After three months of treatment in Taiwan, Irhamid finally returned home to Pulau Bintan Island, Indonesia, on August 21, 2004. When Irhamid's mother saw that her son had returned safely with a new look, she joyfully embraced him. Irhamid told Tzu Chi volunteers who welcomed him home, "I've started some new mileage in my life."

Irhamid is 18 years old. When he was born, there was already a tumor on his forehead near his nose. Because his family was poor and the local medical services were very backward, the boy never received any treatment for the tumor. As the tumor grew bigger over time, it affected his vision and destroyed his sense of smell. When he heard that Tzu Chi was holding a free clinic on Batam Island in March, 2004, he traveled for an hour by boat to seek their help. Afterwards, he was sent by local Tzu Chi members to Hualien Tzu Chi Medical Center in Taiwan for treatment on May 26.

It was diagnosed that because of congenital damage to Irhamid's brain tissues, meningitis had set in and formed the tumor on his nose. In June, a medical team performed a ventriculo-peritoneal shunt to release fluid from his head; then they performed microscopic surgery to repair the bottom of his cranium. After removing the tumor, the medical team also shortened the distance between his eyes from 5.5 cm to 3 cm so that they would not push outward anymore, and they reshaped his nose.

While the boy was hospitalized, volunteer Yen Hui-mei spent a lot of time with him. She often had a cup of tea with him in the hospital's volunteer room. Sometimes they had a cup of coffee and a plate of cookies and communicated with each other with hand gestures. Yen said, "We know that he missed his mother, so all the volunteers looked after him with motherly love." Even since returning home, Irhamid still misses Yen a lot. And he often shows people a watch that Yen gave him, saying that it came from his "Taiwanese mother."

While this was happening, another group of volunteers from Singapore and Batam Island went to Irhamid's home almost every day, taking with them post-surgery photos of his recovery to show his parents and ease their worry. This pleased his mother, as Irhamid himself was once a volunteer at a temple. Whenever he was given something good to eat for his labor, he would bring it home to her. "He is a good boy!" his mother said.

One volunteer recorded what the family wanted to say to Irhamid on a video camera. Knowing that the teenager had a poor appetite because he was so homesick, his mother said to the camera, "You have to listen to the doctor and the nurses. You have to eat more so you can recover faster!" One of his sisters said, "I miss you so much! I often dream of you coming home with a beautiful nose..." The mother also asked a volunteer to send a piece of clothing to Irhamid, so that whenever he missed home he could put on clothes with his mother's smell.

Perhaps during Irhamid's three-month stay in Taiwan under Tzu Chi auspices, he learned the meaning of Great Love. After he returned home, he became very polite and mature. One of his sisters reflected, "In the past, whenever we told him to do something, he would be very reluctant, but now he will pour a cup of water for me and show me he cares about me!"

One week after returning home, Irhamid showed up as a volunteer at the sixth Tzu Chi free clinic on Batam Island. A few months earlier at the same place, Irhamid was constantly wiping his face, but now he was wearing a volunteer vest, picking up garbage, and helping patients. His show of confidence really makes other people happy.

Cycle of love

Batu Aji Hospital on Batam Island was crowded with people attending a Tzu Chi three-day free clinic. Volunteers were busy in the waiting area, in the clinics, and in the surgery rooms working non-stop to help patients. There were also singing and performing puppet shows to help waiting patients pass the time more enjoyably.

Since 2000, the Singapore branch of the Tzu Chi International Medical Association (TIMA) has carried out free clinics every year on Batam and nearby islands. From August 27 to 29, 2004, this free clinic was carried out to treat eye problems, cleft lips, hernias, and tumors. TIMA members performed minor operations, distributed free eyeglasses, and provided a contraceptive injection to women who requested it.

Close to 500 medical personnel and volunteers came from Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, Hong Kong, and Batam Island to give services to 3,631 patients. Both figures were the largest ever.

