| Tzu Chi Events Around the World | ||||||||||
Taiwan To ensure students have safe learning environments, the Tzu Chi Foundation initiated Project Disaster Reduction in 2014. Its goal was to replace damaged or aged school buildings in Taiwan with new ones. San Min Junior High School, in Hualien County, eastern Taiwan, was one of 26 schools included in the project. The construction work at the school took 15 months and included a new three-story building, a covered basketball court, and other facilities. An inauguration ceremony for the new facilities was held on October 5, 2019. Construction on the original San Min Junior High began in 1968 and was completed in 1969. After half a century, the main school building was old with leakage problems and exposed steel bars. Principal Zheng Jian-min (鄭健民), concerned about student safety, visited Master Cheng Yen in 2016 and expressed hope that Tzu Chi could help the school rebuild. Personnel from the foundation’s construction department visited and evaluated the condition of the school. Eventually the decision was made to grant the principal’s request for help. Li Yu-ren (李裕仁), director of the Department of Education in Hualien County, was one of the guests attending the inauguration ceremony. He remarked, “Without a safe learning environment, there wouldn’t be any learning at all.” He thanked Tzu Chi for spending over NT$830 million (US$27 million) to construct new buildings for seven schools in Hualien County. The foundation’s aid was crucial given the financial constraints of the county government. Lan Zuo-quan (藍作權) is a parent whose child is in ninth grade at the school and a member of the school baseball team. Lan said that the old school building posed risks. He was very grateful to Tzu Chi for building the new facilities for the school, thus saving him and other parents from worrying for the safety of their children. Fan Gui-mei (范桂妹), 76, arrived at the school early in the morning of the ceremony to make snacks for attendees of the event. She said that she felt a special bond with the school because she lived next to it and because her eight grandchildren were all alumni. She visited the school twice a day during construction to check on its progress—it was like her own home being built. On this special day, she volunteered to make snacks for the guests. Of the 26 schools included in Tzu Chi’s Project Disaster Reduction, only two more remain to be finished. The entire project will come to a conclusion in 2020.
Australia Tzu Chi volunteers in Australia conducted a two-day free dental clinic on September 28 and 29 at Blacktown Youth College, about 48 kilometers west of the Sydney central business district. This was the eighth year Tzu Chi had held such an event at the venue. The two-day event served a total of 110 patient visits. Dr. Stephen Pak has volunteered at the annual event for eight years, and he has been the main organizer from the second year on. His two sons, Jeremy and Jordan, also served this year as dental assistants. Jeremy had volunteered five years before, when he was a high school student. That experience helped inspire him to become a dentist. A dental student now, he is set to graduate next year. He plans to join the free clinic every year after he becomes a dentist to serve more needy people. Kim Lowe, a retired dental assistant, drove six hours from the town of Forbes to the college to volunteer. This was the first time she had taken part in the annual clinic. She first learned about Tzu Chi in 2018 during a severe drought in New South Wales. She helped connect volunteers with farmers who suffered from the drought, so the foundation could help them. When her husband died last year, volunteers also went to her home to offer condolences. Their love moved her so much that she immediately decided to volunteer her services when she heard of this event. She felt the free clinic was well organized, and she was very happy to participate in this meaningful event. Matthew Ross was with the medical equipment company from which Tzu Chi rented the equipment for this event. Appreciating volunteers for organizing the free clinics, he waived Tzu Chi’s rental fees.
