Joyful Farm Brings Warmth to Hearts with Loving Care for Students with Disabilities

◎ Hualien District Agricultural Research and Extension Station / Zeng Jingmeng, Shen Congming, Huang Anwei

Leading a group of residents with physical and mental disabilities, Pan Tianqi, a specialist at Joy Garden, is happily busy in the farm every day, because the vegetables grown sell quite well and the worm castings produced are a better fertilizer than organic fertilizer; more importantly, this garden is the classroom for Hualien Dawn Education and Training Institute's "Green Nature Care," and the friendly green plants have a magical healing effect on the residents with physical and mental disabilities.

Rejoicing in a Free Space

For the healing of people with physical and mental disabilities, Dawn Education and Training Institute has always conducted "Green Nature Care" courses. This is a rehabilitation activity that comes from being close to nature. By having the residents use their hands and eyes on green plants, they discover life, which in turn stimulates brainwaves and has a rehabilitative effect for people with disabilities. What is generally known as "horticultural therapy" falls within this category.

Because the space was narrow, the residents previously could only take classes on the rooftop, but now things are much better. Two years ago, the Mennonite Christian Hospital donated a 5-hectare plot of land to Dawn Education and Training Institute, half of which was set aside as Joy Garden. In addition to growing vegetables and fruits, classes can also be held on site. Now every Thursday, the residents of the institute's gardening class come here for the "Green Nature Care" course, getting hands-on with seedling cultivation, crop planting, and worm farming.

Besides selling vegetables, another example of Dawn Education and Training Institute's flexible use of the farm involves worm castings. It turns out they raise a batch of "Japan Taihei No. 2" red worms. These red worms differ from ordinary worms outside in that they eat nutritious kitchen waste, "so what they excrete is also nutritious manure!" Pan Tianqi describes it: worm castings fertilizer costs four times more than organic fertilizer and is an excellent soil-improving medium, with quite good results for small-area planting. The farm currently collects the fertilizer once every 3 months; after sun-drying and screening, it is vacuum-packed and sold, with 750 grams priced at 50 yuan.

Full of drive, Pan Tianqi says that the current Joy Garden is only the first step. In addition to growing vegetables, the institute also plans in the future to set up net houses and build chicken coops and cattle sheds; more importantly, it hopes to create a farm for lifelong care of people with physical and mental disabilities. "We have always had a hope, and that is to train people with physical and mental disabilities to be self-reliant, and then turn around to care for other people with disabilities." He says that currently employing two graduates with disabilities is only the beginning; in the future more people will participate in the farm's development, using this approach to care for more people with disabilities, so that they support and care for one another.

*Name: Pan Tianqi

*Class Attended: Hualien District Agricultural Research and Extension Station 100th Year Farmers' Academy Introductory Training - Organic Agriculture Class

*Business Items: More than ten crops including corn, eggplant, loofah, okra, etc.

*Contact Address: No. 19, San Nong Chang, Gonghe Village, Shoufeng Township, Hualien County

*Contact Phone: 0960-148583