The Law for Child Witnesses of Domestic Violence is on its seventh year this year and to make services more complete, the Good Shepherd Foundation has been promoting the Youth and Child Guidance and Development Plan this year, allowing each child living in fear and uncertainty, be covered by the system and grow up safely. Communities, network cooperative units, kindergartens, schools and student counseling centers have been invited to join focus groups to understand the needs and difficulties of each party, hoping to have a sturdier safety network in the future and be able to instantly get hold of each child in need.

This year, Tainan Center, Taipei Children Center and New Taipei Children Center under the Good Shepherd Foundation are undertaking the Ministry of Health and Welfare Youth and Child Guidance and Development Plan and hoping that by stepping into the frontline, can meet workers for youth and child witnesses and assist them to help these child witnesses. The Tainan Center indicates that as of now, measures for counseling of youth and child witnesses are as follows: If the child is into schooling, the Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Prevention Center will notify the Counseling Room in school and introduce counseling resources to help the child. If the child is still in pre-school (0-6 years old), professional counseling resources like the Good Shepherd Foundation will be linked up to give assistance.

However, kindergarten teachers or community staff members in the front line who get in contact with child witnesses may not necessarily be sensitive and be able to recognize the needs of the child at the first possible instance. Tainan Center shares with us, kindergartens are unlike elementary, or junior or senior high schools having a Counseling Room. The Director of a kindergarten once said that they received a notice about eye witnessing from the Department of Education but felt helpless as they did not know how to help in such situations.

In order to enhance the professional knowledge of frontliners and understand the needs and difficulties of each unit, the Tainan Center Youth and Child Guidance and Development Plan held 5 sessions of focus point group activities starting on June 21, directed at community leaders, network cooperative units, kindergarten directors and teachers in schools and guidance counseling centers. Director Huang Jao-Xin and Supervisor Pan Mei-Chun of the Social Force Development Research Center at the Chang Jung Christian University were invited to gather everyone’s idea through the KJ Brain Storming Method of Tokyo humanist Kawakita Jiro.

The directors of kindergarten schools also divulged that most of them lack counseling expertise on child witnesses and are not aware of how to do counseling or how to talk with the parents. They hope that in the future, the Department of Education – Student Counseling Division and Special and Pre-School Education Division can help provide related resources and assistance. Aside from these, teachers lack sensitivity on this matter and may not be able to identify and overlook danger when dealing with such cases and thus hope to have an experienced social worker present to render assistance.

On the side of community leaders and related network groups, they discussed having a more complete mechanism on transfer procedures within government units and agencies. They also suggested to include other related groups such as religious organizations. Besides providing spiritual support, some religious groups offer extracurricular classes and may encounter cases related to eye witnesses. By gathering strength from different groups in the society, we can work together to weave a closer and complete social safety network. After the activity, Good Shepherd Tainan Center compiled all the ideas to be used as reference for the Tainan Counseling and Support Resource Center Youth and Child Guidance and Development Plan and for further policy discussions with local and central authorities.

The commencement program at the Good Shepherd Learning School for Dropouts (Taipei) was held successfully last June 8. Together with the parents and teachers, the students tried to recall and shared memories of their growing up this semester through graffiti drawn on the wall, performance and a video review. Making learning more difficult was due to the pandemic and also, the number of days of classes every week was increased to three days from the usual two days so the social workers at Good Shepherd had to constantly think of plans for the course, search for a venue, contact the lecturer and others, doing their best to let the children gain the most at the learning school. Good Shepherd Learning School for Dropouts (Taipei) Director Wu Jin-Yun says: “This group of children is very special. I feel so touched to see them exerting effort in their own way to express these precious characteristics.”

To allow the children to encounter more kinds of challenges and to let them be aware that various careers are not built overnight, several new courses were offered this semester like tattoo culture, hairdressing and others not having been offered before. One minute on stage takes ten years of practice off the stage, just like tattooing needs continuous practice on drawing techniques. One of the children learned to play the piano from zero. She played on the piano during classes. She played the piano after classes and when she went home, she wanted to continue to practice on the piano. There as, her mother bought a piano especially for her and thus she continued to practice playing on the piano by herself. During the commencement program, she played 「知足」(Contentment) by MayDay Music Band, starting with single notes slowly till both hands were playing on the piano keys. She did not even need to look at the piano sheet music for the whole song. The mother of the child, the social workers and the teachers were deeply impressed with her improvement and the song especially touched their hearts.

