Invaded by France over a century ago, Vietnam has been plagued by wars and bloodshed. Armed struggle against France and the United States and civil war between North and South have exacted a high price on the people of Vietnam. By the time the last war ended in 1975, over two million people had been killed and countless orphans and widows had been left behind, struggling to survive. However, the end of conflict has brought opportunity as well, as many Taiwanese entrepreneurs have discovered new business prospects in Vietnam. They have also noticed the living standards in the countryside are much lower than that in the cities. Here they come face-to-face with the human cost of war: the handicapped and the sick, the elderly and the orphans, all trying to survive alone in the dark corners of society. While these businesspeople do their best to help those in need, difficulties remain. But still they persist in doing good, holding firm to the belief that one day true love will overcome all obstacles.

After years of violence and division, Vietnam was finally unified by the government of communist North Vietnam in 1975. For the next ten years, Vietnam was closed to most of the outside world, as though in a period of healing from its painful wounds. But since the late 1980s, the war-weary nation has begun the slow journey toward prosperity and openness. In 1986, the communist government of Vietnam decided to open the country to the outside world and adopted an economic reform program that encouraged foreign investment and tourism. With so many untapped markets now available to foreign businesspeople, investors started pouring into the country.

Based on foreign investment statistics, Taiwan has a larger percentage of foreign investment in Vietnam than any other country. Over 30,000 Taiwanese businesspeople and their families live in Vietnam, a majority of them in Ho Chi Minh City and nearby vicinities. Not only are these investors helping to stimulate Vietnam's economic growth, but some of them have chosen a more challenging path: trying to do something for the less fortunate people in the country.

Good deeds can't be postponed

In October 1994, Tzu Chi volunteer Yang Pi-yun followed her husband from Taiwan to Ho Chi Minh City. Situated on the banks of the Sai Gon River, the city is one of the most densely populated in Vietnam. Red-roofed buildings with yellow walls, streets lined with French parasol trees, and buildings designed in the French colonial style lend it an exotic atmosphere. Every part of the downtown district illustrates the romance of the West and the elegance of the East. But off the main thoroughfares, there are many who live in poverty and suffering.

Yang was eager to start carrying out the Tzu Chi missions in the city to help some of those suffering ones, but she didn't speak Vietnamese and she wasn't familiar with the local customs or the political environment. Fortunately, the day after she arrived in Vietnam she met Chang Hsueh-fang, a Chinese-Vietnamese. Yang shared her vision of how Tzu Chi could bring love, compassion, hope and change to those suffering in Vietnam. After hearing about the Tzu Chi missions and the potential for service, Chang volunteered to take Yang to a local nursing home.

It was raining heavily on the day that Yang went to visit the home, and she recalls that she was hesitant to go out in the downpour. But then she remembered Master Cheng Yen's maxim, "Doing good deeds can't be postponed," and she was reminded of her duty to the less fortunate. Yang decided that a little rain could not sidetrack her, and she and Chang proceeded to visit the Vien Duong Lao Quang Dong Nursing Home.

Eleven elderly residents in various states of health lived in the nursing home. Some were immobile, confined to their wheelchairs or beds. The staff at the nursing home, for the sake of their own convenience, had cut holes in the middle of the beds. This allowed the bedridden patients to relieve themselves without leaving their beds. Yang's heart broke when she witnessed the degrading and miserable living condition of these elderly residents.

Eager to do something to alleviate the misery of these elderly persons, Yang brought a cup of water to a resident. The old man held the cup with both hands as he drank. She noticed that he was shivering and seemed to be very cold, so she brought him a comforter. When this resident died a few days later, Yang realized the wisdom of the Master's advice: doing good deeds can't be postponed.

This experience only increased Yang's determination to carry out the Tzu Chi missions in Ho Chi Minh City. Soon, word spread of her efforts. More people showed up to help her, including her landlord. Yang was truly grateful for the help that these people offered. After all, she didn't know the language, couldn't ride a motorcycle, and didn't know her way around the city. She could not have started to do Tzu Chi work without their help. However, with their assistance, the Vien Duong Lao Quang Dong Nursing Home became Tzu Chi's first aid case on November 6, 1994.

