wfn.org | Taiwan's Foreign Brides Face Hard Realities of Life

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

Eden Social Welfare Foundation Opens a Hotline
Taiwan Church News 2635, September 1, 2002
Reported By Lin Yi-shin. Translated and rewritten by David
Alexander

    "After I had given birth to a child, my husband gradually
cooled towards me. His family also became dissatisfied with me.
Eventually he was beating me openly, and pushed for a divorce.  I
was pushed out of the door!" A-hsiang, a woman who was brought
from Vietnam as a bride to a local man, bewailed the life she had
found here.
    But at the same time, Mr. Hsiao, a disabled Taiwanese
gentleman who has been wedded to a woman from Vietnam for several
years, said, "The road to marital happiness is both long and
complex.  When love and listening go together, even
disappointments can be shared. When the disabled men of Taiwan
meet their foreign brides, both sides can learn to take the
bitter with the sweet, and have unique marriages.
    The Eden Social Welfare Foundation, which offers services to
many of Taiwan's disabled people, recognizes the difficulty that
disabled men have in finding wives among Taiwan's women. This has
resulted in contracts with brokers who find brides for them from
Indonesia and Vietnam.  But differences in culture and language
are vast, and result the disintegration of many such matches.
Taiwan's four major television networks and other mass media have
been quick to publicize cases of foreign brides rebelling,
cheating, committing adultery or entering the sex trade.  This
has given the impression that foreign brides are unworthy
citizens.  As a class, they are regarded as the newest weak
minority group in our society.
    The foundation has established a hotline service for foreign
brides.  Rescue, protection and aid are available by calling
Taipei, (02) 2239 9444.

For More Information: Eden Social Welfare Foundation:
www.eden.org.tw
                    TEL: +886 2 2230 7135
                    FAX +886 2 22306523
Taiwan Church News is published weekly in Chinese.
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