“Freestyle basketball” was also one of the highlights of the commencement program. Xiao Niu and Xiao Chi spent a lot of time cultivating the feelings for basketball and combined music, dancing and skills on playing ball. Watching the players’ physical bodies move to the tempo of the music earned a lot of uproar from the audience. This was the first time the children performed, yet exuding lots of confidence and giving the best interpretation of performing arts.

After the children learned hairdressing, they helped to braid the hair of the teachers joining the commencement program. Although the course was just a few months, but you can see that the children were serious, not only studying hard while in school but daring enough to add in their own creative ideas. What could not be presented onsite were compiled into a colorful video where you can see the children concentrated in learning catering, preparing drinks, coffee and dessert. There also was the exciting Rubik’s cube, boxing and various ball games where you can see the students sweating it out and showing their youthful explosiveness.

The awards presented on that day represented the special trait of each student: “Consistency Award”, “Forever Sweet Award”, “Quiet but Impressive Award”, “The Best Daughter Award”, “Sisterly Award”, “Happy Award”, “Cordiality Award”, “Shining Award”. Some children wanted to make others happy, some were always helping to clean up quietly and throw the trash. Some were helping new members to be part of the happy Good Shepherd Learning School for Dropouts (Taipei) … and just like what the video says: “May be sad, may be reluctant but please cheer up anyway, memories of the past will always be there as long as you do not forget them.”

At the end of the commencement program, Good Shepherd Learning School for Dropouts (Taipei) wants to tell the children: “Be your own sun bringing warmth to your own self. Your story shall go on. Wishing you all good luck on this journey ahead. Enjoy your life and thank you to all parents and teachers who have participated in the activity. These are the best encouragement giving confidence to the children.”

“Have you ever felt that change isn’t easy?” Good Shepherd Teh-Mung Home Director Chen Yu Jie talks about children adapting to the home’s surroundings, including rules and regulations, would need to take a lot of effort. Though the surroundings and environment here are safe and secure, feeling uncomfortable would also be another form of trauma. Director Chen Yu Jie shares her own experience: “After the first time I went shopping at RT-Mart in Taitung, I cried.” At that time, RT-Mart looked more like today’s PX Mart. Previously staying in Kaohsiung in a very convenient location and adjacent to Carrefour, she had always enjoyed shopping at the supermarket. After moving to another city where the supermarket is not the same as she expected, would thus bring a feeling of discomfort. Her experience of moving to another place enables her to understand the feelings of the children at Teh-Mung Home. “It is not easy for children suffering from trauma and when in an extremely unstable physical and mental condition, to live and stay in a place with people and surroundings not familiar to them.”

To help the children settle more quickly, recover from family trauma, Teh-Mung aside from using the traditional method of child counseling, uses the “trauma-informed” concept to trace the child’s life history, search for the source of trauma, slowly heal the pain from the very beginning, diminish various situations possibly caused by the trauma. Trauma-informed concept compares trauma experienced in the past to a toxin. It will be engraved into the memory in the brain and body, and affects the behavior of the child.

For the social worker, trauma-informed concept provides a new point of view for looking at the children. On one hand, the social workers interacting with the child search for the cause of trauma and on the other hand, observe the words, actions, reactions and feelings of the child towards behavioral treatment during this period of time and also deduce if such behavior is caused by trauma experienced in the past. Teh-Mung Home Social Worker Huang Phei Ying shares her experience: “This is to increase the sensitivity of workers at work, to give more attention to the children’s reactions. Am I supposed to make an assessment and conclusion quickly? Should I alter my opinion? Go back to awareness of your own work, get rid of your sense of values in the past.”

Trauma-informed care integrates conventional techniques and strategies in social work, allowing “empathy”, “tolerance”, “listening” to become skills. Communicate and understand what the child is doing. When the child behaves inappropriately, correct his behavior but it is still needed to talk and tell him that this behavior is improper. Chen Yu Jie reiterates, trauma-informed care is not throwing away conventional techniques and strategies in social work. In the past, it was one way to correct the behavior of a child. Now, one more way is added, to work from the root cause of trauma.

In the past, the Home starts from cognitive therapy, changes behavior by changing belief, helps functioning of the child’s brain. Now with the body added, heal the wounds of the child by starting from the body’s memory. This year, Teh-Mung introduces yoga, aromatherapy and breathing to help awaken the memories of the child.  Chen Yu Jie explains with anticipation: “Hopefully through reviving the memories of the body, some things may be fixed. I can foresee, after fixing the source of trauma, he does not have to struggle like this, just like stealing things or say I am sick, to earn satisfaction or attention. The things that need to be corrected will gradually become less.”