Serbia In September, Tzu Chi volunteers in Europe visited Serbia again to conduct distributions to refugees in the country. They first gave out book bags and school supplies to children in three camps in Sombor, Krnjača, and Sid, then donated second-hand laptops to two refugee camps in Adaševci and Obrenovac. Many refugees have been stuck in Serbia for a long time, unable to get to where they wanted to go. Some of them have school-age children. Serbia’s Commissariat for Refugees and Migration has arranged for these children to attend local schools. Tzu Chi volunteers realized that these children would need school supplies for their education, so they have begun providing them with the needed items. Nineteen families, 90 people in all, lived in the Sombor camp. This was the first time Tzu Chi volunteers had visited this place, so they first played games with the children there to break the ice. Tzu Chi volunteer Lin Zheng-zhong (林正中), from England, staged a puppet show to entertain the youngsters and share with them how to do recycling. Some children also tried their hand at manipulating the puppets. Then volunteers distributed book bags filled with school supplies to the children, and they hugged the youngsters and wished them the best. Hassan, a teenager from Iraq, had lived in the Sombor camp for four months. He said he had been studying Serbian and English at school, and he liked the school very much. He used to put his school stuff in a folder since he didn’t have a book bag, so he was very happy when he received one from Tzu Chi. “Thank you very much!” he exclaimed to the volunteers. Volunteers visited the Krnjača refugee camp the following day, September 7. Children there greeted the volunteers warmly, as if meeting their own family. Thirteen-year-old Shoaib was delighted to receive his bag, school supplies, and a small card with this aphorism by Master Cheng Yen printed on it: “Do good deeds and make good wishes each and every day.” When he learned that donations from people around the world had made the gifts from Tzu Chi possible, he was very thankful and said that when he grew up, he would also help others in need. The last distribution of school supplies was held at the Sid camp on September 8. Volunteers have visited the camp before, but it had been three months since their last visit. Like before, camp residents were very happy to see them again when they arrived. A couple in a family of five from Syria had lived in the camp for three months, and they kept thanking the volunteers for giving their children such practical gifts as the bags and school supplies. On the 8th and 9th of September, volunteers donated 30 used laptops, courtesy of Delta Electronics, to the Adaševci and Obrenovac camps. Representatives from the company were present at the donation ceremonies too. Working with Tzu Chi, Delta Electronics has donated a total of 57 used laptops to five refugee camps in Serbia. Parwiz Sadat, a resident at the Adaševci camp, used one of the donated laptops to contact his family via Facebook. He said he left home five months before and had missed his parents very much. He really wanted a good chat with them. Tzu Chi volunteers in Europe have cared for refugees in Serbia since 2016 by providing them with clothes, mattresses, school supplies, food, and other items. More than material help, they hope to provide a caring presence for the refugees.
The United States Caravans of Central American migrants have tried to enter the United States by way of Mexico since September 2018 but have been denied entry and left stranded in Tijuana, Mexico. Tzu Chi volunteers in the United States have been visiting two temporary migrant shelters to distribute food and other daily necessities to these vulnerable people. There is a large turnover rate at the shelters, so volunteers often encounter different people during different visits. Nevertheless, they still try to compile recipient rosters based on the number of people in each family and distribute aid accordingly. One of their visits took place on September 7, 2019. When they were unloading goods in front of one of the shelters, a church volunteer recognized them and said to them with obvious emotion, “Are you from the Tzu Chi Foundation? You helped me graduate from college! When nobody would help me, you provided me with scholarships and helped me graduate from college.” It turned out that this volunteer had once received assistance from Tzu Chi San Diego. Now he volunteers to help needy people at the U.S.-Mexico border. Lan (a pseudonym) arrived in Tijuana from Honduras two weeks before. She said that her father had been killed by a criminal gang. To escape from danger, she took her oldest daughter and fled to Mexico. She went to San Diego for an interview, and told a judge why it was not safe for her to stay in Honduras. The judge scheduled another meeting with her on September 24. Lan was holding on to a glimmer of hope that she and her daughter would be admitted into America. Shanna (a pseudonym) had fled from a violent husband in Guatemala with her three children, ages three, six, and eight. They had traveled with a human-trafficking group but were caught by the border police and told that they couldn’t enter America without legal documents. An immigration officer suggested that she send her eight-year-old son and six-year-old daughter back to Guatemala so that they could go to school, but she did not want to because they would be met again with violence from her husband. She and her children had been waiting in Tijuana for their chance for three months. Time hangs heavy on these migrants’ hands while they wait to have their futures decided. Church and charity group personnel play games with the children to keep them from getting bored. On the day of the Tzu Chi volunteers’ visit, people from another charity group were leading some children in playing a game while personnel from a foundation were using a bus as a classroom to conduct classes for some children. Volunteers brought enough food and daily necessities on this day for more than 300 people. They hoped to bring some warmth to these vulnerable people who were on their way to seek a better life.
