A community with a bright future has been completed with five-story condos, schools, a free clinic, a nursing home, stores, factories, etc. Those terrible days of living next to the Angke River will disappear entirely along with the vanishing stilt houses and garbage in the river.

One weekend afternoon, children played soccer or basketball or chased each other around. Some children roamed around the community on their bicycles. Adults chatted away while sitting, standing, or strolling about. Clouds drifted by in the blue sky. Low-flying planes glided over the red rooftops of the condos. The Tzu Chi Great Love Village was enveloped in a lively atmosphere. The relaxed look of the residents revealed no signs of the suffering they had when they were living next to the Angke River.

A year before, a year after

The crude, damp shacks along the river had low ceilings and muddy floors. But now the people have moved into a big, bright community of around 1,100 units. They no longer have to endure the nightmare of floods every year.
　

The Angke River carries the history of Indonesia and the ethnic Chinese there. The houses that used to line the river had low ceilings and muddy floors. The residents also had to endure the stench from the garbage, animal carcasses, and human and animal waste floating along the river.

Liu Su-mei, CEO of the Tzu Chi Indonesia branch, said, "It would be their biggest blessing if they could remain healthy and have enough food to feed themselves." After the 2002 floods, Tzu Chi volunteers couldn't bear to see these people living next to the river, so they decided to build a new home for them.

Architect Hsu Szu-hang shouldered the job of designing the Tzu Chi Great Love Village. Construction started in July 2002 after the volunteers had found and cleared out a piece of land. One year later, the Great Love Village, with 1,100 units on five hectares [12.4 acres] of land, was opened.

The five-story buildings have gray walls and red roofs. Each floor has two units and each unit has an area of 36 square meters [388 square feet]. Each unit includes a living room, a kitchen, a bathroom, and two bedrooms. Each unit has a window facing the outside. The ventilation is good and the environment is nice and clean.

On one outer wall of each condo is a painting of a fruit such as a watermelon, papaya, orange, grape, apple, or banana--a total of 17 local fruits--allowing residents, who are mostly illiterate, to be able to distinguish which condo they live in. Behind Building Block A are banana and papaya trees, where residents can enjoy the breezes and fruit. Each condo has pretty, uniform curtains in its windows. And between the wings of each condo block is a public court that can be used by residents to dry their clothes.

Kuo Tsai-yuan, deputy CEO of the Tzu Chi Indonesia branch, was in charge of the construction of the community. He pointed out that the Great Love Village was designed on the basis of total community development. The village includes schools, a free clinic, a community center, a nursing home, stores, and factories. It is hoped that the residents will be taken care of in their livelihood, health, and education.

The nursing home has 30 beds, a large hall, and a nurse's office. Four residents live in one room, which includes wardrobes and chairs. There is a garden in which residents can plant their own vegetables. So far, 20 people have applied to live there. The future site for a kindergarten is now a playground at the elementary school. An empty lot in the community has been set aside for construction of the third phase of the Great Love Village.

More than 90 percent of the residents in the village are Muslim, so there is also a prayer room and a special room for handling the deceased before funeral ceremonies. Furthermore, there are also dormitories for school staff, medical professionals, and volunteers at the administrative center.

Indonesians like to do business at small street stands, so in addition to 20 stores on the first floor of Building Block B, another area has also been set aside for such stands. Thus, street vendors will not be scattered all around the village. Next to the street vending area is a parking lot for motorcycles. In front of that is the main road.

It is estimated that the village will have safe, drinkable tap water in 2005. Right now, people get their drinking water from filtered underground water. Wastewater flows to a sewage treatment plant; the recycled water is used for watering flowers in public areas and cleaning up public areas. Next to the sewage treatment plant is a garbage disposal site. Before moving to the Great Love Village, the residents simply dumped their garbage into the river, which deteriorated their living environment. In their new homes, garbage is collected every day at the disposal site and trucked away. This will ensure a good quality of living.

Everything has improved

When the faucet is turned on, we have clean water. Every family has their own toilet... We never dared to think about any of this before.
　

On July 4, Tzu Chi volunteers started arranging for residents to pick up their keys and move into their new homes. The volunteers even prepared new tables, chairs, beds, wardrobes, and other new furniture as presents for the residents.