With the onset of the summer vacation, the Good Shepherd Social Welfare Foundation will start a series of “Young Volunteers’ Camp” on July, inviting parents to bring their children for memories of a very special summer, allowing children to learn to use their abilities to help others and see the value of life from a different perspective.

The Foundation says that several parents wish to bring their children to the institution to serve as volunteers, to learn to give and help others but unfortunately, not much service work would need the help of a child. Thus, a camp was planned for these young volunteers to experience and know what is community service work and for them to learn how to exert effort.

At the same time, the Foundation hopes to reduce the misinterpretation or labelling of the public towards the institution through the “Young Volunteers’ Camp”. As examples, Tainan Babies Home has frequently been identified as an orphanage but in fact, every child has a father and a mother. Children have been taken into the institution for unavoidable reasons. Adoptive parents are usually considered to be very caring and full of love for adopting children but in fact, there is not much difference between an adoptive family and an ordinary family. Young parents are often considered as young people raising children, not knowing how to take care of their babies but in reality, they are earnest and seriously learning how to become fathers and mothers. Through the activity, we wish to convey “a person is worth more than the whole world”, take off the basic context of everyday life and learn to appreciate oneself and the advantages and worth of others too. From their young age, learn to be able to know how to treat people in different situations with empathy.

Apart from this, the Good Shepherd has always been using “resilience” in providing company to those who have suffered from trauma or frustration, to find one’s worth and head for a new life. Thence in the “Young Volunteers’ Camp”, the Foundation will teach the children to know resilience through games hoping that in the future days to come, they can learn to use resilience to find the courage to be positive.

The Foundation expresses that the theory of resilience includes 5 big concepts namely: community support network and acceptance without conditions, the ability to explore the meaning of life, the ability to interact socially and solve problems, the ability to look at oneself positively and the ability for humor. The Foundation believes that if we first promote prevention, it could lessen sad and unfortunate situations happening in society. And every year, use a different method such as pictures, drawings, exhibitions, selection of golden phrases to hold the “Good Shepherd Feast of Resilience” to promote resilience to the general public.

This year, we are promoting the Feast of Resilience towards its tenth year and hoping that through “Good Shepherd’s Young Volunteers’ Camp”, bring parents and their children in a carefree and interesting manner, to know and recognize the mission and the services done in each facet of the Good Shepherd Social Welfare Foundation, and also to know oneself through games, find one’s personality and good character traits to enable the seedling of resilience to be planted in the heart of every child.

The Good Shepherd Social Welfare Foundation has served many mothers in different circumstances for more than 30 years now. On Mother’s Day this year, the Foundation has established “Confidence Workshop” to empower women who have suffered violence and make drawstring bags as a gift for full payment of donations made, using sewing to represent cutting away the hurt and pain, mending oneself and finishing a piece of fine detailed work. At the same time, we invite the public to give more empathy and support to these mothers who are struggling to leave violence and working hard for their future.

The Good Shepherd Family solely sheltering victims of violence, set up “Confidence Workshop" last year to help battered women express their emotions, restore their physical and mental health through handcraft and needlework. While restoring and building up self-confidence, it also develops various skills to prepare for a future independent life. Cai Hui-ting, director of Good Shepherd’s Confidence Home, says that women can feel the sense of accomplishment when someone appreciates their products, and let these women feel: “I have more confidence." “I am valuable." This is our real purpose and intention.

Finding One’s Self-Worth from Sewing
A-mei (fictitious name) escaped from the dark shadows of domestic violence and came to the Good Shepherd Family. Here, with the other women having similar backgrounds like her, giving encouragement to each other and growing up together. Through the presence of the social worker helping her, she gets to know that “being treated with violence” is not her fault and safety, law and taking care of oneself are very significant.

A-mei has had experience doing sewing work at home, but her thin body makes her worry that she can’t afford living costs, but through the hands-on course offered at the Shelter, she finds that she can look forward to the future. After which she worked hard to be self-independent, rented a small booth, helped to repair and mend clothes and became the proprietor herself. On the other hand, she sewed cloth bags at the Confidence Workshop. And thus A-mei regained confidence in herself and saw more landscapes of life.

Numerous Forms of Violence, be brave to seek help and not suffer silently
Good Shepherd Social Welfare Foundation CEO Sister Therese Thong expresses that because the mind and body experiences more stress than before due to the effect of the COVID-19 epidemic during the recent years, thus exposing women and children originally in unstable family situations to increased risks of violence. Good Shepherd social workers can feel from their services, that many women facing domestic violence are prone to choose to endure silently for the sake of livelihood and their children.