From these humble beginnings, Tzu Chi volunteers slowly began extending aid to the suffering: the poor, the sick, the handicapped, the homeless, veterans, and widows. Currently, there are 12 Tzu Chi commissioners and 30 volunteers in Vietnam. Even though they must obtain a permit each year from the government, volunteers are able to help about 160 needy families every month. Members of the Tzu Chi International Medical Association provide free clinics for the needy. Incredibly, providing a glass of water to an old man in a nursing home has now grown into a movement that has brought compassion and assistance to tens of thousands of Vietnamese of all ages.

Too late

There is never any shortage of people in need of assistance in the city. Stories and anecdotes of how Tzu Chi volunteers have improved the lives of others abound. One example of how their compassion has brought hope to the needy can be found in the story of a badly dressed elderly woman, whose "home" consisted of a cramped staircase in an apartment building. She spent day and night in the staircase, barely surviving. When Tzu Chi volunteers learned of the woman's sad plight, they found a temple that specialized in providing shelter for elderly persons with no place left to turn. Fortunately, the temple had one vacancy available. Volunteers paid all the necessary fees for the old woman to move into the temple. Although the old woman refused assistance at first, the gentle but persistent efforts of the volunteers finally paid off. Eventually the old woman relented and agreed to move into the temple.

Tzu Chi volunteers took turns visiting her. Gradually, the old woman became accustomed to their care and attention and would beg them to stay with her, much like a child. "Oh... please don't leave me," she would plead as the volunteers prepared to go. During these visits, volunteers played with her by asking the woman to recite their names. The old woman replied that she was too old to remember their names, opting to call them whatever names she felt like using. She wasn't feeble-minded of course, just playful. At any rate, names were unnecessary: the "forgetful" old woman was able to distinguish each volunteer by the sound of his or her voice! She could even remember the particular voices of those volunteers that brought her snacks or goodies when they visited.

Another anecdote illustrates again the importance of not postponing good deeds. In another nursing home lived 20 elderly women who were able to pay for their own living expenses. One of them was nicknamed "Manager," a very elderly but beautiful and strong woman with a loud voice. Tragically, a stroke left her unable to talk, but she was still able to communicate with her eyes and her hands. When Tzu Chi volunteers first met Manager in August of last year, she had just injured her foot. They volunteered to change the dressing several times a day, and soon the foot was healed.

One day, volunteer Tsai Hsiao-hua was videotaping in the nursing home for an upcoming Tzu Chi presentation. As she prepared the equipment, she felt a tug at her clothing. It was Manager, indicating that she wanted to have her feet rubbed, something Tsai had done many times before. Tsai was preoccupied with the video at the moment and wanted to quickly wrap up filming, so she asked another volunteer to rub Manager's feet. At the time, Tsai thought little of the incident.

Sadly, to everyone's surprise, Manager passed away two days later. In remorse, Tsai wept and blamed herself for not rubbing the old woman's feet when first asked. "I often did it for her voluntarily," Tsai lamented. "It was the first time she asked me to do it, but I turned her down."

Tsai said that Manager's death brought the second heartbreak in her life. The first one occurred when an old man who had often helped her family when she was young died before she could thank him. These two painful events taught Tsai the same thing--the impermanence of life and the need to take advantage of every moment.

In fact, of the 20 original residents of this nursing home, only eight are still alive five years later. Tsai knows how fleeting life can be and how important it is to not delay showing love and compassion to others. Just as Yang Pi-yun learned when she first established Tzu Chi in Ho Chi Minh City, Tsai has learned the wisdom of the Master's advice, "Doing good deeds can't be postponed."

Never give up

Although the Vietnam War ended 30 years ago, the cruel effects of the war can still be seen, etched on faces of the patients that visit the Tzu Chi free clinics. Some patients are the direct victims of war, left blind or physically disabled. Other patients are indirect victims, such as children born with deformities caused by the heavy use of chemicals during the war.

During the war, huge quantities of the defoliant "Agent Orange" were used by the Americans in the jungles of Vietnam. The intended purpose was to kill the dense foliage and force the Viet Cong into the open. But the large doses of the deadly chemical killed more than the trees--it also killed many Vietnamese people. Tsai describes how the chemical caused many children's heads to become as large as melons or deformed their hands and feet. Unfortunately, due to insufficient resources and difficult conditions, Tzu Chi volunteers are able to help only a small percentage of the individuals affected by this chemical.

