How this mother set up a foundation to fight for the rights of her children, off of the Newspapers, translated…
The C.E.O. of Taiwan Association for M.D.V.I., Yuan has a bright laugh, she was originally a high school geography instructor, but as her third child was born completely blind, and was diagnosed with autism, severely mental retardation, to care for her son, she’d gone to the training sessions for musical therapy, and set up the classes to help other handicapped children, three years ago, she’d set up the M.D.V.I., to help fight for more rights to this minority group.
Yuan had retired from the teaching post of Taichung’s Second High School now, currently she’s a part-timing instructor, her husband, Hsu is an instructor of the Taichung’s First High School, twenty-seven years ago they married, and had their firstborn who was healthy, the second pregnancy she had twins, but because of an infection, she gave birth prematurely, the second born son was wakened in his physical health, while her third, completely blind, her fourth daughter was only 1,000 grams when she was born, and two hours after she gave birth, she’d, died.
the wonderful work of this foundation, found from YouTube
To treat her third son’s vision problems, Yuan had carried her son all over the island to the various hospitals, her son had twice been sedated completely, on the operation tables, but, the retinal detachment can’t be fixed, and she’d considered taking her son out of the country for treatment, but worried that he may not be able to withstand the major surgeries, and canceled the plans.
“For twenty-five-years, I’d never heard him call me ‘mom’,” Yuan told sorrowfully, other than the visual impairments, her son was also diagnosed with autism, severe mental retardation, and other conditions, the trainings of him to get through day to day are measured by the years, for instance, her son practiced drinking out of a straw for two years, and is still practicing daily currently on using a fork, a spoon, it’s a huge test for his parents’, patience.
Yuan discovered, that those with her son’s conditions can’t express their emotions freely, she’d paid for the music therapy instructor trainings, other than helping her own, she’d also gone to Taichung, to hold the courses for children in the care foundation in Taichung as well; with more and more families with children with the illness she’d encountered; the more she got involved, she’d found, that the families of this group, are the “lesser in the less”.
Yuan combined the individuals with the condition, the families, the researchers, and set up the MDVI. She said, that there are a lot of the foundations serving the visually impaired, but there’s none that served to help those with her son’s condition, “We are the only in Taiwan”, there are about only forty of whom who are a part of this foundation, but how many in the population have been diagnosed? Even the government didn’t have a statistical number.
She stressed, a lot of the members of the foundation are from single-parent homes, the lower end of the socioeconomic status, they are most in need of society’s support.
And so, because her son has the condition that’s quite rare, and she hoped to help other families like her own, that’s, what drove her to set up the foundation, to help the families of individuals diagnosed with MDVI.
Life, the Obstacle Course 