Chen-Chen and his mother have been taking part in psychological counseling at Sunshine Foundation and their sessions with the psychologist are almost over. Chen-Chen’s mother said: "I sincerely thank Sunshine for giving me the opportunity to bring Chen-Chen here for counseling, so that Chen-Chen can overcome the psychological trauma after being burned." Chen-Chen’s mother also learned effective parenting skills through counseling to deal with her own emotional trauma.
As a single mother, it wasn’t easy raising two little boys to begin with. But then Chen-Chen was burned, and things became even more complicated. Fortunately, Sunshine’s social worker quickly identified the difficulties facing the family and the tremendous pressure that the mother faced. The social worker helped link resources, and Sunshine’s psychologist also accompanied the family in their process of recovery.
Although Chen-Chen is still very small, yet he always behaves in a serious and precocious way, never crying and never making trouble. This was even the case after his injury. His mother felt this behavior was not normal, so she came to consult with Sunshine’s psychologist. Through play therapy, Chen-Chen gradually became a naughty, cheerful child and his mother also saw these changes. During play therapy sessions, the psychologist also discussed with the mother and discovered that although she was deeply committed to her child’s recovery, her own inner strength was running low. By putting the needs of her child first, she also neglected her own needs. Childhood burns imply a long recovery process, with surgical interventions and rehabilitation throughout the child’s growth phase. In order to accompany and support her child for the long run, Chen-Chen’s mother also had to make herself stronger and take care of her own psychological needs.
Through sand play therapy, Chen-Chen’s mother was able to express her inner pressure and begin her own healing. Through talks, the psychologist accompanied the mother in finding self-care methods, or ways to deal with stress. The inner growth of the mother and child was visible as the sessions progressed.
Chen-Chen’s mother is now ready to “graduate” from counseling services. Although many challenges still lie ahead, she was able to find her own inner abilities and resources to build confidence and accompany her child throughout any challenges, as symbolized in the tableau she created out of sand during counseling: an isolated island containing all sorts of beautiful, dazzling treasures.
Hsuan-Hsuan is only four years old but she is stronger than most adults…
Hsuan-Hsuan sustained burns when she was very small. To prevent scar contracture from causing irreparable damage to her physical functions and jeopardize her development, therapists and social workers of Sunshine’s Eastern Service Center recommended that Hsuan-Hsuan received regular physical rehabilitation. But because she lives in a remote area of Eastern Taiwan, and because her mother needs to care for her other siblings, keeping up with the daily rehabilitation appointments would have been extremely difficult. Therefore, Sunshine Foundation arranged for Hsuan-Hsuan and her grandmother to come stay at Sunshine Half-Way House and undergo daily rehabilitation at Sunshine’s Taipei Rehabilitation Center.
Far away from home, Hsuan-Hsuan had to adjust to this new life. Therapists and social workers at the Taipei Rehabilitation Center incorporated rehabilitation goals into games and play. But unlike other children her age who can play carefree, these simple games like crawling, jumping, or playing with woodblocks only brought difficulties and pain to Hsuan-Hsuan, as she fought a constant battle against the burn scars.
Over many months, she struggled and cried but with the support of the staff and her grandmother, she bravely faced these many challenges and her progress was such that she is now back with her family in Eastern Taiwan.
The team at Sunshine’s Eastern Service Center continues to follow her progress through home visits, and services will adapt as Hsuan-Hsuan grows up and enters the different development stages of childhood.
The childhood of little Sunshines like Hsuan-Hsuan will be more difficult than most other children. They must endure a kind of pain that even adults will find difficult to bear. Because of their different appearance, they'll also have to face the stares of others while growing up. With your support, Sunshine can give little Sunshines the strength to grow up happily, and through education, we can foster in society a greater understanding of facial difference so that children with burns are treated fairly and equally.
On 2022 GivingTuesday, donate to help burn survivors like Hsuan-Hsuan regain the ability to live active and independent lives!
GlobalGiving’s 2022 GivingTuesday campaign will last 24 hours, from 00:00:00 EST to 23:59:59 EST on November 29, 2022, and will have an Incentive Fund of $1,200,000 USD which will be distributed to participants proportionally based on final fundraising totals. Your donation will help us unlock a greater share of those bonus funds!
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“Turns out you have beautiful eyes.” When Shu-Yan hears people say this, she immediately answers: “But I’ve always been beautiful!” During the last few years, as everyone has been wearing masks due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Shu-Yan noticed that she has encountered less stares from strangers on the street. She jokes that it’s another advantage of wearing masks in addition to preventing infections.
Shu-Yan lives on the offshore island of Kinmen. When she was about three, four months old, Shu-Yan sustained burns over her face and hands. Because advanced burn treatment was not available on Kinmen, she had to be transferred to Taiwan’s main island. During this time away from home, she stayed at Sunshine’s Children Center (the Center became the Sunshine Half-Way House in 2001) and over a ten-year period, she underwent numerous surgeries as well as rehabilitation. Finally, she was able to return to Kinmen when she was in third grade.
