| Injury Prevention for Post-Disaster Cleanups | ||||||
| By Ye Zi-hao Translated by Wu Hsiao-ting Photos by Huang Xiao-zhe | ||||||
When Tzu Chi volunteers enter a disaster area to help clean up, there might be dangers lurking....
In August 2018, days of heavy rains coupled with high tides caused serious flooding in southern Taiwan. In some areas, the floodwaters persisted for a week. Tzu Chi volunteers mobilized immediately after the flooding to serve hot food to victims and, after the water had receded, to help clean up. On August 29, I arrived at Zhangtan, a village in Dongshi, Chiayi County, to record Tzu Chi volunteers taking part in a cleanup effort in the disaster area. I was accompanied by Huang Xiao-zhe (黃筱哲), my photographer colleague at the Tzu Chi Monthly magazine. When we arrived, we saw furniture and other household items that had been soaked in floodwaters piled up on the sides of roads for pickup. At a local temple, staff from Dalin Tzu Chi Hospital had set up a free clinic for flood victims. The volunteers there were also serving soldiers who were helping clean up and restore the disaster area. We saw servicemen from the army and the air force, clad in green and blue raincoats respectively, assembling in neat files and getting ready to clear away discarded household items. Before long, a tour bus arrived and let off 42 Tzu Chi volunteers. They headed straight for households that had been referred to Tzu Chi for help with cleanup. Soon the volunteers were bustling in and out of houses despite the rain. It clearly wasn’t a good time to ask any of them for an interview. Then the question occurred to me: “Since I don’t want to interrupt them, why don’t I join them in their work?” With this thought, I put my pen, notebook, and cell phone into my pockets and entered a traditional courtyard house to help out. Most of the furniture and other objects had already been moved out of this house, so I worked with some volunteers in clearing water from the indoor area.
“Where are you from?” I asked the volunteers near me. “We’re from Yunlin!” one of them answered. Yunlin is the next county to the north of Chiayi. I thought to myself that the homeowner’s heart would be warmed if he knew that the volunteers had come from outside Chiayi County to help. Just when everyone was busy cleaning, some ripples appeared on the surface of the muddy water. “Those are fish! They’re still alive!” someone exclaimed. Just then I saw several finger-sized fish struggling in some shallow water. We immediately swept them outside into some deeper accumulated water to save their lives. The fish must have come from fish farms in the area. Days of heavy rains had caused the farms to overflow, allowing the fish to escape and swim all over. However, there was more than innocuous live fish in the muddy floodwater. There was something more dangerous. “Careful! There’s broken glass on the floor,” I called out to warn the others. As I swept up the shards of glass, a chill ran through me—it could have hurt someone. Some heavy object being pushed around by the floodwaters had knocked against a windowpane and broken the glass. I thanked myself for the foresight to have brought two puncture-resistant insoles developed by the nonprofit DA.AI Technology. I had put them in my rain boots the day before I came down south. They had helped me work with an easier mind. But not everyone had come as well prepared as I. During a break from the cleanup, I visited the Tzu Chi free clinic at the temple to see how things were going. While I was there, an air force serviceman came in for medical attention. He sat down and pulled off his left rain boot, revealing a pierce wound on the bottom of the foot. He presented the wound to Dr. Tsai Tou-yuan (蔡斗元) for examination. Dr. Tsai was from the emergency department at Dalin Tzu Chi Hospital. He carefully checked the wound while the soldier’s supervisors examined the boot to figure out what could have penetrated it. I moved closer for a look and saw some barely discernible blood stains in the bottom of the boot where it had been damaged. Seeing everything I did that day, I came to realize more deeply why Master Cheng Yen had asked DA.AI Technology, a social enterprise founded by some entrepreneurs who share Tzu Chi ideals, to develop puncture-resistant insoles in 2017. Tzu Chi volunteers often take part in post-disaster cleanup events, so the Master had wanted the volunteers better protected when they are out helping others. After the short break, I followed some volunteers to another house. This time, we needed to help move some items out. Every volunteer put on puncture-resistant gloves for protection. Though their hands were a little less dexterous with the gloves on, they were able to work more freely without feeling bound by the fear that their hands might be injured. The day after that air force serviceman was hurt, Tzu Chi donated 250 pairs of puncture-resistant gloves and 300 pairs of puncture- resistant insoles to the military so that soldiers helping clean up could be better protected from serious injuries. When a disaster happens, we often see people rushing to the aid of those affected. Seeing soldiers and Tzu Chi volunteers giving of themselves in Zhangtan village, I felt that this must be a major reason why Taiwan, a place often hit by typhoons, floods, and earthquakes, had never been defeated and could always get back on its feet after each disaster. We know that love can soothe the pain caused by calamities and speed up recovery. I was happy to be part of that too. Besides recording the clean-up effort, I was able to do a little something for flood victims. I was also happy that protective gear developed by DA.AI Technology, like the puncture-resistant insoles and gloves, would protect our volunteers for their service into the future.
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