Reconstruction of all the schools that collapsed in the earthquake was a burden far too great for the government. However, education is something that cannot wait. As Master Cheng Yen said, "The hope of a country lies in talent, and the hope of talent lies in education; the hope of parents lies in their children, and the hope of children lies in education." If the reconstruction of the disaster-ravaged schools were not completed as soon as possible, students would be unable to receive a normal education and many families would be affected. After reviewing the situation, the Master decided that Tzu Chi would share the burden of rebuilding schools in the disaster areas.

The Ministry of Education gave Tzu Chi a list of more than four hundred quake-damaged schools to choose from. Based on the extent of damage to these campuses, their reconstruction costs and locations, Tzu Chi picked out thirty-four schools. Shortly afterwards, the Ministry of Education asked the foundation to undertake the reconstruction of several other schools. Today, about fifty schools are included in Tzu Chi's Project Hope. After two years of hard work, Tzu Chi has finished rebuilding over thirty of them. The harvest season is getting closer.

The smallest school

On March 24, 2001, the residents of Yihe Village all got up early to welcome a big event. On that day, the students of Chicheng Elementary School would finally move into the new campus built by Tzu Chi. As little children walked into their new school building, excitement and jubilation were written on their faces. Like long-caged birds released into the wild, the kids explored every corner of their new school, crying "Wow!" and "Ha!" Their loud laughter could have brought down the ceiling in each classroom. It had been a while since Chicheng Elementary School had seen such joy. "They finally have a school they can call their own," first-grade teacher Hung Hsiu-lan said heartily. "See how happy they are."

No one was more delighted than Principal Yang Chang-wan. The anguish of finding a willing reconstruction sponsor and the heartache of seeing her students attending classes in oven-like prefabricated temporary classrooms all made her present sense of relief sweeter than ever. "From rubble to steel skeletons and from basic structure to a piece of art, each step of the reconstruction is deeply etched in my mind," Yang said with gratitude.

For over a year, students could not play like other children of their age did. Confined to prefabricated, container-like classrooms, their activities were severely restricted. They could only stay indoors to read or play chess during breaks. But now with this spacious, beautifully designed school, they can choose to play on the playground or read inside the classrooms. Each room has a study corner with bookshelves situated on a slightly elevated wood floor where students can read, chat, or nap in their own space.

Creating hope

Several days before the official grand opening of the school, the campus was filled with Tzu Chi people dressed in their uniforms of blue shirt and white trousers, busily laying grass turf and chain bricks for the school under the scorching sun. Villagers brought in pail after pail of cold tea for the volunteers, and they even invited volunteers who were soaked to their skin with sweat to take showers at their homes.

Alongside the Tzu Chi people, students and their parents contributed their efforts together. The ground needed to be leveled before it was paved with chain bricks. Second-grader Hsu Kai-cheng and his grandmother squatted and patiently picked up debris bit by bit, put it into a bucket, and piled it up in a corner to be taken away. Sweat trickled down their faces, drop by drop. When the bucket was full, the two stretched their legs, stood up and heaved the bucket to the corner. On that placid spring day, young and old together were weaving a brand new future for the school.

If parents could not contribute their time, they donated money instead. In Hung Hsiu-lan's class, student Liao Yi-ting's parents had been making monthly contributions to Tzu Chi's Project Hope. Aware of their tight financial condition, Miss Hung advised them to be conservative in their donations. But they told her that they should not be indifferent or stingy when Tzu Chi people around the world were soliciting donations to help them. They would just spend less on their snacks and clothing. Their words touched a chord in the teacher's heart.

Tzu Chi people in Nantou held a fundraising bazaar in May. Parents who relied on farming to earn a living put down their hoes and put on aprons. For the first time in their lives, they bravely tried to call customers to their food stalls in the bazaar. Cheng Shih-chuan, the chairman of the Parent Teacher Association, said, "We are very grateful to Tzu Chi, because Tzu Chi did not see rebuilding a small school like Chicheng as not being worth the effort."

