his tone of voice, in the minds of those in the An-Der Home, the priest had become, their father now.
After he’d given his mass at An-Der Home, Liu rushed back to the Catholic Church in Yuli, the children followed him out, called out to him, “Do come back tomorrow”, and he’d called back to them, “Yes, I shall be back tomorrow!”
The An-Der Home originally took in just people from fifteen to forty-five, but, with the coming of his own age, Father Moal started thinking about long-term care. For this, he’d planned to set up a long-term care facility—the Yi-Feng Garden, he’s still twenty million dollars N.T.s short in funding, but he’d not given up, he’d wanted for those forty-five and older to have a place to live in in the future, and hoped, to look after those who lost their own abilities to care for themselves, due to stroke or other illnesses of old age too.
Adapting to the Local Ways, Willing to Try Anything
Having lived in Taiwan for so long, Liu had become, “naturalized” already, the compassions that everybody showed him, he’d not turned any down, for instance, he was willing to eat stinky tofu, drank snake soup, he believed, that trying out the food items that are found locally can bring him closer to the local’s way of life. “I’m not sucking up, but the Taiwanese people are really cute.” Every time he’d asked for directions, a lot of people would take him to where he was going, and there are, a ton of volunteers who’d come to help out at functions too.
Toward his future, Liu said, “we can plan all we want to, but, life is already set up by God”, whether or not he has a chance to see his dreams of providing more care for more people, he’d needed a lot of help from others, he’d sent his love to a ton of other nursing homes, or social welfare organizations, because helping more out, or even, just an extra life, brings him the biggest joys.
So, this is, the selflessness of this elderly Catholic priest, and perhaps, it is his faith that’s helped him help so many people in need, and, it’s also because of the many lives he’d managed to help change and touch, that he was able to make more than just a little bit of difference to the world that we are living in. We need more people like this in the world right now………
Life, the Obstacle Course 