Residents wore bags full of personal belongings in front and behind them while carrying water buckets and cardboard boxes in their hands. Some used trucks, motorcycles, three-wheeled carts, or bicycles to help them move their stuff to their new homes.

One day, Lin Chu-ching, his 20-year-old daughter, and his grandson came to set up their new house. Delighted to see the new home equipped with running water and electricity, Lin kept asking other residents, "How do you like living here?" Lin is ethnic Chinese and can speak a little Mandarin. He said shyly to the volunteers, "I just moved in last night." He looked like a child who had just received a new toy and couldn' wait to play with it.

Nawadi's family only had three people, but when they moved in, their truck transported a total of 17 people. The others were his neighbors who would also be moving in later. When they got off the truck, the adults greeted the Tzu Chi volunteers. The children immediately ran to their new homes carrying their things.

Prawoto, 59, and his son, daughter-in-law, and grandson moved into the first floor of Building Block A. Prawoto is an unemployed truck driver. The whole family had to depend on his son, who worked for a water company. Although Prawoto is close to 60 years old, he still hopes to work in a factory in the community.

Enjoying blessings, learning to love others

While the residents were moving in, they spoke from their hearts: "Tzu Chi has improved our lives and taught us how to love and help others."
　

July 18 was the grand opening of the Great Love Village, Tzu Chi Elementary School, and Tzu Chi Secondary School. Tzu Chi volunteers prepared bags of rice weighing 20 kilograms [44 pounds] for each family and tumpeng, specially cooked rice, for all the guests.

At the opening ceremony, residents performed a show on stage, portraying to the audience how Tzu Chi volunteers had helped the residents at Kapuk Village. Their expressive gestures were deeply meaningful to the audience.

Two residents, Tuti and Madsani, went on stage to share their thoughts.

Tuti said, "Tzu Chi has improved our lives and taught us how to love and help others." She led the others in praying to Allah: "We want to thank Tzu Chi, which transcends religion and race, for helping us and letting us experience unprecedented blessings."

Madsani said excitedly, "Thank heaven that we can gather here today. I've been coming quite often to see the Great Love Village being built. I thought I was dreaming, but when I received the key, I realized it was true."

Their revelations won tears and applause from the audience.

A role model for neighbors

Having left behind a life affected by floods every time it rained, Tuti and her husband vow to mobilize their neighbors to clean up their new community. They are happy to be volunteers.
　

A few days later, we went to visit Tuti's and Madsani's homes.

In Tuti's living room, all the furniture was in place and there were some small green plants. The floor was swept clean; we had to take off our shoes when we went in. Food was cooking on the stove in the kitchen. In the living room, Tuti's family of more than 10 people smiled when they saw us. Their happiness indicated that they had already settled down.

When they were living in Kapuk Village, every rainfall always caused floods, which made their lives miserable. After the 2002 floods, Tzu Chi volunteers led the villagers to clean up the garbage. Tuti participated in the clean-up work and also encouraged her neighbors to join. After moving to the new village, she and her husband, Edy, also mobilized their neighbors to sweep up the area.

Tuti and Edy had two children of their own, but the children both passed away. However, in the past 20 years they have adopted seven children.

Because Edy and Tuti are so kind, their foster children are very well behaved. Even though they aren't rich, they still love these adopted children and give them an excellent education. One of them has already received a Master's degree. In her spare time, Tuti also teaches children in the village about Islam.

She is so devoted to her community because she wants to pay back to Tzu Chi. In the past, her children had to stay in a tiny room filled with garbage. But in the new community, they have stronger houses and their children can go to school. They don't need to worry about the health of the family. It is also wonderful that they have many friends and neighbors in the new community. Tuti remarked that she is willing to be a volunteer in the community, and she hopes to encourage her neighbors to care for their new community. She said, "I want to be a role model for my neighbors."

Madsani, 27, lives in Building Block A with his parents and two younger sisters. His older sister and her family live in Building Block B. Whenever Madsani sees Tzu Chi volunteers, he greets them warmly and shakes their hands. However, he wasn't like this a year ago when he learned that his home on the Angke River would be demolished.

Madsani and his family didn't live next to the Angke River in the beginning. When their previous home was dismantled, they came to settle down by the river. Later, when he found out that their home would be dismantled again, he became furious. In the past, after their home had been dismantled, they had to wander around the streets. He said that when they saw government officials or Tzu Chi people coming and talking about dismantling their homes, they wanted to beat them up.

