At the beginning of March, a group of Tzu Chi volunteers came from Indonesia to Taiwan to seek help from Master Cheng Yen. After hearing their report about the damage done by the floods, the Master immediately called on the help of Tzu Chi people to clean and disinfect the disaster areas and carry out free clinics to avoid the spreading of contagious diseases.

By the end of March, Tzu Chi volunteers had finished cleaning and decontaminating the major flooded areas. One thousand people joined hands to clean the Kali Angke riverbank. Nearly a hundred tons of rubbish were cleaned out within one day. A second large-scale cleanup was held on April 21.

The foundation decided to build houses for a thousand families who were living in illegally built houses along the Kali Angke riverbank. Liu Su-mei, who is in charge of the Tzu Chi Indonesia branch, said that the Indonesian government had provided three pieces of land for the construction of the Tzu Chi houses. After local people move into their new homes, heavy machinery will be used to dredge silt from the Kali Angke River. When the river is as wide and deep as before, the flooding problem will be alleviated.

Tzu Chi had held six free clinics in Indonesia by the end of April 21. At the sixth free clinic in Tangerang, Tzu Chi International Medical Association (TIMA) members from five countries and volunteers from six different nations served over twelve thousand people in three days. The number of patients treated at this free clinic was the highest in Tzu Chi's history. What follows is an on-site report on the free clinic.

The free clinic

At the waiting area outside the little operation room, patients afflicted with harelips and tumors sat in a row. Six-year-old Maskana nestled up to his mother. Because of his harelip, he had always been mocked by the children in his neighborhood. His big, bright eyes revealed how much he expected of the plastic surgery to be performed on him. He will begin to attend elementary school this coming June.

Two days before the free clinic, Maskana's father, Darmo, left his job in order to bring Maskana to Tangerang for the Tzu Chi free clinic. They traveled for six hours from a little village in southern Jakarta to Tangerang and spent one night in the country in the hopes that Maskana would be able to have an operation on the first day of the free clinic.

A harelip operation in Indonesia usually requires approximately five million rupiahs [US$538]. With Darmo's monthly earnings of about 300,000 rupiahs [US$32], he had only been able to scrape together one million rupiahs [US$108] in eight years. No wonder his child had been left untreated for so long. When he heard that Tzu Chi was about to conduct a free clinic in Tangerang, he made up his mind to take his boy there no matter how far it was.

The miracle that happened to Su Warsih

Poverty is like a huge net that traps people living in remote villages in Indonesia. Most of these poor people have barely enough to eat, let alone pay for medical services.

In order to help these poverty-stricken people, Tzu Chi held a large-scale free clinic in the QADR Hospital in Tangerang from April 19 to 21. Other than local doctors, more than two hundred TIMA members and nearly five hundred volunteers from Taiwan, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and Australia also pitched in to help. This was the largest international free clinic that TIMA had ever held.

The first day of the free clinic fell on a Friday. By eight o'clock that morning, the QADR Hospital was already full of patients waiting to be treated.

A softball-sized tumor bulged from forty-year-old Darsini's neck. Even the simple action of swallowing was difficult for her. "The tumor has been with me for ten years," she said. "What I earned was barely enough to pay for my children's school fees, and I simply couldn't afford to see a doctor."

The majority of the patients waiting under an awning for treatment were females. Half of them suffered from thyroid tumors. Among them was forty-year-old Su Warsih. Three years ago, she had a 13.5-kilogram [30-pound] tumor excised from her back at another Tzu Chi free clinic held in Serang.

She lived in Paginkan in West Java. When the tumor that had bothered her for over thirty years was removed three years ago, the tremendous change in her appearance surprised all the people in the village. After her successful surgery, Su Warsih told her fellow villagers about the free clinics conducted by the foundation. They used to hold strong anti-Chinese sentiments, but because of her they got to know Tzu Chi and began to trust the Chinese people.

This time, in addition to bringing along sixty-six neighbors with her, she also needed to see the doctor herself because her poor constitution and unbalanced diet had caused another tumor to grow in the left lobe of her thyroid gland.

"I have changed from a beggar that people looked down on to a person who is loved by others and loves to help others. Tzu Chi gave me a new life." Su Warsih's joy was immediately spread to every Tzu Chi volunteer at the free clinic site.

Smiling eyes behind the swabs

At the ophthalmology waiting area, a lot of old people waited to have cataracts removed. A grinning, toothless grandma attracted our attention. "Grandma, what is your name? How old are you?" a volunteer translator asked for us.

"My name is Wu Yueh-niang, and I am sixty-six years old," the old woman surprised us by replying in Fukienese, a dialect familiar to us. [The dialect is used in Taiwan as well as the southern part of Fujian Province, China.] It turned out that her parents were Chinese and that they had moved from Fujian Province to Indonesia in their early years. After they passed away, she didn't have much chance to speak Fukienese. It was especially heart-warming to her when she found out that some of the volunteers at the free clinic site also spoke the language.

