Luway, reed, name of our center, adopted from the Bible, Matthew 12:20. “A bruised reed will he not break, and a dimly burning wick will he not quench” That expounded how kindness and cherish are bestowed to every living being whom God created.
The Catholic Luway Opportunity Center was founded through fund raising by Mr. Wen-Jung Kang and the team of Christians caring disadvantaged group in 1996. It is not only an institution for early medicare and education but a career training place for the physical and mental disabled. In order to let more than 50 children and adults with physical or mental disabilities to receive services continually. In 2003, the founder believed that phased tasks had been accomplished, therefore, he decided to transfer the institution to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tainan unconditionally. On the base of the Christian fraternity spirit and the purpose of continuing the Lord’s love of people, in the meantime, the Bishop, Tsai-Fa Cheng accepted the mission of the operation of Luway. He assigned Sister Chia-Yu Chiu to take over the management work. In order to let Luway Opportunity Center to be a Catholic institution officially. After being established, however, Luway had been borrowing the residence of the founder at Sinhua to execute affairs without its own dedicated place. At the beginning of taking over by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tainan, for the purpose of owning private home of Luway, we started to look for a new site.
In 2003, after surveying all farmlands and construction sites, we still could not find an appropriate location that the necessary funding could afford. Finally, under the support from the Advisory Council of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tainan, they agreed the construction appropriate land of Luway building at Sinshi Church. During the early stages of the construction, Luway without any funds, the price of steel was soaring. It costed nearly NT$ 60 million on construction been a huge burden to Luway clearly. Under this condition the support from bank was unavailable. The entire Center gathered together to pray and deploy various fund-raising activities with its best efforts to make the dream come true. With Gods’ blessing and the support of more than 8600 donors, eventually, the Luway building was constructed completely. In September 2005, we moved from Sinhua Township, Tainan County to Sinshi County. The inauguration ceremony was held in April 2006.
Luway is a comprehensive service institution for the physical and mental disabled now. Its service contents include supportive services of early medicare and education, pre-school and adult day-time care, community living, community day-time operation facility, pre-occupation preparation training, etc. In addition, we also accepted the commission from the Tainan City Government to transact the reports of physical and mental disabled in Tainan City, career referral and individual management service centers, as well as services related to occupation restructuring. We uphold the philosophy of establishment and mission to provide all-around services for the physical and mental disabled and the children with special needs. Luway emphasized the individual differences of each service user and provides Individual Service Projects (ISP), integrates teaching and care, social workers, and medical professional teams providing professional support, thereby, achieving lateral links of professional sources sufficiently. We have received the highest honor of excellence awards from the physical and mental disabled welfare institution accreditation since 2005. Our services extend to various areas of Tainan extensive area. We look forward to implementing all service aspects further to provide services for the physical and mental disabled in remote regions.