The Dream Factory: The Beitou Girls
Sunday, 18 June, Chinese Taipei win the U15 Asian Softball Championships, defeating tournament favourites Japan 3:2 in the final. The team will now compete in the WBSB World Cup in October. It will be their first overseas trip.
This story is about 16 extraordinary young girls, what they have gone through to get where they are, and the just-as-remarkable women who support them.
The team is made up of girls from underprivileged backgrounds. Many are indigenous; some are victims of domestic violence and abuse. They no longer live at home; they live together at Beitou Junior High School, located on the northern tip of Taiwan, nestled at the foot of the mountainous and picturesque Yangmingshan National Park.
The 16 girls live, study, train, eat and grow-up together at Beitou Junior High. They have a shared understanding: life can be hard and unjust. They rely on the support of others, and on each other. For some, their mothers just wanted them to get away from home, be safe, and have a life that she did not have.
Sport is the glue which holds this new life together, and they are very good at it.
Chinese Taipei’s pitcher Kuo Li-Yu in full flight against Japan.
Meifen Chen is the team coach and manager, mother figure, and mentor for the girls. She lives with them at Beitou Junior High. She looks after everything: their lives, training, education, health, and their safety.
“We raise these children. They stay at school, away from the drugs and crime,” Coach Chen said. “We provide an opportunity to change their lives through sport and education.”
“I try to teach the girls that they can change their futures through hard work. They don’t need to give up [on the sports field or on life] because the environment around them is unfavourable. No one can stop you from becoming an excellent self.
“Through sports training, I teach them to always maintain positive thoughts. It is the most precious asset they have, I tell them, to understand that the positive thoughts in your head cannot be taken away from you or changed by anyone. No matter what is happening around you, you and only you can control your thoughts. You control your destiny by controlling your thoughts.
When asked about defeating the tournament favourites Japan in the final, Coach Chen said: “I think the girls are not afraid of strong enemies because they only focus on themselves and their teammates. Finish the game and not care about your opponents. The girls showed a high degree of concentration and cooperation in their defeat of Japan.”
Coach Chen wants the girls not to take the help and charity they receive for granted. During non-ball season they help with the food bank, cleaning the warehouse, and transporting the materials. “The bulky materials need to be carried up to the sixth floor. The girls do this. Sweat by labour makes the girls grateful and teaches them to give back to society.”
Sweat by labour makes the girls grateful and teaches them to give back to society.
Liu Po Chun is the Founder and CEO of the Taiwan Sports Forward Association ‘TSFA’ and Taiwan Women’s Sports Association ‘TWSA’, which support the girls financially and with food, clothing, personal hygiene, and tutoring, including life experience training and mentors. She is a social worker who has devoted her life to helping women, especially girls. She has been called a force of nature who — on her own journey — has received support and mentoring from the President of the International Baseball Federation, Riccardo Fraccari, the Australian Baseball Team, and even the New York Yankees, who helped her attain her International Baseball Umpire’s certificate. In 2019 she was awarded the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Women and Sport World Trophy, the highest distinction that the IOC bestows in the category for advancing women and girls in and through sport. She gave her acceptance speech on the floor of the United Nations in New York City.
“Our girls come from families who have problems. The girls must live together in school and are raised by their coach. I told them if they can be successful on the field, they will be successful off the field. Sports can make them better people, and take them to college. They can have a real life.” Liu Po Chun
Po Chun’s foundation states its charter is to empower youth through sports and promote gender equality in sports in Taiwan. They also help women who suffer domestic violence, sexual abuse and human trafficking. To help a girl, says Po Chun, you help a family.
The foundation also provides a self-protection clinic with doctors and social worker to introduce them to safe therapy and body boundaries to help prevent sexual assaults.
“These girls are amazing,” said Po Chun in a WhatsApp interview just after the girls won the Asian Championship final.
“They won the National Softball League Championship and the National Baseball Championship this year. Now they are Asian Champions and going to the World Cup. There are 16 of them. The Japanese team had 3,000 plus players to select from.
“They held the trophy and said thank you for our food bank [part of the support Po Chun’s Association provide]. I thank them for their hard work and the grateful heart. Look at these girls; the world is better with them.”
“They are our children. It is our responsibility to educate and care for them. They deserve to have the opportunity to live better lives. “Hey, girls!! You are always champions! Always!!” I tell them.
“Our girls come from families who have problems. The girls must live together in school and are raised by their coach. I told them if they can be successful on the field, they will be successful off the field. Sports can make them better people, and take them to college. They can have a real life.
“In 2020, none of the girls thought they could go to college. I mean ZERO. Now they tell me their life goals. Some want to be a coach; others want to go to university to be a trainer, professors, producers or chefs. They enjoy learning now.”
The girls showed a high degree of concentration and cooperation in their defeat of powerhouse Japan
World Champions? I ask. It is within their grasp.
“That is not what is important,” Po Chun responds sternly. “In our society, we overvalue medals. We forget they are students, not medal machines.”
Vera Chen embodies Po Chun’s compassion, dedication, and vision. She shares a similar background and experiences as the girls: an underprivileged abusive family. At 18, Vera met Po Chun at National Taipei University, where Po Chun was on staff and studying to be a social worker. Po Chun offered her a job in the social welfare department and encouraged her to study. That was 22 years ago. Vera has been Po Chun’s right hand since. In 2020 Vera was appointed Secretary General of the Taiwan Women’s Sports Association ‘TWSA’.
“I grew up in a family of poverty; an alcoholic, abusive father and brother, drug abuse and domestic violence. My father was a powerless scavenger, and he passed this down to his son, who is now in jail. We did not even have a door on the toilet at home. Not one photo exists from my childhood,” Vera explained to the girls at one of the weekly mentor sessions at Beitou Junior High.
Vera Chen and the girls is a weekly mentor class at Beitou Junior High
“I never met a social worker when I was a teenager,” she said to me, privately. “I think if I could have, maybe I could have had a different life, or I could have been happier, at least.
“Sport is important for what we do. It can inspire the power inside. It helps us find our potential. It also teaches us that we can develop that potential through training. That we can make ourselves better.
“The girls came here with nothing. No dreams. Nothing to look forward to. I can now help them and inspire them to have goals and dreams of their own. Dreams that they have never dared to dream.
“I had nothing. I thought I could do nothing; I felt I was powerless. The things I could not do as a teenager, I can help these girls to have, to help create a better life for them — a future.
“I feel it is meaningful work. It is a milestone for me; it is very personal.”
end
By Anthony Edgar
Tracey Holmes of The Ticket, ABC Australia, interviewing Liu Po Chun, Founder and CEO of the Taiwan Sports Forward Association ‘TSFA’ and Taiwan Women’s Sports Association ‘TWSA’. Courtesy Tracey Holmes
Author’s Note: The 2023 WBSB U-15 Women’s Softball World Cup will be held in Tokyo from 21–29 October. The 12 Participating Teams are Brazil, Chinese Taipei, Czech Republic, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Uganda, United States. The team needs to raise 20,000 USD to fund friendship games in Japan in July in preparation for the World Cup. Po Chun and Vera have taken it upon themselves to ensure the necessary funds are raised.
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