But asking for help is not an act of weakness. Women should stand out and ask for help so that social security networks can have the opportunity to provide suitable resources. Never face it alone. On the other side, there are several forms of intimate relationship violence. We must learn to be aware of violence, to know that it is improper and bravely say NO to violence.

3 Steps in Violence Awareness:
Being aware of violence is not only for protecting yourself. It can also make you aware of hidden violence, thus reducing the harm inflicted by violence to families and people.

Step 1: Know and understand what violence is
Violence may appear in different forms. You must first understand the various types of violence before you can be alert and sensitive to its danger.

Step 2: Be aware and observe your own feelings
Every person has the right to make decisions for himself, establishing his self-worth with “I have, I am, I can”. Learn to love yourself. If the behavior of others makes you afraid and insecure, never endure silently. Explore your own inner feelings so as to be able to reduce the possible harm to the very least.

Step 3: Establish a healthy borderline
Establish healthy boundaries with “trust”, “respect” and “mutual communication”. Find your own mode of relationship with other people. Develop interests and hobbies. Set the bottom line. Firmly say “NO” when needed or select to stay away.

Written by: Good Shepherd Social Welfare Foundation CEO Sister Therese Thong

The Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, also called Sisters of the Good Shepherd, is an international organization occupying one seat in the United Nations and serves more than 70 nations around the world. The Good Shepherd Foundation joined the three-day “2022 Good Shepherd Asia-Pacific Circle Teleconference” on March 15 to 17 this year. The participating districts included the Province of Northeast Asia (Taiwan, Korea, China, Hongkong, Macau), Province of Japan/Philippines, Province of Australia/New Zealand, Province of North India and Nepal, Province of Indonesia, Province of South India, Province of Singapore/Malaysia, Province of Sri Lanka/Pakistan. A new international group has been formed which shall integrate the collaboration of different units and handle preparations for training in the future.

Looking back at the 17th century, the work of the Good Shepherd assisting and helping women and the girls were mainly done by the nuns and implemented by some mission partners. However, with the passage of time, religious vocations have declined, the number of nuns has dropped, and there were more and more social problems. Starting 25 years ago, the Sisters of the Good Shepherd have worked together with the mission partners. Because of the participation of the partners, they have been able to support the continuation of the work of the Good Shepherd in areas of responsibility. Thence aside from more than 600 nuns from the Good Shepherd congregation joining the conference this time, working partners from Taiwan and other countries also joined the conference, sharing and discussing together the need for the international group in the future.

The Culture of Universal Justice is the foundation of all missions and work. The foundation of the Good Shepherd is love and it is shown through the work of justice. In promoting this innovation and establishing the International Team of the Order, the nuns working together with mission partners must maintain an open mind, open heart and an open will to strengthen the relationship. Universal justice emphasized by the Good Shepherd is to make resources available to those who really need it. Within the organization, homes can help and communicate with each other and serve to link up social resources, serve as the bridge between the sponsoring enterprise and the recipient, together helping the person being rendered service to, be able to walk out of the abyss of life.

Unfortunately, the emotional anxiety and insecurity of humans lead to mutual suspicion and hostility, wishing to get more resources on their side, stocking up on resources, sometimes getting more than what is really needed, leading to the growing global gap between the rich and the poor. However, God is merciful and generous. He knows the needs of the people. He created the world and at the same time, provides abundant supplies to those in need.

After the Sisters of the Good Shepherd arrived in Taiwan 35 years ago, they had started to form a partnership relation with the social workers at the very early stage, providing services together. Aside from co-workers within the organization, partner relation included groups believing in the same concepts and willing to work together, such as businesses and enterprises, donors, volunteers, recipients and others. Everyone participates enthusiastically and takes on the responsibility, make good use of resources to create localized services to promote the mission.

Through the Asia-Pacific Circle Conference held this time, connecting with international standards and strengthening the spirit and vitality of the Good Shepherd, and humbly learn from the service experiences of other countries, laying the foundation for the implementation of work done locally. I believe that continuously promoting our work, every person working a little bit more, accumulating for the good outcome, till we see the positive changes in the society someday. We need more people to support the ideas and concepts of the Good Shepherd and be our powerful partners.

“World Day against Trafficking in Persons 30 July“ is a world observation day to raise awareness of the situation of victims of human trafficking and for the promotion and protection of their rights. There were 10 Catholic Sisters from different organizations participating in the forum “Talitha Kum-Human Trafficking Prevention Alliance" in Taipei on July 30 to launch of the preparation of Talitha Kum-Taiwan Alliance. Henceforth, Taiwan Alliance will connect with cross-border human trafficking prevention networks to prevent human trafficking in Taiwan.

