The 1st international Music Competition for the Visually Impaired and Taiwan Exchange Tour 2023

Invited by “Taipei Music Foundation for the Visually Impaired”, 13 participants from the Hong Kong Society for the Blind joined their “1st international Music Competition for the Visually Impaired” from 19 to 24 October. Resource Centre for the Deafblind distributed 5 deafblind members to attend. In addition to participating in the competition, everyone has also established relationships with Taiwan's visually impaired, hearing impaired people and related organizations, learned from each other.

Members visited “Petit Tuz”, the first coffee shop in Taiwan that employs visually impaired people, The coffee shop provides baking and job training to the visually impaired, and also employs fully blind people to work, so that they can be independent and learn to overcome difficulties and adapt to the society.

Our deafblind members Kau Leung, Pak Li, Hau Ling, Yuk Ha and Ellen Tse attended the “1st International Music Competition for the Visually Impaired” at “Taipei school for the Visually Impaired” and performed. The contestants from Taiwan, Malaysia and Japan were very professional in their music composition and performance. In a result, Kau Leung, Yuk Ha and Ellen Tse won a Special Excellence Award in their category.

Members joined the “Charity Concert: Love in Taipei, Music in Taipei”, this concert inviting outstanding visually impaired musicians from all over the world to participate, communicate and learn from each other, ignite their passion for music, break through self-limitations, give full play to their artistic potential, bravely pursue their dreams, and move towards a broader music career. Members of our exchange group took the opportunity to communicate and get to know each other with visually impaired music lovers from all over the world.

 
Members visited the “Bravo Caffè” operated by the hearing impaired. Take the initiative to share with the hearing impaired shop assistants and to exchange views on the public’s understanding of the visually impaired and hearing impaired in both Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Our members attended the “The sharing session of international life styles/experience for the visually impaired” and shared the process of learning music, from contact, to learning, to setting ambitions, as well as competition experience this time with visually impaired friends from London, Taiwan, Malaysia and Japan. They also frankly talked about the difficulties of learning music, communicating with teachers, memorizing music, interacting with other musicians, etc. Everyone encouraged each other and shared their future prospects for the "development of music for the visually impaired".

Before returning to Hong Kong, members took the opportunity to visit “Shinemed Taiwan” that provides low-vision assistive device display, trial and eye disease-related health education and promotion, ophthalmological diagnosis and treatment referral, assistive device rental and other services. They were very interested in the products and services of this Assistive Device Center. They also tried out some new technological instruments that help the visually impaired use their remaining vision and purchased their favorite white canes and sunglasses.

The success of this exchange tour depends on the dedication and efforts of our Staffs, Communicator Guides, Volunteers and Family members of the deafblind members. We are also grateful to all the deafblind members who participated in the event for their cooperation. We hope that next time our members will have another chance to break out of Hong Kong and visit the world.