20140108愛灑人間植善根 Spreading Love and Kindness Around the World
Everything is accomplished through time. In the third lunar month of this year, Tzu Chi will enter its 49th year. Starting with scarce resources, Tzu Chi has grown and developed into a large organization over the years. Nearly 48 years ago, Tzu Chi started with 30 housewives each saving 50 NT cents every day. Up till now, Tzu Chi’s footprints of love can be traced in over 80 countries worldwide.
See how Taiwan’s kindness and love have been spread across the globe to reach people regardless of nationality, religion and race. In the video earlier, we see the Syrian refugees taking shelter in Jordon. They’ve truly suffered unspeakably. Since the conflict started in Syria in 2011, Tzu Chi volunteers in Jordon have been caring for the refugees continually. The first Tzu Chi volunteers in Jordan were from Taiwan.
Take Ji Hui for example. He represents Tzu Chi in Jordan and has inspired many locals to volunteer with Tzu Chi. So, we now have a few Jordanian volunteers there. Although they are Jordanian, when they introduce Tzu Chi to others, they make sure to tell people that the love they receive is from Taiwan.
For instance, last year we shipped the rice provided by Taiwan’s Council of Agriculture to several countries, including Jordan. At our aid distributions in Jordan, our volunteers would share with the locals that the blankets we gave them were made in Taiwan from recycled PET bottles, the rice they received was from Taiwan, and the second-hand clothes we gave out were collected and sorted by volunteers in Taiwan.
With the love from Taiwan, the refugees in Jordan have been able to receive rice, blankets, clothes, etc. as well as care and emotional support that our
volunteers provided to them in person one by one. Besides our volunteers in Jordan, we also saw Dr. Chuchaisangrat, director of Ratchaburi public health office in Thailand.
When he came to Taiwan and volunteered at our hospital in Hualien, he didn’t reveal his identity to us at first and humbly served with our hospital volunteers for many days. He would do whatever tasks that were assigned to him. At our hospital, he saw how our doctors interact with their patients and he was very grateful for this.
After his 7-day hospital volunteer shift ended, he continued to stay at the Abode with other volunteers from Thailand. Every day, he’d sit in on my meeting with visitors and listen quietly at the side. A few daysa later, he received a phone call. After taking the call, he told me that he had to return to Thailand ahead of schedule.
That was when our volunteer who served as his interpreter revealed to us his identity as a public health director in Thailand I asked our volunteer why he didn’t tell us, he said that the director had insisted not to reveal his identity so that he could see how our hospital truly operated. And, while he was in Taiwan some refugees in a camp near the border of Thailand were affected by cholera.
That’s why he had received the phone call from Thailand asking him to go back to handle the situation. Only after his identity was revealed did he share with me the medical conditions in Thailand. He was very touched by what he’d seen in Tzu Chi.
Earlier, we saw the portraits of the king and queen of Thailand. When Dr.
Chuchaisangrat was in Taiwan one time, I gave him a hong-bao and told him that the rice grains glued in the hong-bao were grown by staff at our hospital in Dalin. I also told him that every year, the superintendent there will lead our doctors and hospital staff to plant rice seedlings.
After the rice is harvested, they’ll pick rice grains to be used in our hong-baos to share with Tzu Chi volunteers worldwide. He found it very meaningful, so he told me that after going back, he’d encourage hospital superintendents and doctors to grow rice so that they could experience farmers’ hard work. I also shared with him that if a hospital supt. could take lead and encourage everyone to take part in activities like this, everyone in the hospital would become even closer to one another.
After he went back, he really did it. He found a rice field and invited local doctors to grow rice together. Before the rice was planted, they also held a blessing ceremony to show how much they valued the event. In fact, before the rice was planted, they went to a women’s prison to present the rice to the inmates there and shared Tzu Chi with them.
To help the inmates sow blessings, they then asked the inmates to donate the rice back to them and told them that they’d plant the rice on their behalf. A few months later, after the rice was harvested, they brought the rice to the women’s prison to show them that they’d a good harvest.
Then, Dr. Chuchaisangrat and many doctors who are members of our medical assn. in Thailand personally cooked the rice to share with the inmates. As there was a plentiful harvest, they told the inmates that Tzu Chi would share the rest of the rice with those in need on their behalf.
This is a very beautiful story. See how Dr. Chuchiasangrat came to Taiwan to learn from Taiwan’s example of love and kindness and then brought it back to Thailand.
So, Taiwan’s love and kindness have been spread to people around the world regardless of nationality, race and religion. All this is accomplished through time. When carrying out Tzu Chi’s work, Tzu Chi volunteers in other parts the world use the resources they acquire locally and abide by the spirit of love they’ve learned from Tzu Chi in Taiwan. For that., I’m truly very grateful.
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