Over four decades ago, the villagers had first cooperated to build the small school. They wanted their children to have a proper education, and so they appealed to the county government to build a school. Although poor, they donated land and money and through their relentless efforts a school, though crude, was erected.

Sadly, as Taiwan developed from an agricultural to an industrial society, young people in the countryside all moved to the big cities to look for better-paid jobs. The number of students in Chicheng has been decreasing. Now the whole school has only fifty students.

When the earthquake destroyed it, the villagers all assumed that no charity organizations would bother adopting this tiny school, with only the kitchen and the cafeteria standing intact. But to their surprise Tzu Chi undertook its reconstruction. Chairman Cheng said, "Tzu Chi rekindled our hope and blanketed us in care. How can we parents and teachers not do our best and work together as well?" He continued: "Children are our future hope. With ten properly educated students, society will have ten seeds of hope." Parents used to pay very little attention to school affairs, because just providing food for their families kept them busy. But now parents once again see the importance of education, just as their forefathers did for them many decades ago. The sense of responsibility is growing strong.

A work of art

The beautiful school, designed by the award-winning architect Huang Chien-hsing, is everyone's pride. Since the village is located in a traditional farming region, Huang adopted the traditional Taiwanese architecture of a U-shaped three-section compound. With Pingling Creek flowing by only ten meters away and lavish green hills standing on all sides, the campus is endowed with beautiful natural surroundings. To harmonize the school with the undulating hills nearby, the roofs of the two-floor building are at different heights. Teachers and students can see folds of green in all the classrooms. The two-story-high circular outdoor theater is an excellent spot for painting landscapes, performing or simply appreciating the beauty of the scenery. The hollowed-out designs of gourds on the wall and plants along the railings bring in a touch of playfulness to buildings of placid gray. Huang, like all Project Hope architects, personally talked to the school principal, teachers and students in order to take the local environment and culture into his design. The villagers had long used the school as their community center, so Huang made the whole right wing of the school a multifunctional room that could be used as a music room or a conference room for students and villagers.

Like all Project Hope schools, Chicheng is environmentally friendly. To treasure its water resources, all used water is recycled and used again. To respect nature, buildings were designed to avoid disturbing old trees, instead of moving the trees to accommodate the construction. Since air-conditioners contribute to the global greenhouse effect, natural ventilation and lighting of the buildings were emphasized. Another common point of Project Hope schools is that they are all built with steel-reinforced concrete, which is normally only used for high-rises. The Chicheng school, only two stories high, does not need such expensive building materials. But aiming to make all schools stand for a thousand years and be available as shelters in times of disaster, Tzu Chi insisted on using steel-reinforced concrete.

Marching forward

A building talks. Its words must be felt with the heart. To Chairman Cheng, the three-section compound generates a sense of homey warmth. Such warmth was created by all the hard-working construction workers and countless loving Tzu Chi volunteers and local villagers. When the students were studying in temporary classrooms, Tzu Chi volunteers carefully designed and held many activities for them. Around Christmas time, Teng, a Tzu Chi volunteer, bought little plastic Christmas trees to bring the cozy atmosphere of the festival to each classroom, hoping to light up hope in each little child. When parents worried that their children were not receiving an adequate education, members of the Tzu Chi Collegiate Youth Association held study camps for the students, and the Tzu Chi TV station invited famous cultural workers and television stars to talk to students at different schools. Huang Chun-ming, a famous local writer whose novels have been made into many movies, brought his performing group to Chicheng to cheer up the students. He even brainstormed with them and together they composed a new school anthem.

The teachers, all eleven of them, must have felt the warmth of the volunteers as well. Cheng En-hsiang said enthusiastically, "Now all I think about is how to create a good learning environment that my students will love." Hung Hsiu-lan and other teachers often remind their students that the school was built with love, so they must live with gratitude and learn to give love. One student privately told Hung that he wished all homeless people in the world would have a house to live in. Apparently, the seed of love has grown in his heart.

Chicheng and the other schools that Tzu Chi is rebuilding have enabled many students and their parents to emerge from the gloom of calamity. Eventually, these students will find out that the treasure given them by any number of kind people is nothing more than precious love and unselfish giving.