Taiwan Church News
3405 Edition
29 May – 4 June, 2017
Church Ministry
The Disabled Attend International Dragon Boat Competition At Tainan Canal
Reported by Chen Yi-fan
During the International Dragon Boat Competition, held by Tainan City Government at Tainan Canal from May 26 to 30, a team consisted of 12 disabled people supported by 4 social workers attracted most attentions from the public.
Mainly the deaf and the blind, this disabled team not only participated into formal matches, but performed their skilled rowing techniques at the opening ceremony to greet the assembly of this international event.
Mr Pan Shih-ming, director of Center of Education and Rehabilitation for Visually Impaired under National University of Tainan, expressed that the inspiration of their members taking up the chance of dragon boat competition came from 2016 Hong Kong Dragon Boat Competition, in which the disabled team had joined fearlessly.
Therefore, in this April, supported by volunteers of Aquatic Sports Society of Chia Nan University of Pharmacy & Science, the first ever Tainan dragon boat team, consisted of the blind and the deaf members with ages ranging from 20 to 60, was formally established.
A 65-year-old blind woman, very shy to speak out her name, shared her joy after the dragon boat competition in a relieving laugh that she felt very worthy to experience the match and highly fortunate that she did not give up at the very beginning just for being too old to try a new thing!
Translated by Peter Wolfe
