[size=24]201506017淹水關照‧撒播愛心 Caring for Our Environment and Helping People in Need
Climate conditions have become imbalanced. See how thunderstorms brought heavy rain to Taipei, causing flash floods in many areas. We went to the flooded areas and asked around to see if people needed help. It turned out that some of them are our care recipients and donating members. As there are Tzu Chi volunteers in the flooded areas, they visited people from door to door to see how they could help.
Apart from helping our members and our care and aid recipients, they also asked around to see if there were elderly people or those with restricted mobility who might need their help. AS soon as the water receded, Tzu Chi volunteers gathered together and set out to work. They also quickly helped to clean up houses and stores on the first floor as they were worst affected by the floods.
They hoped to help people clean up as soon as possible so water wouldn’t accumulate in their houses and the environment could become clean again. This was what our volunteers did for people in their community. After the flooding, those affected have found that there are so many people caring about them.
Although our volunteers may not know everyone they’ve helped along the streets they still gave with love to help clean up the flooded areas in order to prevent mosquitoes from breeding and keep the environment clean. This will only do everyone good. Lately, Peru has seen sharp rise in the number of dengue fever cases. So, we must stay vigilant as well and keep our living environment clean and tidy.
In my Dharma talk, I’ve mentioned that in paying respects to Buddhas, we must also keep the environment clean, dignified, and free of defilement. Similarly, we should consider everyone around us as a Buddha and the place where everyone lives as the dwelling of a Buddha. Be it our own houses or those of other people, we should keep them clean as if they were the dwellings of Buddhas.
We should also recycle and not litter especially plastic bottles so that water won’t accumulate in them for mosquitos to breed. To be safe and well, we need to keep our living environment clean. Apart from our own surroundings, we should also encourage others to keep their surroundings clean. So, everyone’s efforts are required, Tzu Chi volunteers are aware of this, so they’ve been doing recycling to keep the environment clean.
It is important that everyone takes up recycling for the sake of our environment as this is good to ourselves and others. If everyone can do so, our society will enjoy peace and safety. We also see how Tzu Chi volunteers in Thailand took care of a grandma who lived all by herself. She lived in a temple’s kitchen which was no longer in use. As she used to scavenge to making a living some kindhearted people donated many unsold food contained to her.
These containers were trucked there, and as there were too many of them, they were just left piling up all over the place. Learning of that, Tzu chi volunteers mobilized over 100 people to help clean and pack up these food containers and tidy up her place. Then, our volunteers asked the grandma and the temple whether they could donate the food containers to those in need.
With their permission, our volunteers gave these containers to poor families living in the mountain areas. They also helped to repair the place of the grandma so she could have a comfortable place to live. Since then, Tzu chi volunteers had been caring for her regularly. I hope they can come every day or once a month. If they come often, I won’t feel lonely. Every time we’re here, we do the laundry and dishes for the grandma.
Everyone does different work as no one can do all the work alone. So, we work together. When she was ill, our volunteers would take her to see a doctor. They’ve been caring for her nearly five years. Moved by our volunteers, our medical volunteers often went to her place to see her. In April of this year, the grandma fell ill and was sent to the hospital. It turned out that she had sepsis and passed away two days after she was hospitalized.
As she had no families, Tzu chi volunteers went to care for her at the hospital. After she passed away, they also organized a memorial service for her. Having taken care of her for years, our volunteer doctors were all close to her. Although they were not related to the grandma, they cared for her with love and treated her as if she were their family. Her memorial service was held at a temple and was very dignified.
The grandma used to be someone whom no one cared about. After coming across Tzu Chi volunteers, she was happy and content because she had received so much love and care from many people. What we did over the years has helped people to understand Tzu chi better and inspired them to care for the grandma with us.
Although she had endured much hardship in life in the last five years of her life, she was very happy as there were so many people caring for her, including several doctors. Take for example Dr. Chuchaisangrat, who is the director of a provincial public health office. He treated the grandma like a living Buddha and a mother and did everything to please her. What he did was really admirable.
He is a doctor and a public health official, but see how much he’d done for the grandma. When we give with love, we will be most happy and blessed. See how our volunteer often brought children to entertain the grandma, which was very moving indeed. I’m grateful to our volunteers in Thailand.
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