20151024愛無分際遍時空 Love Transcends All Boundaries
Seeing how these refugees struggle truly breaks my heart. My heart goes out to those who are displaced and seek shelter amidst harsh weather condition. Such a life is truly one of unbearable suffering. As the winter approaches now, I wonder how they will survive. Some of them are fortune to encounter people who help them have a better future.
Turkey accepts Syrian refugees. For refugees who have fled to Istanbul, if they can rent a place to live, they can stay. However, to make a living in Istanbul, refugee children have to work to support their family. Their daily work shift is 12 hours. Within these 12 hours, they only have a total of 13 minutes of breaks, including going to the restroom. The rest of the time is for work only.
When I learned of this, my heart truly aches for these children. Thank goodness that they have Tzu Chi volunteers to help them. In Turkey, the first Tzu Chi volunteer has spread the seed of Tzu Chi locally and now these seeds have grown into a Bodhi forest of local volunteers.
Local Tzu Chi volunteers want to give love to help the children, so they work with Taiwan Tzu Chi, the world headquarters of Tzu Chi, to help these children and their families to have a stable life with cash aid, so that the children can go to school. In these children’s young mind, seeds of love and compassion have been planted. These children and Tzu Chi volunteers hug each other with love like a family.
We see the power of love helping refugees in Turkey. This power of love in the local volunteers is growing stronger, which adds a lot of warmth to their society. This is very touching. This is the power of humanitarian spirit. The purpose and goal for establishing the United Nations is an attempt to advocate humanitarian spirit and to ensure a peaceful future worldwide. This is the purpose for the United Nations, established on October 24, 70 years ago. Today marks the 70th anniversary of the United Nations.
On this date 70 years ago, the United Nations came into existence. Actually, in Tzu Chi’s history, Tzu Chi also had a historical event on this date. In Indonesia, a Muslim Elder Habib Saggaf, founded an Islamic boarding school and took in a lot of orphans in 1998, a year when Indonesia went through a dangerous and volatile period. In addition, many orphans were children or young adults.
By 2003, his school provided and cared for 3,000 children. He was running out of resources to support them and did not know how to continue caring for them. At the time, Elder Habib Saggaf decided to ask Tzu Chi for help. Mr. Sugianto Kusuma, a Tzu Chi volunteer and also an entrepreneur, came back to tell me this. In August of the same year, Tzu Chi Indonesia donated 2,500 bags of rice to the school.
Then on October 24, they again donated another 2,500 bags of rice. On the same date, they also signed a two year agreement with him, in which Tzu Chi will donate 50 tons of rice every month to the school. After two years, Elder Habib Saggaf asked if Tzu Chi could extend its help for one or two more years.
Mr. Kusuma then came to Taiwan to ask me if we could extend our help. I told him, “Yes, with Tzu Chi Indonesia’s resources, you can do this. But you have to guide them to be self-supporting as their school has grown to close to 10,000 students. Share with them how the Abode makes a living to support ourselves. Share with them the Abode’s method of being self-supporting.”
Therefore, volunteers in Taiwan with agricultural expertise also went to the Islamic boarding school in Indonesia to teach them how to grow rice and vegetables. A year later, the school harvested the crops they’ve grown. Not only that, they also learned to make breads. They also do recycling and use the proceeds from selling the recyclables to fund the school.
That’s how they’ve become self-supporting through the years. Now, the Islamic boarding school has around 10,000 students, which provides assistance, shelter, and care to many orphans and children of poor families. Local entrepreneurs also built classrooms and dormitories for the boarding school as the number of students had outgrown the existing facility.
So they helped the school build dormitories and classrooms. As such, the Muslim elder, Habib Saggaf, of the school was very, very grateful to Tzu Chi. Of course, he also faced criticisms from fellow Muslims and was under a lot of pressure. Yet, he told them, “Even though I received assistance from a Buddhist organization and rice from Taiwan, they do not ask us to change our religious belief. ”
Therefore, what he hoped to achieve with his school is the same spirit of love from Tzu Chi. He was very persistent in working with Tzu Chi. Since then, Tzu Chi also has provided free clinic to the students at the school. Moreover, during the month of Ramadan, we have also provided dietary supplements to the students. The spirit of love transcending religions and nations.
See how the students at the school have grown up. Now, whenever Tzu Chi holds large activities, such as the Buddha Day Ceremony, the students at the Islamic boarding school, these young people, would come to help and volunteer. They work harmoniously with Tzu Chi volunteers. This is the power of love. There’s so much beauty, love and goodness in this world. This is how Tzu Chi paves a path with love and creates history in our world.
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