Zimbabwe A high inflation rate in Zimbabwe has caused prices of cooking oil and other basics to soar, making it even harder for destitute people to get by. Tzu Chi volunteers in that country carried out two distributions on September 13 and 19 to help families struggling with shortages of basic supplies. The distribution on September 13 was held in the village of Domboshava, Mashonaland East Province. Many needy families in the village sell vegetables and hot food in the market, but still find it hard to make ends meet. The villagers who came to the distribution were mostly older people. Many of them were living with their grandchildren, who had lost their parents. Poverty had stopped these children from going to school. Volunteers bowed deeply to participating families as they handed over supplies. This was to thank the families for giving them the opportunity to serve them. People broke into smiles upon receiving the much-needed supplies. They sang or clapped their hands to express their gratitude to Tzu Chi. Nine hundred and seventy-two families benefited from the distribution, with each household receiving supplies such as soap, cooking oil, and a ten-kilogram (22-pound) bag of rice. The other distribution took place in Glendale, Mashonaland Central Province. Stabio Chimwara, a Tzu Chi volunteer who lives in the village, worked hard to organize the event. He reviewed the recipient list carefully to ensure that the distribution ran smoothly and that Tzu Chi’s aid could get to the people that needed it most. The list was compiled with the help of several private organizations, including an association for people with disabilities. Chimwara personally visited recipient families to confirm those on the list. Sometimes he had to walk ten kilometers (6.2 miles) just to reach a family, but he was undaunted by the distance. As typical with each distribution, volunteers introduced attendees to Tzu Chi and shared Master Cheng Yen’s teachings with them. Volunteer Tambudzai Mufuka, from Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, told everyone how her husband had abandoned her after she gave birth to a disabled child. She shared how she had pulled through that rough patch in her life with help from Tzu Chi volunteers, and she had even turned from an aid recipient to a help giver. She hoped her experience would inspire more people to give to others. Giving is a two-way street; both recipients and givers benefit in the process. The distribution helped 670 households. Among the items provided were cooking oil and soap. These things were easily obtained in many places around the world, but they were precious items to these recipient families, who were therefore very grateful for Tzu Chi’s help.
Canada The Tzu Chi Burnaby office in Burnaby, British Colombia, held a street cleanup event on September 8 as part of the celebration of the office’s first anniversary. Volunteers in Burnaby have been serving their community since 1996, but they had never had an office. They’d had to borrow places such as volunteers’ homes to use as venues for their events. They were in this awkward situation for more than 20 years until April 2018, when they were allowed to use a property of the city government by paying a token rent and management fees. After a few months of renovation, the office was officially opened in September 2018. The office celebrated its first birthday this year. On the day of the cleanup event, 72 volunteers gathered at the office at 9:30 a.m. Putting on gloves and picking up tongs and buckets, they divided into four teams and fanned out in four directions. The first team was assigned to pick up trash in the area surrounding an elementary school diagonally across from the Tzu Chi office. Volunteer Ma Ruo-qing (馬若晴) said, “Many cars that have driven past us honked their horns to convey their compliments to us. Some drivers even gave us a thumbs up. Many passersby also called out, ‘Thank you!’ to us. That really gave us motivation to work harder!” Volunteer Liu Yi-rong (劉憶蓉) was with the third team. She had thought that there wouldn’t be too much garbage to pick up since the streets looked pretty clean. Much to her surprise, however, she soon discovered a large pile of trash consisting of paper, newspaper, cups, cigarette butts, paper napkins, paper boxes, and chicken bones hidden in a bush. She could not even fit all the garbage into the bucket she was carrying. Every team remarked that cigarette butts were the most common form of litter they encountered during their cleanup effort. This evoked feelings of remorse in volunteer Wang Shao-xiong (王少雄) because he used to toss his cigarette butts on the streets too. “I must thank Tzu Chi for changing me,” he said. “I quit smoking after I joined Tzu Chi.” After one and a half hours’ work, the four teams returned one after another to the office. Another celebratory activity was immediately kicked off with everyone singing the Tzu Chi song “One Family.” Part of the activity was looking back at what the branch office had accomplished in the past year. A video showed volunteers helping out at two food banks, sponsoring breakfast programs at eight schools, sweeping streets, providing daily necessities for homeless people, checking elementary school students for head lice, conducting winter aid distributions for low-income families, and visiting nursing homes, among other things. The establishment of a physical office even allowed volunteers to hold various courses for community residents. Gathered around a large birthday cake, volunteers hoped that in the future the office will be able to serve more people, and that more people can join together to work for the good of society. |
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