Those with intellectual developmental disabilities (IDDs) have insufficient abilities to adapt to society. If they don’t carry on living in an institution after they turn 18, they will be faced with all kinds of issues like jobs and where to live. Little Happiness Social Welfare Foundation (LHSWF) serves 24 people with IDDs and their families from Keelung and Greater Taipei areas and provides them with case management and job training. Recently they were due to extend their service with the establishment of Dream Academy in Reibin, New Taipei City, and would need a vehicle for transportation, which they could not afford due to lack of capital. On hearing of this, the Foundation decided to fund a brand-new eight-seater and held the “It’s a dream come true” donation ceremony on November 7 at Evergreen Laurel Hotel (Keelung) and named the vehicle Happy Voyage.

The LHSWF has an auxiliary bakery, Bear House, making and selling cakes and cookies as part of the job training. Other services include case management, psychological support, product promotion, and transportation. Due to site expansion, increasing LHSWF residents and insufficient vehicles, plus extra repair cost and capacity demand for the vehicle, some of the LHSWF residents needed to take public transport to go to school or take part in activities, thus taking up extra time and energy. On hearing of this, Chang Yung-Fa Charity Foundation decided to donate a brand-new eight-seater to the LHSWF to make their life easier.

On the day of ceremony, the Foundation chairman Wu Jing-Ming named the vehicle, “Happy Voyage”, and unveiled the vehicle together with LHSWF residents who were also treated to a sumptuous buffet lunch. LHSWF residents wrote on the thank you card, “Thank you to the foundation for gifting us with a big vehicle. Now we can all go out to an event together,” and “Thank you for such a wonderful present. We can now ride on this van to sell our cookies.” Little Happiness Social Welfare Foundation chairman Zhao You-Lin said that as the people that we serve are not quite capable of connecting resources and interpreting information, we often need to have specialists accompany them and their family on hospital trips, psychological counseling, administrative tasks and interviews which were mostly done by taking public transport. To save time on transport, we now require vehicles to take people to places so that time saved can be spent on learning and other activities. Thank you to the Foundation for donating the van in the leadup to the opening of our dream home. Also thank you to Evergreen Laurel Hotel (Keelung) for long-term dedication and support of the charity events.”

Having the passengers’ utmost safety in mind, the Foundation specifically asked for the installation of extra automotive safety devices such as rear-view camera, in-vehicle voice-activated safety system, electronic rear-view mirror, and head-up display.