Despite these obstacles, the volunteers do not give up. Between 1998 and 2000, Tzu Chi sponsored four large-scale free clinics for the poor or minority groups in remote areas of Vietnam. The four free clinics treated a total of 12,000 people. Two of the free clinics were held in cooperation with the Red Cross and the Ho Chi Minh City Sponsorial Association for Poor Patients. Even after the free clinics were over, Tzu Chi volunteers tried to raise additional funds to help patients with cleft lips or cataracts to obtain corrective surgery and have new lives.

The Tzu Chi charitable and medical missions were suddenly interrupted on April 30, 2000. On this day, the country marked the 25th anniversary of the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War. The volunteers, not realizing the sensitivity of this special occasion, continued with a three-day Buddhist retreat. Because it was against the law to do so, the government responded by tightly restricting all future Tzu Chi activities.

To show their respect for the Vietnamese government, Tzu Chi stopped all activities in Vietnam until they could again apply for a permit at the end of 2001. However, their application fell on deaf ears. When the local Tzu Chi volunteers read about the devotion of volunteers in other countries, they were envious, but they could do nothing but wait patiently for a positive reply and for their chance to help again.

Even though all official Tzu Chi activities were on hold during this time, the volunteers tried to help others on their own and in a quieter manner. Volunteer Yang Kuang-tse confided that, "Instead of wearing our Tzu Chi uniforms, we put on plain clothes to help the needy; sometimes medical professionals also went along to provide free medical assistance."

Dr. Juan Ju-jung serves in Pham Ngoc Thach Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City. He was one such professional that often went quietly with the plain-clothed volunteers to help the needy. He compiled a case history for each patient he treated to make follow-up on each patient easier. This was the only medical care that some of these patients were receiving at this time. For example, Dr. Juan remarked sadly that some patients suffered from serious festering sores on their feet caused by diabetes, but didn't realize the seriousness of the condition. The unknowing patients simply thought the sores were a skin problem and didn't know that they had to take injections of insulin to control their diabetes.

After a long and patient wait, the Tzu Chi office finally got its permit two years later, in July 2003. The permit was only valid for a year, but the volunteers did not complain. This experience taught them how important it is to pay attention to local customs and culture. Having been denied official status for two years only increased the desire of volunteers to help more needy people. Applying for a new permit every year is a small price to pay for official recognition from the Vietnamese government, in order to help those who are suffering.

True nature

In November 2004, Tzu Chi held its sixth major free clinic in Tra Vinh Province. Located 250 kilometers (155 miles) south of Ho Chi Minh City on the Mekong River delta, this province is one of the poorest in Vietnam. Here, fresh water from the Mekong River mixes with salt water from the South China Sea. The result is a type of soil that makes farming very difficult. People instead make their living by fishing or selling hand-woven bamboo baskets.

With relatively few job opportunities, many families earn less than US$8 a month. Housing is substandard; many houses are roofed with nothing more than coconut leaves and provide little protection against the elements. When the rains come, it is not uncommon to see houses flooded to knee level. Because most residents in Tra Vinh are refugees from Cambodia, the children usually only speak the Cambodian language and their lives are closed to the outside world. They are usually uneducated since they must begin to work for the family at a very early age. Poverty traps generation after generation in an endless cycle.

Despite their poverty, the children of Tra Vinh Province still have the power to touch the hearts of those around them. Once, when volunteers were distributing relief goods in the Tra Cu District of Tra Vinh, Chen Chiu-yueh began passing out candy to the children around her. Despite their obvious poverty, each child took only one piece of candy; none of them grabbed a handful. As Chen's candy disappeared piece by piece, she began to worry that some children might not get any candy. Chen asked around in a gentle voice, "Has everyone taken a piece of candy?" Some children who had been hiding in corners shyly walked over to her and received candy; again, none of them took more than one piece. The lack of greed among the children, even for something as desirable as candy, touched Chen deeply. "They are so innocent and modest," she said to herself as the children happily enjoyed their small treats. Sorry that she could not offer more candy, Chen has vowed to bring more next time.

Having lived comfortably in Vietnam for nine years, Chen said she would never have visited this poverty-stricken place if she hadn't joined Tzu Chi. She considers herself very fortunate for being able to help these poor people.

The clinic at Tra Vinh Province was a huge success. Tzu Chi volunteers, government officials, and Red Cross volunteers all worked together to coordinate the clinics. Over 300 volunteers helped to implement free clinics in remote areas. Hanoi residents Lin San-tang and his wife donated money to pay for operations for eight heart patients and 200 cataract patients. Overall, the sixth free clinic treated over 3,000 people in the Duyen Hai, Tra Cu, and Cau Ngang districts. Afterwards, the feeling of all volunteers involved was summed up by the humble comments of one volunteer, Lin Chih-lang: "The implementation of the free clinics was very meaningful and rewarding."

