20141019《人間菩提》以善為寶‧名歸臺灣 To Deliver Love and Kindness from Taiwan
Every time I see news of forest fires, my heart aches. What I see is the land and forests, which are the Earth’s lungs, being scorched and damaged, releasing more smoke and pollution into the air. This creates double injuries to Nature.
We also see the very worrying news of Ebola outbreak. As this Ebola epidemic continues to spread, three West African countries are facing shortage of food and starvation. With enforced isolation in place in these nations, markets are disrupted which has led to food scarcity, causing a major food crisis in recent days. People are faced with rising food prices while supplies are falling short. Amidst this Ebola epidemic, people are now suffering from starvation. Their disastrous situation continues to worsen. What suffering they endure.
There are a lot of people in hardship. According to the UN World Food Programme, it is estimated that over 800 million people worldwide still lack access to food and go to sleep hungry that means one in eight people is undernourished.
However, data shows that the food currently wasted in some affluent countries every year can feed 200 million people for a whole year.
When I think about it, what a disparity this is. Some people suffer immense hardship. They work hard, but still go hungry. Some people are already sick such as patients suffering from Ebola and now they have to live with food shortage as enforced quarantine has restricted movement in and out of the affected areas. What to do to help them survive? Look at how they struggle and suffer. This is why I speak of suffering every day.
But, we see that in recent years, Taiwan has had a surplus of rice, so each year Taiwan’s Council of Agriculture has provided rice for NGO to deliver to impoverished countries. This year, 7,300 metric tons of the rice were allotted to Tzu Chi for Tzu Chi to deliver to people in nine countries. On every sack of rice, we can see the words, “Love from Taiwan.” These are all printed on the rice sacks. In many countries, locals also join Tzu Chi volunteers in distributing the rice. We can see how the spirit of love is spreading. The locals all say thank you to Taiwan and Tzu Chi.
“The rice and everything we have here devices from Taiwan. They bring the rice from their heart with love. That’s why we said everyone have to give another not only to receive from there.”
Thank you Taiwan! Thank you Tzu Chi! Amituofo.
Thank you, Tzu Chi.
Thank you Taiwan. Tzu Chi YEA. Thank you Tzu Chi.
It’s commonly said that Taiwan’s greatest treasure is the love and kindness of its people. I hope that such a good name and image for Taiwan shows that many people’s hearts have become pure and full of Great Love as Tzu Chi has brought love to countries worldwide. Since 1991, when Tzu Chi delivered aid outside of Taiwan for the first time, Tzu Chi has aided 87 countries and regions. That means 87 countries and regions in the world have already received help from Taiwan.
We also saw news from Europe. In May, Bosnia experienced serious flooding. The flood affected over a million people making their lives difficult. So, Tzu Chi volunteers in Europe joined together for a disaster relief mission. They quickly gathered their resources and went to Bosnia to survey the disaster.
When the president of Bosnia leaned of this, he was very grateful and met with Tzu Chi volunteers at the presidential office. The president expressed his gratitude to the volunteers for planning to provide direct aid to survivors and caring for survivors when visiting them. He said that he was very touched by the way volunteers hugged the survivors and eased their suffering.
Tzu Chi volunteers made a commitment with him to return before winter to distribute aid. So, this time they went back to Bosnia. Besides Tzu Chi volunteers from European countries, there are Malaysian volunteers who happen to be in Europe at this time. They’ve also joined this relief distribution. Da Ai TV staff from Taiwan have also gone along.
Therefore, we have a team of more than 50 Tzu Chi volunteers from eight countries going to Bosnia this time. They traveled across three countries and passed border controls to reach Bosnia making a trip of over 800 km. They set out from Germany and passed through Austria, Slovenia, and Croatia before reaching Bosnia. They drove through these countries on a bus for 12 hours to get to the destination. Such is the love of Tzu Chi volunteers. They go everywhere to give their love to better people’s lives.
In a word, they bring care and aid to places where people are suffering acutely. It is no wonder that every day, we talk about suffering for truly, with Nature’s balance disrupted, there are many disasters, not to mention that there are impoverished places where life is extremely hard. Why did people have to be born there?
People who come to their aid but for others, they cannot because many obstacles stand in the way of delivering aid to them such as the countries with Ebola outbreak. No matter how we wish to aid them, we have no means. There is no chance for us to go in and reach them.
Currently, we still have not yet found a way, and we can only witness their suffering with deep heartache. We have yet to find a way to help. What we all need to do now is to be vigilant and prayerful. Firstly, in our everyday living we need to maintain proper sanitation to prevent Dengue Fever and other diseases. We need to mindfully take preventative measures.
Next, we really need to pray most sincerely. I hope Tzu Chi volunteers worldwide will mobilize everyone in the local community to pray sincerely for our world. May we be so sincere in our prayer that our prayer reaches and is heard by all Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and guardian spirits. This is something all of us can do and it is the least we can do.
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