Date: July 15th, 2010 (Thursday)
Lecturer: Master Zheng-Yan
Subject: Tzu Chi's Medical Mission: Safeguarding Lives with Love
守護健康為磐石
(A screen shows the earliest charity work for the poor)
When Tzu Chi was first founded, we began with charity work by caring for the poor in Hualien.
As we all know, poverty and illness often goes hand in hand.
Back then, most of the people we cared for were the elderly who lived alone, those who suffered illnesses or the physically impaired.
Even now, it is still hard to describe how I felt for them back then.
That is why we began holding free clinics for the poor five years after we had founded Tzu Chi.
I still remember that during our commissioners’ meeting one day, one commissioner brought her daughter with her to attend the meeting.
During our meeting, this primary school child suddenly shouted out and said:
“Mommy, you are all helping people in need,
I have a classmate whose family is very poor and has no food to eat.”
“His father is ill but is too poor and sick to go see a doctor”
That girl was only in third grade, but what she said awoke me.
So, we began asking her about this case and where her classmate lived.
When we went to ask her school teacher, the teacher told us that:
“This student’s father was a laborer who was accidentally injured when unloading a truck.
Having injured his spine in the accident, he was left paralyzed from the neck down.”
When we went to his home, I still remember vividly that the house was very dark inside, and the father was lying on a door plank that was covered with straw.
Seeing him, we were taken aback as there was a very large and fat rat gnawing on a rotten part of his leg.
When we approached the man, that rat wasn’t even scared away.
Thinking back to that time, I still remember such an image very vividly.
We truly came to see what suffering life is.
It was then that we decided to set up a free clinic.
The free clinic office was provided by the mother of my monastic disciple, De Ci.
They lived on the second floor of their house and let us use the shop front downstairs as the free clinic office.
(A screen shows a free clinic office in Ren Ai street in Hualien)
I am very grateful for the help of two nurses, who were also our commissioners as well as Dr. Huang, who was a surgeon, Dr. Zhang, who was a pediatrician, his father, who was in internal medicine, Dr. Zhu, who was an OB/GYN and Dr. Zhou, who was also in internal medicine.
These doctors were from the provincial hospital in Hualien and they took turns serving at the free clinic, which was open twice a week.
Later, we felt that having a free clinic was not enough, so we thought of going to remote areas to provide medical services.
So, we began going to the countryside to hold free clinics on weekends.
As the places we went to were very remote, travelling there was very difficult.
So, to go Yuli or Taidong for free clinics, we had to pass through a railway bridge.
Though the bridge was for trains, buses and cars could use it, too.
Even people would walk on it as well.
So, driving on this railway bridge was quite scary as the bridge was very narrow.
If we weren’t careful, we could drive off the edge or get the wheels stuck between the wooden sleepers.
Moreover, we never knew when the train would come.
So, every time we went to Yuli and Taidong, we had to drive over this railway bridge, and each time we went to hold free clinics, there would be many patients.
If we didn’t go to hold free clinics there, when people feel ill, minor conditions would often turn into serious problems because treatment was delayed.
That is why going to remote areas to hold free clinics is very important, and also why I felt it necessary to solve the shortage of medical resources in eastern Taiwan and took on the challenge of building a hospital in Hualien.
After we built our hospital in Hualien, we later operated two hospitals in Guanshan & Yuli.
As Guanshan and Yuli are both rural areas in eastern Taiwan, finding medical personnel willing to go and work in those areas is truly very difficult.
(A screen shows a Guanshan Tzu Chi Hospital)
Only those who aspire to help people and have a kind and loving heart would be willing to go there to work.
(A screen shows a Yuli Tzu Chi Hospital)
Although these two hospitals are small, they offer a high standard of medical care.
I’m even more grateful that staffs from these two hospitals even take it upon themselves to go to the remote mountain areas to care for the villages there.
So, apart from patients coming to our hospitals, staff from these two hospitals also regularly go to remote areas to hold free clinics, make house calls, and even help to clean up their houses and bring them aid.
This is the kind of love and care that we need to bring to people in remote areas and only those with a loving heart will be willing to take on such responsibilities.
Today is the accreditation evaluation for our hospital in Yuli.
A few days ago, Tzu Chi volunteers went there to help clean up the hospital.
(A screen shows a Taichung Tzu Chi Hospital in July 11 2010)
Apart from Yuli, our hospital in Taichung will also be undergoing an evaluation today, will also be undergoing an evaluation today.
So, on July 11, more than 500 Tzu Chi volunteers from Taichung, Zhanghu, etc. gathered at our hospital in Taichung to do a thorough clean up.
They wiped and cleaned almost every corner of the hospital.
Indeed, we must care for our hospitals like our own homes as medical staff work very hard to safeguard the health of people with love.
And now that the hospitals are having an accreditation evaluation, it is a big thing for our family, so we must take part by doing whatever we can to help.
The anesthesiology department’s leader, Ke Siang-Jhu said:
“Although the hospital is regularly cleaned, many of the nooks and crannies may not have been cleaned as thoroughly.
“So, this time we’ve called on our volunteers to help”
A superintendent of Taichung’s Tzu Chi’s hospital, Chen Zih Yong said:
“The volunteers help us a lot already, but for the accreditation evaluation, they’ve seized the weekend to come and give the hospital a thorough cleanup.”
“Thanks you for your hard work and help”
Volunteers said:
“Thank you.”
“Thank you for giving us the chance to serve.”
Let us give them our greatest blessings.
In fact, our hospital staff do their work as if they were undergoing an accreditation every day.
They give of themselves selflessly to care for patients and safeguard people’s health with Great Love.
May our Yuli and Taichung Tzu Chi Hospitals pass the accreditation smoothly with the best result.
(A screen shows a Taichung Tzu Chi Hospital)
Im’s very grateful to our hospital staff.
I know they’ve been working very hard and giving of themselves very mindfully every day.
There is indeed too much to share with you all.
(A screen shows Taichung Tzu Chi Hospital’s staff going to remote areas to provide medical services)
Looking back, we founded Tzu Chi and started our charity work in 1966.
In 1972, we began to hold free clinics twice a week in downtown Hualien, and now, we have medical volunteers serving people in need of medical attention in over 30 countries around the world.
That was how we started our work with very scarce resources and very few volunteers.
Over the last few decades, the number of people serving as our volunteers has increased greatly.
Indeed as long as we are willing to do the work, there’s no need to worry about having scarce resources as everything starts with the first step we take.
(Source: Da Ai TV 人間菩提)
首頁 
