Following an incident earlier this week in which a teacher in Taichung strangled his cerebral palsy-afflicted daughter to death, civic groups gathered yesterday to call for the public's support for parents and families with mentally disabled children.
Chen Chieh-ju (
"I myself and other parents have felt frustrated with our mentally or physically disabled children and have also considered taking the same path, but we sought help," Chen said. "We hope that families out there who have the same problems can get help too and prevent more tragedies like this from happening."
PHOTO: SUNG CHIH-HSIUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
The junior-high school teacher, surnamed Chuo, suffocated his eight-year-old daughter on Sunday afternoon while his wife and maid were shopping. The daughter had cerebral palsy and was blind.
Sun Yi-hsin (孫一信), deputy secretary-general of the association, said that parents of disabled children have to shoulder an incredible amount of pressure and far too many responsibilities.
Sun said that, as in Chuo's case, his family had a maid to help care for the child, so it was emotional pressure and not the lack of care-giving aid that caused him to strangle his daughter.
Many parents have chosen to commit suicide together with their disabled children to put an end to the pressure, Sun said.
Huang Mei-lian (
"But my father accepted me as who I am because he said that every life is precious," Huang said.
The association, along with several disabled care-giving groups, hope to reserve the last Sunday of each year as a "Breather Day" for parents with disabled children.
On that day, Sun said, civic groups, social workers and volunteers will help care for disabled children for one whole day, allowing the parents to have a day off.
In addition, the government should institute better care-giving policies for the disabled, Sun added.
Sun said that Chuo had not joined a support group for parents of disabled children and had no one to share his feelings with or turn to for support.
Only 15,000 parents and family members have joined such groups, but there are more than 150,000 disabled people in the country, Sun said.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supports peaceful unification with China, and President William Lai (賴清德) is “a bit naive” for being a “practical worker for Taiwanese independence,” former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in an interview published yesterday. Asked about whether the KMT is on the same page as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on the issue of Taiwanese independence or unification with China, Ma told the Malaysian Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Daily that they are not. While the KMT supports peaceful unification and is against unification by force, the DPP opposes unification as such and
Taiwanese barista Xie Yi-chen (謝溢宸) recently triumphed at the 2024 World Coffee Championships, taking home 1st place in the World Latte Art category. Xie, 28, impressed the judges in the final round with patterns of a whale, a moose, and a dragon in the three-day competition that took place in Copenhagen, Denmark from June 27-29, clinching the title of latte art world champion during his first time representing Taiwan on the world stage. At a press conference held by the Taiwan Coffee Association on Thursday, Xie said that creating latte art gives him a tremendous feeling of achievement. Speaking about his entries in
The annual Taipei Summer Festival, which starts today, is to tone down its fireworks displays, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said on Monday. Fireworks displays are to be held at the riverside site in Datong District’s (大同) Dadaocheng (大稻埕) area on four days at this year’s festival, with the first today, and then on Wednesday next week, July 31 and Aug. 10, the department said. There were eight displays last year, with the reduction aimed at minimizing inconvenience to local residents, it said. The first three shows, which are all on Wednesdays, are to last for five minutes, while the final
EYE ON MAYORS: The DPP would file a complaint with the Control Yuan against Ko and Chiang over their handling of reports of abuse at a preschool in the city The Taipei City Government’s belated response under Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) and his predecessor, Taiwan People’s Party Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), to alleged child sex abuse at a kindergarten resulted in more children being victimized, two Taipei City Councilors said yesterday. A Taipei preschool teacher has been charged with sexually abusing six children from 2021 to last year at a school registered to his mother. Prosecutors are reportedly considering additional charges amid a wave of new accusations allegedly linking the suspect to 20 other abused children and the discovery at his residence of more than 600 sexually explicit videos featuring minors. The