Yueh-niang told us that she had been living with her two mentally challenged sons ever since her husband had passed away seven years ago. Although she was old, she still needed to work to support her sons. Uneducated, she could only sew clothes to make money. About one and a half years ago, however, her eyes had started to fog up with cataracts, which had made it hard for her to do her eye-straining sewing work.

"When I think of how I am going to regain my eyesight after the operation, I am so happy that I nearly forget my nervousness!" Since this was her first surgery ever, it was natural for her to feel nervous. But the smiles on the faces of the patients walking out of the surgery room greatly allayed her fear.

The surgery room was filled with the strong smell of antiseptic. More than ten anesthetized patients lay on operating tables while doctors skillfully and gently removed tumors from their bodies. Operating non-stop on one patient after another, the doctors were so busy that they did not even have time to sit down and have some water.

In the recovery room outside the operation room, nurses and volunteers took care of patients who had just received operations. A male patient who weighed more than ninety kilograms [198 pounds] had just been pushed out of the operation room. Volunteers had to use a tremendous amount of effort to move him from the operating table. Although he was in a lot of pain (the effect of the anesthetic had worn off), he kept saying "Terima kasih [thank you]" to the volunteers with tears in his eyes.

Because the free clinic also provided accommodation and transportation for people from remote villages, it attracted people living outside Tangerang County. Flood victims from West Java and Kapuk Murua (one of the major disaster regions near the Kali Angke River) and impoverished patients from Sumatra also came a long way to receive treatment.

Resonating voices

To serve more patients living in remote areas, the medical staff and volunteers who worked at the free clinic were divided into three teams on the second day of the free clinic. The first team, led by Hualien Tzu Chi General Hospital Vice Superintendent Chang Yao-jen, stayed in the QADR Hospital. The second team, headed by internists Hsu Wen-lin and Hsueh Wen-cheng, set out to Sepatan to hold another free clinic there. The third team went to Bekasi, also a disaster area, to distribute goods to flood victims.

Most of the patients in Sepatan, who were sick because of malnutrition and poor hygiene, needed treatment in the fields of internal medicine and pediatrics. In just one morning, six doctors ministered to more than two thousand patients. They were so fully occupied that they didn't even have time for lunch.

"The treatment we provide is only temporary. What is more essential is to improve local living conditions and to teach good hygiene," said Dr. Hsu Wen-lin. This small-scale free clinic was only the beginning. Tzu Chi volunteers planned to teach hygiene and sanitation in the future to help reduce the chances of illnesses.

The village of Taruma in Bekasi is an extremely poor place. The floods at the end of January had caused serious damage to its agricultural and fishing industries and made it harder for the people in the village, who had already been poor before the floods, to make a living.

Tzu Chi volunteers prepared more than five thousand shares of relief supplies, with each share including ten kilograms of rice, one liter of cooking oil, one kilogram of sugar, one box of instant noodles, and one medical kit. Because Taruma covered a very large area, volunteers were divided into eight groups to distribute relief supplies at eight different locations at the same time. One of the distribution sites was only reachable by boat.

"Hello! Hello! Hello! ..." Under the direction of Franky Widjaja, an Indonesian-Chinese businessman and the managing director of the Sinar Mas Group, volunteers distributed relief supplies while others taught local children to dance and sing. The cheerful, rhythmic movements of their bodies dissolved the language barrier. Under the midday sun, their voices spread across the village and transmitted love to every villager.

In addition to services in the fields of dentistry, internal medicine and ophthalmology, this three-day free clinic also provided operations for patients who suffered from cataracts, hernias, tumors, harelips, or diseases related to the typhoid gland. A total of 12,307 patients were treated.

The funds for the free clinic came from the continuous fundraising efforts of local Tzu Chi people and donations made by many local Chinese industrialists who wanted to repay the local society. The QADR Hospital also provided operating rooms and medical equipment to help make the free clinic possible. Dr. Effie, superintendent of the hospital, expressed his hope that he could work with Tzu Chi again in the future to provide medical care to impoverished Indonesians.

Liu Su-mei said that after each clinic, volunteers continue to follow up on patients. For surgery patients especially, return visits to local hospitals are arranged until they have fully recovered.

Although the TIMA Philippines branch had just conducted its thirty-fifth free clinic on April 12 and 13, its convenor, Dr. Siu Chuan Leh, still led eight medical workers to the Indonesian free clinic to help. "A doctor's duty is to save life," said Filipino surgeon Earl Go. "Wherever we are needed, we should be there to serve the patients."

Ever since the Tzu Chi volunteers in Indonesia held their first large-scale free clinic in 1995, TIMA members from Singapore have been their most faithful supporters. They have participated in almost every free clinic organized by their counterparts in Indonesia. This time, in addition to sending over eighteen medical professionals and thirty-four volunteers, TIMA Singapore also provided medical equipment for the free clinic.

"I am really grateful to all the medical workers and volunteers who participated in the free clinic," said Liu Su-mei. "Even though we always encounter difficulties or setbacks every time we organize a free clinic, the smiles of the patients who have regained their health through our free clinics always convince us that what we have done is definitely worthwhile."