人間菩提—20150530啟慧根‧行善願 Volunteer Training in Nepal: Wisdom and Compassion
For the Nepal earthquake relief, Tzu Chi volunteers arrived there soon after the quake, and they are still there. The sixth team’s physicians are there now. For this team, they went to visit another camp of survivors. After mindful observation they discovered that about 90 percent of the children there have head lice.
Today, they plan to help the children with head lice treatment. In another camp area, they also discovered patients with post-traumatic stress disorder. Right now, helping survivors is not about only treating their physical illnesses, we also have to stand by them, comfort them, encourage them and find ways to help them.
Tzu Chi has been there for more than a month. So, more and more local seeds of love have been discovered. A local driver has been hired by Tzu Chi since our first day in Nepal. From the time this driver has been with us since the beginning, he has been deeply moved by Tzu Chi. He’s just started volunteering, but is already very dedicated. He took us to the market and checked the price for each item carefully.
Are you tired? He feels honored to do it. This driver shares with his family, relatives and friends about Tzu Chi’s work every day, so his family, relatives and friends are very warm and friendly toward Tzu Chi whenever they see the volunteers. They also donate money in their Tzu Chi coin bank because they learned that Tzu Chi first started charity with the funds collected using coin banks.
Another local volunteer is a tour guide who is fluent in Chinese and has become our interpreter. At the beginning, he was skeptical and paid special attention to observing Tzu Chi. Gradually, as he came to understand Tzu Chi more, he became very touched. He also actively shares about the ideas and principles of Tzu Chi, the things he has seen and experienced, and the relief he has participated in with Tzu Chi and tells his fellow countrymen about it.
Therefore, he also encourages people to donate money and do good deeds to help people. Though they are in hardship due to disaster, we want them to know that there is still good that they can do. For example, Tzu Chi’s aid is possible because of the pooling together of countless small donations.
It’s just like how droplets of water can converge to form a river. All donations, no matter how small, combined are what gives Tzu Chi the capacity to provide aid in Taiwan and abroad. Helping others is very happy thing. Even small donations can go a long way and help many people. These locals have been sharing with others this idea that they can do good even by donating one coin.
The locals donate very happily. They see how Tzu Chi members have brought them so much love, care, and material aid to help them recover and heal from the disaster. So, they are very happy to be a part of this by offering their own small contribution which is like a drop of water that having merged with the sea, will never dry up.
They all donated happily. We also see local Nepalese Tzu Chi volunteers in development. In fact, this develops them to have a continuous power of love for them to give love all the time without any break.
We have to always give love and spread it to all the places where it is needed. Wherever there’s a disaster and suffering, Tzu Chi volunteers will go to provide aid. We also see that Myodaw Medical Center in Myanmar collaborates with Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital to help patients in Myanmar.
Since 2009, Tzu Chi volunteers have been providing medical aid in Myanmar. Due to the limited equipment at local facilities, and the fact that many locals have cataracts, Tzu Chi volunteers often go to help these poor patients. Recently, Tzu Chi volunteers from Malaysia, Singapore, China and Taiwan joined together for a medical mission in Myanmar.
They split into two groups. One group stayed in the hospital to offer free surgeries. The other group went to villages that lacked medical care to provide free clinic services. My villages is very poor. To see a doctor, I have to take a boat to go to town. Id villagers are sick, they take what medicines they have or borrow medicines from their neighbors.
One of the patients was Mr. U Kyaw Than. He is 60 years old. About 23 years ago, a tumor started to grow on his neck. He could not afford medical treatment. Coming to Tzu Chi’s free clinic this time, he received a careful examination and learned that the tumor was benign. So, he received an operation on the site.
This is the work of Tzu Chi’s medical volunteers and physicians. They often go to serve in remote, faraway areas and sometimes to another country. They willingly pay for their own expenses to give of themselves to save people’s lives and help patients. They truly create many touching stories. Not only foreign Tzu Chi doctors are there, local Burmese doctors have also joined the free clinic to help.
Therefore, love transcends ethnicity and social status. They all give of themselves with love to help so many poor patients. With their loving care, they bring unlimited hope to the patients. This is the power of love. Therefore, we must seize the time do good to create and accumulate blessings and virtue. To spiritual cultivators, to accumulate blessings and virtue means to devote ourselves to help the in suffering and give them our Great Love.
This is our duty and responsibility. We humans all possess this innate love, which is our true nature and the noblest character for us to attain. Attaining it is called being a bodhisattva. Everyone can be a bodhisattva. As long as we have love, we will be very happy in our life. Whether we are rich or not, with love, we’ll still live a heartwarming and happy life.
Such is the most blessed life. No matter how rich and famous a person is, if living with constant worries, that’s a life of suffering. Around the world, we see a lot of people in suffering. What they need most is love Tzu Chi has an abundance of love. We need more people to join us so that we can spread more love around the world to help people. Therefore, let us always be mindful in achieving this.
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