China Airlines flight CI-611 from Taiwan to Hong Kong unexpectedly disintegrated in the air and crashed into the sea off Penghu Island on May 25, killing 225 people on board. While the cause for the crash was still under investigation and the wreckage and some of the bodies were being retrieved, Tzu Chi senior commissioners immediately took action to help.

They consoled victims' families, provided food, conducted memorial services, etc. The Tzu Chi members remarked that they would accompany the members of the bereaved families no matter how long it would take.

The plane crash made the usually quiet island county of Penghu become suddenly busy. The thirty-two Tzu Chi members on the island were all mobilized. At about five p.m. on the day of the tragedy, the local volunteers set up a rescue center and three service spots: Chihkan Pier, where people take boats to the crash site, Air Force Stadium, where a temporary morgue was set up, and Makung Airport.

On the following two days, over two hundred Tzu Chi volunteers from Taiwan arrived in Penghu to provide assistance to relatives and rescuers. They helped identify bodies, prayed for the deceased, set up the morgue, provided hot meals for the victims' relatives and rescuers, etc. In Taiwan, more than three hundred volunteers were mobilized at the Chiang Kai-shek International Airport, since victims' relatives would come from Hong Kong and mainland China, and at Taipei Sungshan Airport, since some relatives would bring bodies back to Taipei from Penghu.

Tzu Chi volunteers also went to central and southern Taiwan to pay home visits to elderly parents of victims who could not go to the crash site.

Achievements of mentally-challenged children

Sparrow School, a vocational school for mentally-challenged children, was established in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1993. The children, between fifteen and nineteen years old, have certain learning impediments and cannot attend regular schools. Local Tzu Chi members have been helping them regularly.

On April 30, several Tzu Chi members visited the school. Jackie Gallagher, the school principal, proudly showed the visitors products made by students.

The classes given at the school include car repair, wood crafts, home appliance repair, hairdressing, computer, sewing and cooking. They have all the necessary equipment, and the students spend half their time taking regular classes and the other half learning special skills.

When Tzu Chi members walked into a sewing class, the students were learning how to use the sewing machines. The Tzu Chi members promised to provide cloth and maintain the sewing machines so that the students could have a better learning environment.

In a car repair class, students were working on two vehicles that Tzu Chi donated last year. Ms. Gallagher told the visitors that the students had basically memorized the structures of these two cars and were learning to fix them.

In a cooking class, the visitors could smell the aroma of cakes that wafted out from the oven. They were treated to tea with the cakes.

Tornado in the US

On April 28, a tornado ravaged Charles County in southern Maryland with severe rain and caused grave calamities. On the following day, Tzu Chi members from Washington, D.C., went to evaluate the situation in LaPlata, the hardest-hit area, to see if they could offer any help.

LaPlata is about an hour and a half's drive from Washington, D.C. The twister had damaged the roads to the city. Many charity groups were pouring in to provide assistance, and that also slowed down traffic. So the volunteers decided to walk into the disaster areas to help. Many buildings, including supermarkets, apartments and houses, were ruined. Garbage and broken glass was strewn everywhere.

The Tzu Chi members discovered that most victims were low-income families, so the tornado had left most of them penniless because they had to find ways to rebuild their homes and also to find new jobs, since their work places had also been destroyed by the twister. The volunteers went to schools, hotels and temporary shelters to hand out emergency cash to survivors, hoping they could buy some urgently needed items.

Another affiliation with La Union

Tzu Chi Philippine medical team held another free clinic in La Union on April 10. With support from a local Chinese temple, a local Chinese merchant club and several other local charity groups, 64 medical professionals and 95 volunteers attended to 4,800 patients.

Margarita Ebreo, 41, brought her twin daughters to the clinic. The two-year-old twin girls looked like six-month-old babies due to malnutrition. The family was too poor to provide needed food. The mother was also diagnosed with tuberculosis. The doctor gave Margarita enough medicine for four months and fortified milk powder for three months to her twin girls. A local doctor was asked to keep an eye on the family.

A six-year-old boy suffered from gum inflammation after a fish bone stabbed the gum between two teeth. After he pulled out the bone, the gum became somehow infected. The doctor arranged treatment for the boy at a nearby hospital. Tzu Chi paid all the fees involved.

Afghanistan relief continues

Tzu Chi's assistance to Afghanistan is still being carried out. For several days after April 23, relief goods for Afghanistan were collected at the Tzu Chi Texas branch office. The goods, packed in three containers, were sent out on May 6 and were scheduled to arrive in Afghanistan at the end of June.

Hsiung Shih-ming, head of the Tzu Chi Texas branch, said that the relief goods represented the love of people from every sector in the United States. What was quite special were two solar ovens sent by Knightsbridge International. The two ovens would be given to a girls’ school, because there was no electricity or fuel to cook meals.

The goods collected by the Texas branch included medical equipment, jackets, blankets, sleeping bags, socks, etc.

Relief in Argentina

Since August last year, people of Argentina have been suffering greatly due to the global economic stagnation. People who live in remote areas suffer the most.

The mayor of Ingeniero Jacobacci, Rio Negro Province, indicated that the city had ten thousand residents who all depended on livestock for a living. The winter snow had killed a lot of the ranchers' animals and the falling price of wool also hurt them badly.

In the past, residents gathered four months of food and firewood before the winter set in. But when local Tzu Chi members went to visit them last year, it was discovered that the residents were already short of food because of cutbacks in government aid. The firewood had also completely run out. Most residents had to use clothes as blankets during the night. The Tzu Chi members promptly sent over five huge boxes of clothes to residents.

On April 23 of this year, volunteers packed milk powder, flour, sugar, salt, cooking oil, noodle, ketchup, rice, tea and other daily goods into bags. Each poor family received a different amount of goods based on the number of people in the family. A total of seventy families received relief supplies.

The Tzu Chi Argentina office sent out volunteers on April 3 to deliver school supplies and books to the San Martin No. 28 School in Buenos Aires. The school is located in the city's shantytown, and many students are too poor to buy supplies or clothes.

Tzu Chi members go there once a year to give scholarships to the top two students of each class and to students who never miss a class. When they went there on March 8 to present the scholarships, the school principal asked if Tzu Chi could also present school supplies and textbooks to the poorest students at the school. Students in fourth grade and above also received dictionaries. The students were all delighted to receive these items.