Then Madsani found out that Tzu Chi volunteers were different. "They patiently talked to us and gave us a rental allowance to help us move. This year, they even asked us to participate in the construction of our new home so we could experience its gradual completion. I then realized that Tzu Chi did things differently."

Tzu Chi people arranged for residents to take turns helping with the construction, but Madsani came every week because he couldn't wait to see his new home finished. Whenever he came to the construction site, all he could do was remove nails from boards or sort bags. He did it without any pay, but he was quite happy about it. He said, "Tzu Chi volunteers don't get any pay either! Besides, I was working on my own home."

Madsani said that ever since his grandfather's time, they had been living in a terrible environment; in no way could they have inherited a good house like the ones in Tzu Chi Village. He was at first worried about the fact that Tzu Chi was of a different religious faith, but he doesn't worry about that anymore. Now he wants to put on a Tzu Chi uniform and become a volunteer himself.

Finding a way to do good deeds

Febianto said, "Many rich Indonesians want to do good deeds, but they don't know how. I believe this is a good start."
　

When people learned that the houses by the Angke River were going to be dismantled, many of them were as agitated as Madsani. After Tzu Chi decided to build new homes for the villagers last year, volunteers visited each household. Besides those living next to the Angke River, people living near the mouth of the river who fulfilled certain conditions could also move to the Great Love Village with help from the government.

Most villagers didn't believe that a Buddhist organization would want to build homes for them free of charge. In order to inform the villagers about the whole process, volunteers set up an administrative body to communicate with them and to handle any problems that might surface.

Hung Kuang-tien, an ethnic Chinese, lives near Kapuk Village and thus knows the village quite well. He said that the administration spent a lot of time and energy inviting district heads and religious bodies and even forming family gatherings to help communicate with the residents. "We had to be careful with what we said because carelessness would ignite bad emotions in the villagers."

Febianto, an Indonesian, is a member of the administration. He is also an employee with the Sinar Mas Company. Because of his love for his people, he always tries to face all problems that appear. He said, "We worked as a group and had meetings every day, so we were able to find the source of problems and execute plans in proper order."

He continued by saying that the residents and their children needed a better living environment and a better education. Everything about the Tzu Chi Village made him feel that the children there would be far better off.

A single thought motivated him to continue working for his people. He said, "This is the first time I've seen people helping these Indonesians move to a better place and asking for nothing in return. If we succeed, this will be a historical breakthrough. Many rich Indonesians also want to do good deeds, but they don't know how. I believe this is a good start."

The work is not over yet, even after the homes have been handed over to the residents. Febianto and ten other members of the administrative body are helping residents emerge from the shadows of their past experiences in a bad environment. They also take turns living in the dormitories to be with the residents. He said, "When you have already boarded a bus but haven't reached the destination, it doesn't mean you won't reach it. Likewise, when you have received an airline ticket, it doesn't mean the airplane will take off at once. We need to wait patiently."

Birth of the first Great Love baby

Rohyati named her newborn baby Wahyu Suci Setiawan, which means "Blessing from heaven, purity, and sincerity."
　

At 5 a.m. on August 4, the first Great Love baby was born.

Rohyati, 27, gave birth to a boy weighing three kilograms [6.6 pounds] after one hour of labor with help from a midwife. Tzu Chi people and doctors from the Tzu Chi International Medical Association (TIMA) went to congratulate her when they heard the news.

Rohyati's eleven-year-old son and eight-year-old daughter are studying at Tzu Chi Secondary School and Tzu Chi Elementary School respectively. At the birth of their baby brother, both happily said that they wanted him to study at Tzu Chi Elementary School in the future too.

Rohyati named the baby Wahyu Suci Setiawan. Wahyu means "blessing from heaven," Suci means "purity," and Setiawan means "sincerity." Rohyati said that Suci sounds very similar to Tzu Chi, so she likes the word very much.

Everything in the community has changed, with people moving in and a baby being born. New grocery stores have opened, children have started going to school, and volunteers have started a plan to help the residents settle down.

A wonderful community has taken form in the Tzu Chi Great Love Village in Indonesia. The unbearable days next to the Angke River will fade away along with the vanishing stilt houses and garbage in the river.