Talitha Kum is a Catholic international network that is against human trafficking and was founded by the International Union of Superiors General (UISG) Rome in 2009. There are approximately 2,000 Catholic Sisters, and lay members in 77 countries. Talitha Kum facilitates collaboration and the exchange of information regarding human trafficking, as well as reinforces the existing activities as of human trafficking undertaken by the service bases in the world.

Sr Therese Thong, CEO of Good Shepherd Social Welfare Foundation, said that people suffering from war, persecution, and poverty have been forced to move to other countries through immigration and migration, but transnational criminal organizations have taken the opportunity to exploit such people during their time of need through illegal labor and sexual exploitation. The illegal activities such as the child trafficking and the illegal sale of organs have made human trafficking the biggest challenge for international humanitarian rescue workers. Furthermore, she stated that in current Internet generation, if families and communities do not raise young people’s awareness of human trafficking by education, they will easily become victims themselves because of emotional needs, such as becoming emotionally involved with someone who lives in another country and wanting to go to see them, or the desire to work in a foreign country, which opens up such young individuals to the possibility of being exploited by the previously mentioned transnational criminal organization. Talitha Kum, an international network against human trafficking, is educating those young people through the church system, and making an attempt to help end human trafficking through joint initiatives, which focuses on prevention as well as providing social rehabilitation, shelter, counselling and legal assistance to such victims.

Photo above shows representatives of the religious groups which launched the Alliance. You will see two Good Shepherd Sisters: Sr Therese Thong, front row second from left, and Sr Euphrasia Chang, back row left.
Other Catholic groups represented in the photo include the Missionary Dominican Rosary sisters, Caritas Taiwan, Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, Missionaries of Sacro Costato, Sisters of Social Service, Daughters of Jesus.

Sharing joy, challenge and mission stories
Good Shepherd Services
There are forty Good Shepherd service locations around Taiwan with variety of services for children, youth, women, indigenous families, single parents, new immigrant families, and people affected by trafficking. In April 2019, we gathered partners from different fields to share the stories of joy, challenge, and core values in order to enrich our spirit.

World Cafe workshop sessions
Six sessions of world cafe workshop were facilitated by Mission and Core Values facilitator, Joan Wu. Joan invited 24-30 partners in each session to review ‘vision, core values and mission’, as well as four levels of listening (downloading, debating, empathic, and generative). Joan facilitated partners to share ‘joy, challenge, and mission stories’ in a 4 -5 persons group for one hour; meanwhile, members of each group wrote and drew their sharing in one poster to present to everybody. Towards the end, we evaluated the workshop and shared personal enlightenment.

Insights
Overall, the majority of partners were filled with the spirit of joy, honor, and communion through the workshop. Below are the pearls of our joy, challenge, and core value insights.

Joy
*Closure or replacement of a client could be a joy.
*Majority of partners reported the joy came from the process of team building and team work for same services.
*Friendships among co-workers give us great joy.
*Although the task could be very challenging, joy was experienced in witnessing client’s recovery process.
*One significant joy was when partners found ‘who I am ‘ through the services.
*Experiencing a great joy when government policy changed due to our advocacy for victims/survivors.
*Through the service for people who are marginalized, we learn what resilience is, for ourselves too.
*A number of staff stated that salary is a source of joy.

Challenge
*Majority of partners reported it was very tough to embrace client’s negative emotion and outbursts.
*The stigma experienced by clients in the society is a significant obstacle for clients to attain the skills and capacity of resilience.
*Conflicts within team partners or volunteers can be very hard to deal with.
*Unrealistic demands from society and government regulations cause staff a significant amount of stress.
*The task to help clients to have conciliation relationship with original family members was the other challenge due to prior trauma experience among family members.
*Partners experienced emotional turbulence while serving clients, requiring a healing process.
*Closure or replacement of a client can be quite distressing for staff and clients due to several years of service relationship with the clients.

Core values
*Our vision of one person as of more value than an entire world inspires lots of partners to exercise close to zero rejection of marginalized children, youth, women, new immigrants, indigenous families and those affected by trafficking in persons.
*We channel the love of mercy through accepting client ‘s negative emotions and comments.
*Zeal is the power energy to build reconciliation with clients and related persons.
*The value of respect leads us to let clients make their own choices and, in the meantime, we also learn to respect ourselves and others.

Two participants stated:

‘It is great to have GS services in Taiwan.’
‘Core values give us the direction for services.’

Workshop photos