Because of visible burn scars on her body, Shu-Yan often had to endure the stares of strangers. Some people would even directly ask: “How could you be burned like that?”, “How could your parents let you get burn?” These stares and comments hurt her and her family. During junior high school, some classmates gave her the nickname of “crab claw” because of the scars on her hand. They would also say hurtful things: “Don’t touch her or her things, otherwise you’ll be infected and become a monster like her!” Back then, Shu-Yan didn’t know how to answer her classmates to defend herself, so instead, she tried to make herself invisible to avoid the bullying. But in that process, she also became more withdrawn and less confident in herself.
It’s only after senior high school that the bullying stopped and Shu-Yan started to feel that she was no different from others. While in university, she took part in training courses that helped her learn how to deal with discriminatory behaviors, overcome her fear of interpersonal relationships, and she gradually build up her self-confidence from her academic and work achievements. She also joined the ranks of Sunshine’s Face Equality Spokespersons, going to campuses and workplaces to educate people about the equal rights of people with facial differences.
Shu-Yan says: “People usually are quick to get their first impression of others from looks and appearances. But since the pandemic, masks have become part of our daily lives and people must now make more efforts to really get to know others.” In the past, people first noticed Shu-Yan’s burns and immediately got the impression that because of her difference, her abilities or what she could do in life were necessarily limited. But after interacting with her and getting to know her, they realized that she is not defined or limited by her burn scars. Shu-Yan says: “Even though I have scars, I am no different from other people.”
Sunshine provides physical and psychosocial rehabilitation services to burn survivors to facilitate their return to society after their injury. But if burn survivors return to an environment that doesn’t understand burns and discriminates based on appearance, we’ve only done half of our work. That is why social education has always been part of Sunshine’s mission. By raising awareness about facial difference and by helping the public understand how appearance-related bias, stereotypes and even outright discrimination affect burn survivors, we aim to create a fairer and more tolerant society. Throughout this process, burn survivors like Shu-Yan play a crucial role when they go out and share their stories with others.
What do our therapists do when a burn survivor comes up and say: “I have a new challenge for you!” They say: “Bring it on!” because they know this means our burn survivor is motivated to get better and our therapists will do all that is possible to support their efforts.
One morning at our Taipei Rehabilitation Center, burn survivor A-Hsi came up to our occupational therapist Ching-Yuan with a challenge: to be able to open canned food and eat with chopsticks. This may sound like a normal step in the process of post-burn rehabilitation, but in the case of A-Hsi, the challenge comes from the fact that he is a bilateral amputee.
In 2021, A-Hsi sustained electrical burns over 25% of his body, resulting in the amputation below elbow of his right arm and amputation above elbow of his left arm. He has been fitted with a prosthetic right arm and although he is now training on how to use it, he still faces limitations in performing activities of daily living requiring fine motor skills. But A-Hsi has never given up and with each progress or breakthrough that he makes, he constantly strives to move forward, coming up with new challenges for himself and for his therapist.
To help A-Hsi achieve his goal of eating with chopsticks, our therapist thought of using special assistive device chopsticks and adding thermoplastic loops to fit the chopsticks on the hooks of the prosthetic arm. She then remembered seeing online some special tools to help people with poor hand functions open cans. They exchanged ideas, looked up information online and just like that, she and A-Hsi came up with a plan that brought him one step closer to functional independence.
Of his therapist, A-Hsi said: “There isn’t a problem she hasn’t been able to solve, so I’m now thinking of the next challenge we can overcome together.”
Of A-Hsi, his therapists said: “By constantly coming up with new ideas and challenges, he motivates us to discover many new possibilities that we would never have thought about. The breakthroughs or innovations that we come up for him will definitely serve other burn survivors in the future.”
Your donations are what allow burn survivors to look forward toward their future, and it’s what allows us to accompanying them in this process and make their hopes a reality.
GlobalGiving’s Bous Day will be held on July 20, 2022. During this event, $400,000 will be available in Matching Funds. While fund remains, your donation of up to $1,000 (per unique donor per organization) can be matched as follows:
We invite you to mark the date on your calendar and be sure to support us on that special to make your donation go even further!
The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic brought many difficulties and hardships in 2021, especially between May and August when the level 3 epidemic alert was extended across Taiwan. Under level 3 rules, many businesses had to close and Sunshine Foundation was also affected. In response to the severe epidemic situation and to comply with government instructions to avoid unnecessary movement, Sunshine suspended in-center services and home visits in all its regional centers and rehabilitation centers. All in-person social education and prevention activities were also suspended. Sunshine also put in place a work-from-home policy for its staff.
However, despite in-person restrictions, our therapists continued to provide rehabilitation consultations by telephone and video conference to ensure proper regular follow-up of our clients’ rehabilitation progress. Our social workers also used video conference to assess needs of our clients during lockdown and also provide psychological support. As our rehabilitation services moved online, so did our social education and prevention activities, with our social educators carrying out online activities for school children learning from home. By September 2021, as the Covid-19 situation stabilized and was brought under control, our services progressively returned to normal, with epidemic control measures put in place to ensure the safety of our staff and clients.
Although 2021 was a challenging year, it also allowed us to grow and learn by experimenting with new service techniques, and by better integrating online virtual services as a complement to in-person services. Your support allowed us to pull through, overcome challenges and adapt to changes so that the rehabilitation of our burn survivors could continue and any disruptions were kept to a minimum. We are extremely grateful and hope that we can count on you in 2022 to continue supporting the Rehabilitation of Burn Survivors in Taiwan!
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