|
Girls win award for their
contribution to Taiwanese society
By Loa Iok-sin / Staff reporter
Wang Li-ping, Wu Yu-nung and Chen
Pei-ying, left to right, hold their awards at the Garden of Hope Foundation’s
Formosan Girls’ Award ceremony in Taipei yesterday.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
While most high-school girls may spend
their time on school work, or hanging out with friends, some are already showing
their concern for social issues and are taking action to make society a better
place. A number of them shared their stories as they were honored by the Garden
of Hope Foundation with the Formosan Girls’ Award.
“I’m only a high-school student, I have no power to change the world or create a
utopia, but I hope to do what I can to help the disadvantaged to fight for their
dignity and rights, as well as help friends and classmates to learn more about
the reality of society,” said Hung Chia-sui (洪嘉穗), a high-school sophomore from
Miaolu County’s Jhunan Township (竹南).
Having just turned 17, Hung has taken part in the strike of Hualon Corp
employees as their employer declared bankruptcy, owing employees months of
salaries and retirement pension.
She has been on rallies against land expropriation for a funeral park project in
neighboring Houlong Township (後龍) and against forced expropriation of houses for
an urban renewal project in Taipei’s Shilin District (士林).
Hung said she started participating in protests when, earlier this year, she
passed by the Hualong factory in Miaoli’s Toufen Township (頭份) and saw a
demonstration by the employees.
“I was curious, so I took a look, and when I found out what had happened, I felt
obliged to help these people,” Hung said. “Jhunan and Toufen are twin cities, so
I felt that what was happening in Toufen was something that could happen in my
own backyard.”
As she participated, she met a group of young people and from these new friends,
she learned about more issues, and consequently got involved in more social
movements.
Hung said at first her parents and teachers were worried that her involvement in
social movements may affect her school performance.
“I promised I would keep up with my school work and I kept my promise, so they
were supportive,” Hung said.
Wang Li-ping (王麗萍), a sophomore at National Huwei Agricultural and Industrial
High School in Yunlin County’s Huwei Township (虎尾), said that after she learned
that the elementary school she attended, Jhengmin Elementary School, was to
become a branch campus of Datun Elementary School last year, she began a
campaign to save her school by leaving messages on the county government’s Web
site.
“I wrote messages opposing the plan everyday and every morning I would check to
see if the had been deleted,” Wang said. “If they were deleted, I would re-write
the messages.”
Wang later learned that the county government has a further plan to give the
school’s campus to Fei Tian Academy of the Arts, an institution affiliated to
Falun Gong, while cutting down all the trees on the campus. Hence, further
missions were added to her campaign — to save the campus and the old trees on
the campus.
After a year, Wang’s campaign achieved some success — the school was eventually
merged into Datun Elementary School, but the county government suspended the
plan to cut down the trees.
Her mother said she fully supports her daughter.
“It’s a good opportunity for her to learn something she could never learn from
school, and to accumulate experiences that would be useful throughout her life,”
her mother said.
|
