The Secrets of the Rainbow House

A youth who was saved from being buried alive but lost his father and sister during the Osaka-Kobe Earthquake in Japan, has painted a work entitled “black rainbow”. The young artist painted a white sheet all black, then drew a red-centered rainbow. Later he covered the entire sheet with black paint again. The work only uses black, green, blue, and yellow.

In order to convert this black rainbow that is on the minds of children who survived the earthquake to a beautiful seven-colored one, the first Rainbow House was built in Kobe, Japan in January of 1999. The Rainbow house is a home of love for the psychological rehabilitation of children orphaned by the earthquake, created to answer the need for a permanent establishment where long-term assistance and counseling could be carried out for these children.

After the 921 earthquake occurred on September 21, 1999 in Taiwan, staff members from the Rainbow House came to the devastated regions to hold activities for the children. In cooperation with the Taiwan Fund for Children and Families (TFCF), the first TFCF Rainbow House was established on the 6th of Apr, 2001 in Taichung county, which was the most devastated town hit by the earthquake. The Rainbow House and the Family Support Center in Taichung has been dedicated to helping orphans in a variety of ways including scholarships. TFCF has collaborated with the Prudential Corporation Asia- the PCA life, with specialists and scholars supporting its operation and with comprehensive facilities. The house can help not only orphans, but all people with emotional problems and both children and adults benefit from the assistance it provides.

Rainbow House has built the children a home of absolute safety and peacefulness. It has professional mental health counselors, play therapists, and groups of social workers. Different spaces have been designed for children of different ages, such as a toy room for young children, an art room and music room for teenagers, a meditation room for those who want to be alone, and a conversation room for people to share their thoughts. Because many smaller children cannot verbalize their feelings, association volunteers and counselors take the children for outings and arrange group activities for them. Once they settle in, the slow process of healing their emotional problems begins. It will be a long time before any semblance of normalcy returns to the lives of these young people.

To avoid Child abuse, TFCF has also recommended 5 steps of happy parenthood to help parents keeping relaxation and reduce emotional stress when facing the burden of life.

"Not", "Close", "Call", "Lightly"," Child"

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