Youth in Timur

Context

In 2015, several young Paiwan indigenous people in southern Taiwan came together to create the Timur Youth Mobile Classroom to address a problem they observed in their community.

For thousands of years, members of the Malay-Austronesian language family have lived in the mountains of Taiwan; however, natural disasters, loss of traditional agriculture, and centuries of exclusion by explorers and colonizers have compounded to create limited access to education, employment, and healthcare in these mountain villages. All across the island, young indigenes were leaving their traditional homes for urban centers looking for solutions.

Upon returning to their village, the founders of TYMC noticed a chilling trend - traditional culture was no longer being transmitted from generation to generation and as the elders get older and pass on, Paiwan language, skills, and traditions were being lost. They decided to form TYMC and transform their village into a classroom, wherein young people could learn traditional language, storytelling, and weaving from the elders.


Our Project

Now TYMC is teaming up with a student from the University of Florida (that's me) to create an education program aimed at supporting cultural sustainability action in Timur village. The program will bring international students to experience and learn, thus providing greater visibility on a national and international stage for the Paiwan indigenes and will support tourism in their community (their number one industry), and cultural sustainability through teaching and learning together.


About Me

I am a second-year graduate student in the University of Florida Master of Sustainable Development Practice program. Every year, a dozen or so students go out into the world from our program to learn the fundamentals of sustainable development and have a positive impact in communities and on initiatives, ranging from poverty alleviation, gender relations, sustainable agriculture, and education.

Many students work with large NGOs or government institutions and receive funding from those sources to spend the summer doing some good. This is not the case for me. When I was younger, I spent a couple of years in Taiwan and have spent some time in Sandimen Township; some of my English students also came from indigenous communities. Even though this organization has no money to fund me, their project speaks to me and ignites my love and respect for the people of Taiwan. Please give whatever you can to help me return to Taiwan and help this group of young adults achieve their goals.