Many people and their families who had received free clinic services in the past showed up this time to volunteer and help other patients. A girl named Susi, who received surgery for a cleft lip four years ago, now appears very open and energetic and could be seen zig-zagging between people to help them. Her father was also busy helping patients.

As the last batch of patients was leaving, they held hands with volunteers to thank them, and the volunteers thanked them back for giving them a chance to offer help. One doctor said that if it hadn't been for the Tzu Chi volunteers, he and other doctors would not have had the chance to organize such a huge free clinic. For their part, the patients and volunteers were grateful that the doctors gave up their holidays to offer their professional skills to many impoverished patients.

Home visits from one village to another

As wheels rolled over yellow sand, a chorus of songs sung by Zulu volunteers reverberated inside the vehicles. These Zulu Tzu Chi volunteers were singing Tzu Chi songs that they had composed themselves as they went from one village to the next to visit needy families.

These volunteers regularly visit needy families in South Africa. Unfortunately, AIDS has become a serious problem in this region and most of these people were victims of the disease. The visits may not be able to cure their illness, but they certainly bring them moments of joy and peace.

Volunteer Gladys Ngema is the first black Tzu Chi volunteer. One of her nephews was murdered in May 2004. She said that if it had happened in the past, she would have had enough hatred inside her to seek revenge, but because she had found Tzu Chi, she wondered what good such an action could possibly do. Now she just wants to spread more love to prevent similar incidents from happening.

Volunteer Pan Ming-shui, who has been guiding the black volunteers for years, pointed to a hill ahead and said that he hoped to build an orphanage for AIDS children.

However, it is still quite dangerous for Tzu Chi volunteers to go there. Unless Tzu Chi has Zulu volunteers in that area, other people will not be able to get in easily.

Blue Bank Project

Blue Bank is about 30 kilometers (18 miles) away from Ladysmith, South Africa. Tzu Chi volunteers went there for the first time in 2003 to distribute rice to needy people. At the beginning of 2004, volunteers went there again to deliver cloth, two sewing machines, and needles to local women, so they could sew clothes, scarves, hats, and sweaters in the community center every Tuesday and Thursday and sell them for money.

Following the practice of Tzu Chi sewing classes elsewhere in South Africa, these Blue Bank women sold their products, deposited 20 percent of their earnings into a community fund, and shared the rest among themselves. This Blue Bank Project allows these women to be independent and help other poor people at the same time.

At first, the project ran into a difficulty. Florence, who was raising four boys and two girls by herself, didn't want to teach her sewing skills to other people. However, she was gradually so touched by the love and respect shown by Tzu Chi volunteers that she changed her mentality and started teaching her excellent skills to other women. She also impressed people at the end of one market day by saying that she would keep the earnings from that day until Christmas and then use them to buy toys, so all the children in the village would be able to enjoy the holiday like other children. She also pledged to share all her other earnings equally with other members, despite the fact that she produced most of the clothes.

The regular relief distribution by Tzu Chi at St. Joseph Church, about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from Blue Bank, has become a major event there. In June 2004, all the members in the Blue Bank Project were present at the church to help distribute relief goods and set up the distribution site. They also went with Tzu Chi volunteers to distribute school supplies, sew students’ torn uniforms, help poor patients, and do other good deeds.

Mavis is a member of the Blue Bank Project. She was on the needy family list last year but became a volunteer this year. Knowing that Tzu Chi fundraising isn't easy, she decided to stop receiving goods from Tzu Chi so that other more needy people could be put on the needy family list.

In fact, Mavis told Tzu Chi volunteers recently that all the members of the project had decided that they would stop receiving relief goods from Tzu Chi in 2005, and 20 of them would become regular donors instead. One member said, "I know if I die today, Tzu Chi will look after my children. Now my life is okay, so the relief goods should be given to people who are poorer!"

These women got more self-confidence when they started giving, and their laughter and songs now fill the whole village.

