Poverty, but not suffering. A dog named Brave, a brother and sister, and grandparents with traces of time etched on their faces. The place where I live is an old-fashioned bungalow. There are betel nuts drying in the small square in front of the house and a cage of yellow chickens. The siblings' parents divorced early in life, and after their father passed away, their grandparents took on the responsibility of taking care of them. They usually communicate with their children in Mandarin and Taiwanese, and sometimes speak Amu dialect. The brother and sister said that the school also teaches it, but they are not very good at speaking it. Although life was hard, the elderly couple never complained during the interview, and their faces were full of calm.

Intergenerational Upbringing Story 5: Grandparents’ Love and Life Aspects My grandfather said he was lame and had difficulty walking; while my grandmother had bad knees. So sometimes I ask my grandson to help with cooking and housework. What is the most difficult part of raising grandchildren? Grandma honestly said that she just didn’t have enough money. "They don't like to eat home-cooked food, they all like to eat food from outside; each one is very expensive." The westernized diet has made my grandson no longer adapt to bland tastes, and he doesn't like to eat vegetables. The social worker teacher of Jiafu also added that in the past two or three years, he found that parents from poor families are willing to get up early and cook breakfast for their children. Most of the content is white rice, porridge with gluten, and pickled cucumbers, which children do not like to eat; plus There are many Western-style breakfast restaurants outside, so I like eating breakfast outside. Parents always don’t want their children to go hungry, so they will let them eat. However, a portion often costs nearly 50 yuan, which is really unaffordable. Low-income households and elderly allowances are their main sources of income. Previously, the child's father worked in Taipei and the family lived in Taipei. After the child's father passed away, the grandparents moved the child back to Taitung. The place we live in now is rented. Fortunately, the monthly rent is low. "We asked him (the owner) to make it cheaper because we also have two grandchildren. He said yes, from other provinces." "Are you a veteran? "Yes." The social worker teacher said, because there is a Taitung farm nearby, and a lot of land was distributed to veterans, similar to receiving pensions. Taitung Farm, located in Chishang Township, is also currently run by the Executive Yuan Retired Officers and Soldiers Advisory Committee. The two elders and their grandson have a relaxed relationship with each other, and they often quarrel. Grandpa often taught his grandson not to take other people's things randomly, and also to listen to the teacher when he goes to school. When asked about the heart-warming aspect of the relationship between grandparents and grandchildren, my grandpa’s answer was, “It’s true that it’s heart-warming... but because of the difficulties in life, I can’t think about it that much.” What the social worker teacher feels is that even if something happens in life The touching feeling of getting along with grandparents can only last for a moment. Because you have to worry about your livelihood most of the time, and the emotional ups and downs don't help. In addition, the older generation has a more reserved way of expressing emotions, so it is not easy for them to express their love and care directly to their children. Ask your child if there is anything that makes you want to say thank you to your grandparents? My brother said, buy clothes. During the Chinese New Year, my grandparents took their children to buy new clothes. My brother said that he picked out a set of "Brother A Bing's clothes" and didn't want to show them to us because he treasured them. Study status: "Sometimes he disobeys and runs out to play. We tell him to listen to grandpa and grandma." "Will grandpa run away when he wants to fix you?" "Yes." "Who are you two? "Run faster?" "Brother." "Then which one of you two gets repaired the most?" "Me." Brother confessed, causing the sister beside him to burst into laughter. Usually what worries grandpa the most is when his brother goes out to play without telling him first. The brother and sister usually fight and have a good relationship. The family support social worker said that my sister’s personality is more like that of a boy, she is tall and loves sports. "The children here do most of their homework on their own. Grandpa and grandma are illiterate, so all they can do is watch and ask the children to do their homework quickly." The brother and sister had previously participated in "Moonlight Angel", which is the school's Evening tutoring, but I didn’t continue it later. "Because the weather was too cold before, I was worried about keeping my children so late." Grandpa said. Although the school is very close to home and children can walk home, due to safety reasons, the school requires parents to pick up their children in person. Grandpa and Grandma were in poor health and were not sure whether they could go to school to pick up their grandson every night, so the brother and sister withdrew from the night tutoring class. Night Tutoring "Once a child fails to keep up in primary school, it will be even harder for him to keep up in junior high school. However, in this part (night tutoring) we can only encourage participation; because it cannot be because children are required to do homework. Okay, don’t worry about the elderly person’s physical condition. There are many things in family work that need to be coordinated by family members before they can be done,” the social worker teacher told us.

