-3- Tzu Chi Foundation

These are Tzu Chi Foundation missions.

1. The mission of charity
In the past four decades, Tzu Chi has helped more than one million people, both in Taiwan and abroad, and has distributed millions of dollars. In addition to long-term assistance to the poor and needy, Tzu Chi also participates in disaster relief operations. Whenever calamity the first to arrive to provide help and support to victims and their families.

2. The mission of medicine
As she visited the poor, she realized that poverty was the result of sickness. In 1979, Master Cheng Yen decided to build a hospital. She chose to build it far out in remote Hualien, because she knew from her previous experiences that the eastern region of Taiwan lacked an adequate hospital. At that time, Master had nothing. Everybody told her that it was impossible. But she had the heart of the Great Vow Bodhisattva, who said, “If I don’t go to hell to save other souls, who will?”

Little by little, each and every contribution adds up to a large amount. Tzu Chi General Hospital was finally completed on August 17, 1986. It was the first hospital in Taiwan which did not require a deposit fee and that directly admitted all emergency patients. Whether patients had money or not, they could receive prompt, professional medical care.

Tzu Chi hospital is especially noted for its volunteer worker system. There are volunteers at the hospital day and night to care for the spiritual and psychological needs of the patients

Presently, there are a total of 926 beds and 38 departments. The outpatient clinic treats 1,400 to 1,800 patients a day. And other 5 Tzu Chi hospitals were established later in different area and different purposes.

3. The mission of education
In order to train caring, compassionate nurses for the hospital in Hualien, the Tzu Chi Junior College of Nursing was founded in 1989 One of the school’s characteristics is that it provides aboriginal girls in eastern Taiwan the opportunity to receive a full scholarship.

The Tzu Chi College fo Medicine opened in 1994 with departments in medicine, public health and medical technology, and graduate programs in nursing and medicine. It has a top-level faculty and up-to-date equipment to train skillful doctors. However, Master Cheng Yen does only want good, skillful doctors. She also wants conscientious doctors who will treat patients for their illnesses and at the same time respect and care for them as they would their own relatives

Tzu Chi University now includes colleges of medicine, humanities and social sciences, and biological sciences.

The Tzu Chi High School and Tzu Chi Experimental Elementary School : By providing a learning environment full of love and care, Tzu Chi hopes to instill love into the minds of students. this humanitarian-based education focuses not only on intellectual studies, but also on forming students into wholesome, compassionate people who care for society

4. The mission of humanitarianism
The Still Thoughts Hall is a symbol of the Tzu Chi spirit of contentment, gratitude, and understanding and accommodation. There are offices, libraries, galleries, lecture halls, research rooms and halls for preaching and meditation. There is also an international conference facility equipped for simultaneous translation in languages

In order to use media to promote the concepts of respecting life and affirming human nature, foundation inaugurated its cable television station on January 1, 1998. With the concepts of sincereity, intefrity, trust and honesty, the Tzu Chi Great Love TV channel shows its viewers how the Tzu Chi missions are carried out. Moreover, programs also let people understand how Master Cheng Yen leads her followers to actualize the Buddha’s spirit of showing “great mercy even to strangers and great compassion for all”

Tzu Chi aims to deeply inplant in people’s hearts the idea of “recognizing, cherishing and cultivating good fortune.” Master Cheng Yen has made timely calls for environmental campaigns to purify lives by “turning garbage into gold.” Tzu Chi members have enthusiastically responded to these campaigns by collecting and recycling reusable resources. In 1995 alone, a total of 18.3 million kilograms of paper were recovered, saving approximately 366,000 twenty-year-old trees from being felled

5. Tzu Chi Marrow Donor Registry
In accordance with the tenet of “respect life” and in order to save the lives of people battling blood diseases, the foundation established the Tzu Chi Taiwan Marrow Donor Registry in October 1993. Presently, the most effective cure for blood diseases, such as leukemia, lymphoma and aplastic anemia, is a marrow transplant. Many patients have waited a long time for marrow donors, but have died because a compatible donor could not be found. Master set up a bone marrow donor data bank in Taiwan and to call on the public to join the donation campaign. By June 2006, the data bank listed over 300,000 potential donors

6. International relief
The Buddha taught that religion transcends race, nationality and geographical distance. As more Taiwanese traveled abroad, they have taken the Tzu Chi spirit with them. As a result, branch offices have sprung up to promote the beneficial influence of the Tzu Chi Foundation all over the world.

Tzu Chi participates in disaster relief operations plentifully, for instance helping Typhoon victims in Bangladesh in 1991, helping victims of drought and war in Ethiopia in 1992, distributing US350,000 worth of food and relief supplies and TIMA (Tzu Chi International Medical Association) treated the patients in massive earthquakes in Salvador in 2001, etc.

Principles of relief work
The first is “timeliness” If people can quickly get the help they need the most, they’ll cherish it as if they’d found a treasure. So, quick action makes relief more effective.

The second principle is “directness.” Tzu Chi people must distribute relief supplies personally, without going through some other organization. This way, they can get to know the victims and directly show them that they care about them

The third principle is “priority.” There are too many people suffering in the world. All of them need help, but the strength and resources of the foundation are limited. Tzu Chi can only choose those who need help the most.

Another is the principle of “respect.” Wherever Tzu Chi relief workers go to help, they must respect the lifestyle, the customs and the cultural traditions of that place. Relief workers are not superior to the victims, but help them as friends

The principle of “conservation” means that all relief donations must be used properly.
Finally, there’s the principle of “gratitude.” Volunteers do their best to help the victims, but at the same time they should be grateful to them. They are grateful because the victims five the volunteers the chance to help others. If it were not for those recipients, the volunteers would not nave a chance to cultivate their personal blessings.

The final goal of Tzu Chi’s charity relief is to help recipients achieve self-sufficiency in the future Master Cheng Yen believes that human beings should be able to provide for themselves with dignity, rather than depend on handouts. Therefore, Tzu Chi members do follow-up checks on recipients and try their best to encourage them to stand on their own feet.
Why is the world today in such turmoil? Why do so many people pas their lives in pain and fear? The world suffers from a deficiendy of love. Master Cheng Yen teaches us to purify human hearts and to wash away the sickness of the world, so that all living creatures may receive more blessings. By putting the Buddha’s teachings into practice and following the Master’s “just do it” philosophy, we strive to bring the Pure Land into our world and deliver all creatures from suffering