20150620以法接引行大願 To Inspire People to be Bodhisattvas by Sharing the Dharma
Today is a Chinese holiday, the Dragon Boat Festival. Rice dumplings, a special food the holiday, traveled from Taiwan to Nepal, so that volunteers there can enjoy this holiday as well. Of course, they are very happy enjoying this gift. With loving thoughts, these rice dumplings were made and traveled over a great distance to give volunteers a taste home on this holiday. Today enters the eighth week after the devastating earthquake struck Nepal.
Teams after teams of medical volunteers have gone there to help. Currently, our ninth team is there. They see how local residents truly suffer in their daily life, and their hardship seems unbearable. Volunteers cannot bear to see their hardship, but they are very powerless to help too. However, we always try our best to help. Tzu Chi’s medical and relief teams in Nepal have been proving free clinics.
Gradually, they began to reach out to remote areas where medical resources are limited and residents have difficulties in seeking treatments outside. Therefore, gradually Tzu Chi’s medical teams began to reach out remote areas. They saw many people suffering hardships both in poverty and sickness, making their lives very difficult.
Not only do residents suffer from injuries and sickness and the lack of daily necessities, they also find it hard to get safe and clean water because water pipes in many areas are broken or damaged by the earthquake. For the water supplies to resume, it may take a very long time. Volunteers from Tzu Chi Canada partner with another charity organization to provide water purification buckets for household usage.
This is what we are doing in Nepal now to help residents have safe and clean water. Now Tzu Chi volunteers also organize activities for residents and children to help them feel calm and overcome their post-traumatic stress disorder.
This disaster in Nepal has caused so many people to suffer in hardship. I don’t know when we can completely heal their physical injuries and help them get over their traumatic experiences. When will they recover to live a normal life and be safe and well again? It seems like they still need a very long time. Yesterday, Mr. Chaudhary who is the richest businessman in Nepal visited me. He is a philanthropist.
He was very happy to learn about Tzu Chi’s work from our volunteer Mr. Koay Chiew Poh. He heard that Tzu Chi also has hospitals and saw Tzu Chi’s doctors in Nepal proving free clinic services. He was very touched. He was even more moved when he read the Jing Si Aphorisms. For these reasons, he came to Taiwan to learn more about Tzu Chi.
After he arrived in Taiwan, he visited Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital. Staff at the hospital who had gone to Nepal for the disaster relief met with him, gave him a tour of the hospital, and explained to him Tzu Chi’s origin and how the hospital was built. He was much moved. I heard that he was so touched that he had tears in his eyes as he realized what Tzu Chi is about.
Yesterday, he came to the Abode and told me that he would like to help with disaster rebuilding, such as educational or medical facilities or houses for quake survivors.
He also showed ways of how he could help the quake survivors. As I listened to him, it posed some difficulties because the lands of Nepal consist of mostly mountains and hills with very limited plains. With limited jobs in Nepal, he said that close to tens of millions of people go outs of the country for work.
What Nepal needs is vocational training for local people to gain job skills and make a living. They need to train local people. He said that many people, around 10 million, have left the country to work. To keep talents in the country, they need industries, workers, job training, medical care, and other development. That was what he shared with us yesterday. He was very touched by what Tzu Chi can do to help. He was sincere and mindful in making this visit. I also asked him to bring Tzu Chi’s values and spirit back to
Nepal, to help bring the Dharma back to the homeland of the Buddha and to carry out Tzu Chi’s spirit there. He promised me that he will do all of these. He said that in encountering Tzu Chi, he has found his life’s direction. He feels that this is the path he’s looking for. In summary, we would like a better future for Nepal. Currently, we are building transitional classrooms for students. This is Project Hope for the midterm transitional recovery, and the construction has begun.
Ten transitional classrooms are in progress now and are scheduled to be competed in a few days. These ten classrooms are for one school and will be ready soon. Tzu Chi will help build 70 classrooms. We will build these classrooms in batches to help the students there. Yesterday, I also told Mr. Chaudary that we will really need his full support when we build permanent classrooms in near future.
As Nepal is the homeland of the Buddha, education is very important in passing on spiritual teachings and wholesome concepts there. I also want to select a few schools that are both historically and commemorative important to rebuild, so they will forever exist in Nepal.
This will be significant for Tzu Chi volunteers I asked him for his full support when Tzu Chi builds permanent schools in the near future, and he had agreed. The future of Nepal and Tzu Chi in Nepal need his support. This meeting with him is very good beginning.
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