Giving voluntarily

Despite the success of the clinic at Tra Vinh, it is not always an easy matter to provide assistance in Vietnam. For example, it was once hoped that Tzu Chi could set up a job training school to help physically disabled people to learn a skill, but the government restricted Tzu Chi's activities to charity and medical care. Tzu Chi is not permitted to expand its missions to other categories. One Tzu Chi volunteer remarked, "I never expected that doing good deeds in this country could run into difficulties too."

One volunteer that knows the difficulty of doing Tzu Chi mission work in Vietnam is Lin Chih-lang. Lin came to Vietnam in 1992 for his machinery business. He misses his wife and children, who still live in Taiwan, and doesn't like the hot weather in Vietnam. Even so, his business requires that he endure the familial separation and the stifling weather for about 10 months a year. He works constantly for the Tzu Chi missions, but he enjoys his work because it brings him a high level of spiritual joyfulness.

"You can see poor people everywhere in Vietnam, and it's easy to become nonchalant about them." said Lin. The core of their problem is poverty. Most of the recipients of Tzu Chi aid are lonely, poor people who have no one else to count on. Children in urban areas can go to school, but education is a burden to the poor living in the countryside.

The pervasive poverty in Vietnam results in inadequate medical care, and children are especially hard hit. Lin knows two children suffering from thalassemia, a hereditary blood disease, who will die if they stop receiving regular injections of medicine. Sadly, their families cannot afford the fee of US$190 per month for each child. Lin has been paying for the medicine for five years without any regret.

Tsai Hsiao-hua is Chinese-Vietnamese. After she was married, she moved to Taiwan with her husband. She brought her parents to Taiwan as well. When her mother became ill, the medical costs became a heavy burden to her family in Taiwan. Because the cost of living and medical expenses were much lower in Vietnam, Tsai made the difficult decision to return to Vietnam with her parents and daughter. Sadly, that meant leaving her husband behind to work in Taiwan.

While in Taiwan, Tsai had received a copy of Tzu Chi's Chinese Monthly. Reading the magazine, she was deeply moved by a thank-you note written by a Vietnamese patient who had been treated at a free clinic sponsored by Tzu Chi. Intrigued, she read additional articles introducing Tzu Chi's charitable activities in Vietnam. After moving back to Vietnam, she immediately pitched in to serve as a Tzu Chi volunteer.

Tsai now looks after her 70-year-old parents and her six-year-old daughter. She has to work and cannot be with her daughter during the day, but the child is very independent and mature for her age. She even does her homework voluntarily! Even more impressive, Tsai brings her daughter to every Tzu Chi activity to serve as a volunteer. As expected, she is very proud of her daughter.

Like Lin Chih-lang, Tsai knows the pain of being separated from spouses and loved ones. Living in two different countries, Tsai and her husband see each other only about five times a year. Ironically, however, Tsai and her husband see each other frequently on Tzu Chi TV. With their busy schedules, Tsai and her husband don't watch TV that often, but it frequently happens that when one of the two is watching, the other is being featured on TV! Although circumstances have separated Tsai and her husband, involvement in Tzu Chi has allowed them to stay connected across the miles.

From a metaphorical perspective, Vietnam is like a beautiful unveiled bride, with a sweet smile and great expectations for the future. But unlike the bride, Vietnam is walking out of the devastation of war with her heart still remembering the pain from her horrendous past. Indeed, Vietnam still needs more time to dull the pain of destruction and to cool the fires of hatred.

"Taiwanese businesspeople are walking a difficult path of charity in Vietnam, but as Master Cheng Yen once said, we need to pay back to local society because we live under their sky and tread on their land," said Chen Chiu-yueh. Being fully aware of local customs and living conditions, Chen's words express Tzu Chi members' commitment, strong determination, and enthusiasm for helping others within the context of a foreign society and culture.

The best description of Tzu Chi volunteers in Vietnam is that they are persistent in carrying out charitable deeds with love in spite of any difficulty or hardship. They believe that as long as they are attentive and mindful enough, they will transform seemingly impossible missions to possible ones. They have faith that one day true love will prevail over all obstacles.