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1. Description of Our Community
Losheng is a hospital for lepers' patients, which located in Xin-Zhuang City, Taipei County, Taiwan. Losheng sanatorium was built in 1930 by Japanese colonial government. It is the only government-run leprosy institution which provides acute and long-term care exclusively for the patients with leprosy. Compulsory segregation in Losheng sanatorium was executed to control leprosy until 1962. The World Health Organization(WHO) also formed 'Leprosy: A Fresh New Face! Easy to Cure, Hard to Catch!' Now the disease has good medicine for treatment and extremely low chance of infection, however, many people still don't understand it. However, due to the construction of the Taipei Mass Rapid Transportation, many buildings in the sanatorium were forced to be removed and the residents are asked to dislocate to somewhere else. Although the government built a new hospital around the site for the residents, still, many people would rather stay in the original place.
Many students, urban planners and NGO tried to save the sanatorium because of its cultural value and its historical background. After sixth years of efforts, they finally got some positive response from the government who reconsidered to reserve part of Losheng sanatorium as historical relic site. The authorities had passed Losheng as the historical site for public healthy, architecture, and human rights..etc. In the actions of saving Losheng, the Youth Alliance stand with Losheng residents all the time in an attempt to fight for the human rights and eligible interest. From the summer vacation in 2007, they established the Losheng summer camp. Now it had developed and become the Losheng community school. They hope to attract people and children to walk into the sanatorium as more as possible in learning these dynamic programs. At the same time, they wish to bring more educational resources to the neighboring area and encourage more inspiration.
2. Summary of Our Project
The two characters 'Lo-sheng' means 'happy life'. Losheng is an important memory of many local inhabitants who lived in Hui-Long area of Xin-Zhuang City, Taipei County, Taiwan. There are many touching stories about the patients who strongly faced their lives. There's not only abundant history and natural resources within, but also an important treasure for local development, teaching and entertainment.
Teachers are volunteer workers from many universities. Some of them are also members of the Youth Alliance. They united for actions to save Losheng sanatorium and the living rights of Losheng sanatorium. Meanwhile, in 2007, they had also been offering different kinds of curriculums and programs in this elegant and historical building every weekend. In the process of actions, they realized that only to open the door and walk into the crowd can make people have better understanding about Losheng. In doing so, perhaps there's a chance for people to come here for participation and a higher possibility to take part in further actions, such as the planning and designing of the cultural district. Furthermore, to acknowledge this place and to reserve it and make it a public space for the neighbors.
School offered many programs and summer camps two to three years ago. These activities are getting positive feedbacks from the participants; the numbers of students grows from thirty to hundreds in a short time. Mostly is because its diverse programs and low charge. Up till now, there are twenty eight different courses and up to 200 families are getting involved. After two years of efforts, many families walk into Losheng sanatorium and have more detail understanding about its history. Most of all, these people really open their hearts and embrace it.
3. Our Computer and Internet Access
A. Percentage of students using the Internet at home:more than 50%
B. Number of workstations with Internet access in the classroom:more than 6
C. Connection speed used in the classroom:dedicated connection
D. Number of years our classroom has been connected to the Internet:more than 6
4. Problems We Had To Overcome
1. The pressure from schoolwork: When conducting the project, we also need to work hard on our school work. We need to use our time wisely and keep the promise to our parents that CyberFair won't cause bad effect on our grades. We have to meet every Wednesday at noon to discuss our progress, search for information. We used google sites to upload our research and communicate each other.
2. Interviews: So we arrange visits to get first hand information. But, we never have any experience of visiting people. After several times of practice, now we can handle better and conduct an interview by chatting. In fact, they are so fairly kind persons.
3. Creat web pages: We don't have enough techniques on computer. We asked our computer teacher for help, and divide ourselves into groups. We spent lots of time to keyin datas of interview, making graphics and shortfilms. Fortunately, all problems were solved smoothly.
5. Our Project Sound Bite
The more we know, the more we love this place. We hope our project and web pages can be known by the power of internet. This place is really a forgotten and beautiful paradise for everyone.
6. How did your activities and research for this CyberFair Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?
This project makes us understand many things besides textbook and we know more about Hansen's disease, dorm of Losheng, community school and understand Losheng's history and events. In addition, we also attend the activity of the experience of disabled persons. To experience residents' problem of how to drink water, wear clothes and walk by using a stick and to understand inconvenient at their lives. Besides, we also learned how to interview people. We really can't learn these things at school.
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