Cataract surgery in Zamboanga

After the establishment of the Tzu Chi liaison office in Zamboanga, a city on Mindanao Island, the Philippines, on May 6, 2000, one of its first activities was the "Sight-Saving Program." Four years later, the liaison office is nearing another milestone as it inches its way to its 1000th cataract recipient. With an ophthalmic operating microscope donated by the Tzu Chi Manila branch office to the Zamboanga City Medical Center (ZCMC) and complete cataract kits on standby, doctors can do cataract excision with lens implantation at any time the operating room schedule permits. Aside from cataract surgeries, the Zamboanga office has sponsored 130 pterygium scrapping cases, assisted over 120 patients with eye medications, and performed other surgical procedures such as enucleation for pediatric cases of retinoblastoma. The liaison office recently started sponsoring squint correction surgeries at ZCMC. On October 8, 2004, Tzu Chi Zamboanga also sponsored the first corneal transplant for 19-year-old Raymond Siningning of Zamboanga City at the ZCMC.

Since the inception of the Tzu Chi Zamboanga Sight-Saving Program four years ago, the liaison office has reached out to neighboring cities like Isabela, General Santos City, and Cotabato. The other factor in the success of the program is the pioneering work of Tzu Chi Zamboanga in partnership with the ZCMC in actively seeking out cataract patients during its many "Medical Outreach Missions," instead of waiting for them to come to the hospital.

In other news, the Tzu Chi Zamboanga liaison office together with the ZCMC held the 7th Tzu Chi-Jaipur Foot Camp at the Tzu Chi Great Love Physical Rehabilitation Center on October 17. It was the first time that the Jaipur prosthesis was distributed for free at the new center. This time, recipients learned to walk with their prostheses with ease. With non-skid tiles and new parallel bars, the patients were less afraid of sliding or falling. This foot camp marked another milestone: the Jaipur prostheses distributed at the camp were made by local technicians Atanasio Valeria and Florante Ho from the Philippine Orthopedic Center in Manila. As of this time, they have returned to Manila to resume their six-month training in the manufacturing of above-knee and below-knee prostheses, as well as how to do minor repairs and adjustments. After the completion of their training, the Jaipur Foot Manufacturing Unit at the Tzu Chi Great Love Physical Rehabilitation Center will be able to manufacture the prostheses right in Zamboanga, resulting in faster completion and distribution. In addition, recipients whose prostheses need adjustments or repairs can simply proceed to the center and get their new feet on the same day.

Young amputees need to have their feet adjusted or repaired every 3 months due to their rapid growth. This was one of the motivating reasons why the Tzu Chi Zamboanga office decided to set up the Tzu Chi Great Love Rehabilitation Center. For amputees, time is of the essence. The more time they spend idle, the more hopeless they feel and the lower their self-esteem sinks.

Earthquake in Niigata, Japan

At 5:56 in the evening of October 23, Niigata, Japan, suddenly suffered a major earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale. It killed 39 people, injured 2,600, and forced close to 100,000 people to live in shelters. The temblor even derailed a "bullet train." This was the most devastating earthquake since the Hanshin quake struck nine years ago.

On October 25, Tzu Chi volunteers in Tokyo prepared a truckload of blankets, drinking water, food, and other necessities and rushed to a stadium in Tokamachi, the little town near Niigata that suffered the most damage. They distributed blankets to victims there and then delivered the water and food to Tobichiri Elementary School.

The school stadium housed around 400 victims, most of whom were elderly. They were frightened by the earthquake and kept describing to the volunteers the terrible ordeal they had been going through. The volunteers kindly listened to them, held their hands, and patted their backs to show their care and concern.

On October 28 and 29, volunteers prepared hot noodles for 105 people in a community in Ojiya City. These were their first hot meals since the earthquake. One resident, Mrs. Higuchi, brought out a huge white gourd, the only food she had at home, and asked the volunteers to accept it in order to express her gratitude for their timely help.