20141108Creating Peace and Harmony in the Philippines
Time flies by very fast. There is much history on Nov 8 for Tzu Chi. Look at Tzu Chi Philippines, there are two historical events on this date. One occurred 20 years ago when Tzu Chi volunteers in the Philippines, such as Ms. Chua, who was then a donating member, came to the Abode for the first time to learn more about Tzu Chi and our work.
She and others who came were very touched. Love arose in their hearts, and they told me that they wanted to bring this seed of love from Taiwan to the Philippines. With vows comes strength to work for the greater good of mankind. After they returned to the Philippines, they kept their vow which they’d made in front of me. With this vow in their hearts, they went back to the Philippines, and started to introduce Tzu Chi to people and tell people about Tzu Chi.
They kept sharing Tzu Chi’s spirit and love with local Chinese and touched the hearts of likeminded people. As more people became inspired, Ms. Chua brought them to Taiwan to learn more about Tzu Chi. After returning from their visit, they’d inspire more and more people to join the good cause of helping the people in need, and they started charity work in the Philippines.
In the charity work, they saw how poverty and illness intertwine to plunge people into suffering. We have one elderly Tzu Chi volunteer whose son is a medical doctor, Dr. Qua. When she told her son that there are many people suffering in the Philippines and wanted him to gather some doctors to treat these people living in poor and remote areas, Dr. Qua, being a good son, listened to his mother. He mentioned this to Dr. Leh, an associate director of a local hospital. Dr. Leh thought it was a good cause for everyone to support.
As such, they started planning for medical outreaches to remote islands in the Philippines, where many poor people were living without access to medical care. At the very beginning, a group of doctors, such as Dr. Qua, Dr. Sy, and Dr. Say, spearheaded the medical outreaches. Sometimes, they borrowed schools already in rundown condition or conduct their free clinic and performed surgeries right on the spot. After they finished, they always reported to me by phone on the number of people they helped, the amount of teeth they extracted, and the number of cataract and thyroid surgeries they performed.
When I heard this, I was very worried because of the rudimentary conditions in which they performed the surgeries. However, I was very grateful that their surgeries benefited many people and it was very fortunate that the patients were all well post surgery. They have been very mindful in caring for the poor and ill and helped many people in the past 20 years. Their dedication has continued all these years. In the first year, they learned about Tzu Chi and started to recruit donating members.
In second year, they started conducting free clinics. So, it is been 19 years since they started medical outreaches, and it has been 20 years since they started Tzu Chi. Now, we have clinics at the Tzu Chi Great Love Campus in the Philippines to provide dental and eye treatments, even providing dentures. Compared to when we first started, the standard of medical services we provide now has significantly improved. There is so much in our history to talk about. For twenty years, Tzu Chi has been active in the Philippines.
A major historical event on this date last year was the Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) disaster. This typhoon made landfall in Leyte, Philippines and destroyed the cities of Tacloban, Ormoc, and others. Tzu Chi went there and quickly offered a cash aid livelihood program, in hopes of helping survivors to not remain idle or spend their days lost or in a daze. Residents with resources had moved away from the disaster area, but poor people there could only wait for help to arrive.
Therefore, we helped them with a cash aid livelihood program to revitalize their life. Since then, Tzu Chi volunteers have been there helping with relief and rebuilding. I am very grateful to them. When Tzu Chi’s call for love and donations went out to more than 40 countries and regions, volunteers in these countries and regions responded quickly with fundraising drives and others to help the Philippines. Now we can see the survivors recovering.
Right now, prefabricated houses in Ormoc City, Palo Municipality, and other places are being completed one after another by the local builders. A group of women builders are also participating. Their husbands cannot work as builders, but they want to build their own house. Participating in the cash aid livelihood program gives them earnings while they get to build their own house. See how they climb up and down the ladders.
They are doing this to support their family, children, and grandchildren because some builders are grandmothers already. This is made possible by their power of love. Love and care from Tzu Chi volunteers enable them to put their will to help into action. This is truly very moving. For the poor children, Tzu Chi distributed Jing Si Aphorisms Children’s books to give them extra reading material. These books are in English and Chinese. The children were very happy to receive the books.
In summary, Tzu Chi’s four mission of charity, medicine, education, and culture are solidly implemented in the Philippines. Tzu Chi volunteers are very mindful in implementing Tzu Chi’s spirit there. Volunteers in the Philippines are always compassionate toward the people in need and give of themselves with unconditional love. On this day 20 years ago, Tzu Chi in the Philippines officially established its regional office. Since then, their journey of helping people have touched many families in hardship and improved their lives. All these are part of Tzu Chi Philippines’ history.
There are many kindhearted people who are living bodhisattvas serving the people in need in our society, such as doctors and nurses. There are many bodhisattvas doing this, making us feel that our world is very wonderful. However, the world contains a mixture of good and bad. We see people doing good deeds. When we see people doing bad deeds, we have to discipline ourselves and refrain from doing it.
In the world filled with all kinds of disasters due to people’s collective negative karma, we have to be even more sincerely pious, bring out the innate goodness in us, and work with one another to do good deeds to help the people in need. we see that the disaster areas hit by Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) are slowly recovering and cities are growing in prosperity.
Though they have yet to fully recover their pre-disaster prosperity, the cities now have many people who have the heart of a bodhisattva, full of love and peace. we hope people of such pure hearts can create a peaceful and harmonious society. I am very happy for them and give them my well-wishes.
首頁 