The Ministry of Education mentioned in the announcement of "Promoting the Moonlight Angel Lighting Project Plan": In order to strengthen the educational guidance of students from disadvantaged families and prevent children who have no one to take care of them from hanging out after school, which will affect their academic and physical and mental development, in accordance with the justice of this Ministry To strengthen the policy goals and priorities of caring for the disadvantaged, the "Luminous Angel Lighting Project" was founded in 1997. It combines local private resources to provide a safe and caring educational environment after school for free at night, and provides them with dinner to assist disadvantaged families. school children. However, *** defines disadvantaged families as: low-income households, single parents, bereavement, intergenerational upbringing, special family circumstances in urgent need of care, and "without appropriate education and care after school or family function is really dysfunctional, which affects their physical and mental health." and development". What we want to ask is, after seeing so many poor but kind-hearted and positive children and families, can we still simply use words such as "lost education and lack of support" to describe these families? Because "help" and "charity" are absolutely different in mentality. Resources and Allocation The social worker teacher asked Grandpa how old the siblings were when their father died. At this time, the elder brother quickly replied: "She is 5 or 6 years old, and my sister is 4 years old." Almost all urban children of this age go to kindergarten, but the local area lacks this resource. "It's better now; there are subsidies for children to attend elementary school classes (almost all public primary schools have elementary school classes). In the past few years, ***'s subsidies for preschool education have been of great help to many people." Ministry of Education Starting from the 1993 school year, we actively promoted the "Education Plan for Supporting 5-Year-Old Children" (referred to as the "Preschool Education Plan"), and first launched national education kindergarten classes (referred to as "National Kindergarten Classes") in towns and villages on outlying islands, targeting children aged 5 and above. For children aged 10 to 15 years old, *** will subsidize part of the tuition for one semester when they enroll. From 3 counties and 3 townships on the outlying islands, towns and cities with a large number of indigenous people, low-income households and low- and middle-income households, it will gradually expand to the whole country according to the situation; it is regarded as an important link in the integration of child care. My brother’s best subject is Mandarin, and my sister’s favorite is sports. However, they sometimes write homework until 12 o'clock in the evening. "Watching TV and doing homework at the same time, no wonder I can't finish my homework." Grandpa said. The brother and sister took advantage of the break and went back to the house to get a medal each. They excitedly told us that the younger sister won the first place in the girls' marathon, and the older brother won the first place in the boys' marathon. The old shoes were worn during the competition. As for the "new shoes" brought home from the family support center, they were reserved for the Chinese New Year. The social worker teacher told us that children here have a great demand for shoes, but most of the shoes bought at night markets are not of very good quality. "For people like them who love sports, their shoes will wear out if they exercise too much." What life teaches us "Have you ever told a story to your grandson?" we asked. Grandpa sighed back: "Story!? Dad wouldn't believe it if he told it to them, and even less so when it comes to their generation! When we first recovered, we had to make everything ourselves, we could only eat sweet potatoes, and we didn't even have bicycles. No; sewing rice bags into clothes only happened more than 40 years ago in the Republic of China.” The social worker teacher added that this is really different from the era the children lived in. Nowadays, many things have been computerized, and the life that used to be dominated by handwork seems to have disappeared. Far away from the child. My brother then told us a very nonsensical story about betel nut. Grandma was noncommittal about it. The social worker teacher asked the child if he knew other betel nut stories of the Ami people. Then the brother and sister went on to say that if a girl fell in love with a boy, she would The betel nut is wrapped and put into the "lover bag" that the boy brings. If a boy agrees to "make friends", he will eat the betel nut. At this time, we asked grandma if she had put betel nuts in grandpa’s love bag in the same way. Grandma replied, “He doesn’t eat betel nuts!” So ??how did we know each other? "Introduced by the old man." The social worker teacher also added at this time that the Amis people have been communicating with the Han people for a long time, and their Chinese culture is relatively deep. In his opinion, the Amis people are masters in farming. Among the stories grandma and her grandson tell, there are also many life stories about how they used to pull oxen to plow the fields, how to sow seeds efficiently, how to apply fertilizer, etc. Mending seedlings, two emotions. There was an episode in the middle of the interview. The child's little cousin also came to play with them. It turns out that she came here with her mother to mend seedlings. The seedlings planted before the Chinese New Year were frozen to death due to the cold weather for a period after the New Year. Generally speaking, the purpose of replenishing rice seedlings is to fill in the missing areas (including the parts that were soaked in water too deeply and turned yellow, or the parts that were picked flat or picked up by water birds); otherwise, the final rice yield will be very low.

Grandpa’s daughter and son-in-law bought some farm tools and rented a 4- to 5-acre rice field for farming. This is because if the farming area here is not large enough, it will be difficult to make a profit. Most of them can be self-sufficient, which is good. Although the current price of rice has been increased, for them, it is actually not bad. Because many agricultural tools are purchased with loans, even if they make a profit, they must be used to repay the loan first. "It's my own work to replant the seedlings, and it's my own money to buy the seedlings." Finally, as if we wanted to bring this interview to a happy ending, we asked the children: "Do you think it's hard for grandpa and grandma to take care of you?" A little hard work." The child replied. "When is the hardest time?" "When grandpa and grandma are working." Only then did we realize that when the pain caused by degenerative arthritis was not so severe, grandma would go to the fields to mend rice seedlings as long as the weather was warm. "Here, there are more opportunities to do part-time jobs. In addition to saving money and living frugally, grandparents must work as hard as possible to make money for the sake of their grandchildren," the social worker teacher said.