A spacious factory (around 1,800 square meters, or 18,325 square feet) in the Kunshan Industrial Park in Shanghai was turned into a bakery, complete with seven large blenders and three professional baking ovens. Hundreds of thousands of cake pans and cardboard boxes and over 300 volunteers filled the space.

In white headscarves, navy blue aprons, gloves, and masks, the volunteers concentrated on their work. Around noon, the first round of pineapple cakes came out from the ovens with a creamy fragrance but, to everyone's disappointment, the tops were a little burnt.

Changing the proportion of butter and flour, the volunteers gave it a second try. When the second round of cakes came out, they were beautifully baked, which gave all the volunteers great confidence and prepared them for their work in the following five days.

A pineapple cake may be small, but it carries great significance. Since the 2003 Mid-Autumn Festival, Tzu Chi volunteers in China have been selling pineapple cakes at annual fairs with the profits funding education for about 7,000 children in remote areas. In 2005, the program was extended to help farmers with visual problems receive operations.

Lin Zong-ming, who has taken part in the fair for four years in a row, said encouragingly, "Although we are not professionals, we succeed by paying attention to all the details."

Dreams come true

"When I was a child, my family had to put up with lots of sarcasm when they tried to borrow money for my tuition. At that moment, I made a wish that one day I could help children who love to read receive an education."

--Qiu Yu-fen (邱玉芬)

Even with the sun directly above us, we still felt the chilly wind. Such weather was good for the volunteers who worked in the heat of the factory. Qiu Yu-fen, the coordinator of the activity, said, "The Mid-Autumn Festival is late this year, so it's a little cooler. We usually sweat a lot making these cakes in the high summer."

In 1992, Qiu came to Shanghai on business, and she has been there ever since. However, she often chooses to leave this prosperous city for somewhere remote where Tzu Chi's educational subsidy program is needed. Often, as a lead person, she insists on visiting the home of every impoverished child. By knowing more about their lives, she can help them apply for the appropriate subsidies. Whenever she sees children who don't receive an education because they can't afford it, she feels sorry for them. Her feelings propel her to take action.

"Why do I want to help them? That's because I know what it feels like to be unable to go to school," said Qiu. When she finished elementary school and was about to enter junior high school, her family's grocery shop closed down because of bad management. This put them into dire financial straits. Although her father found work as a security guard for a factory in Taipei, the little he earned was not enough to significantly improve their situation. Her family sometimes had to make do with leftover food from a neighboring military base.

As the only child in her hometown who had passed the high school entrance examinations, her joy was soon overwhelmed by the necessity of obtaining more than $300 for tuition. Most acquaintances tried to talk her out of continuing her education because of the expense. But her mother refuted their ideas and insisted that she continue her schooling. She understood the pain of being illiterate, and she wanted her daughter to continue her education so that she would have a promising future.

To come up with the tuition, Qiu and her mother visited all of their relatives and friends, and Qiu's mother asked to borrow money by saying, "My daughter loves to study very much. Would you please help her?" Everyone knew that her family was in debt and did not dare to lend them any money. They were afraid the money would never be returned.

"We visited more than a dozen people, and none of them were friendly or welcoming," Qiu said. She nearly broke into tears while recalling the event. She said, "It was like begging someone to give you money. Everyone gave five or ten dollars, and I was trying to raise a total of $320." Therefore, Qiu swore to herself that one day, when she herself was able to, she would help poor children to continue receiving an education.

"Around Christmas, there were parties in Shanghai to celebrate the holiday, but we flew to distant Yichuan in Jiangxi Province, and from there we traveled to the village of Baizhu to check on the construction progress of the elementary school that we were building there. During Chinese New Year, we went to the village again. As soon as our boat docked, the children joyfully ran towards us to extend their warm welcome. They bore the cold with empty stomachs because they had been waiting since eight that morning in the freezing cold. It wasn't until two in the afternoon that we finally showed up." All this is kept in Qiu's notebook, in which she has recorded what the volunteers have done in the educational subsidy program in the last ten years.

The Baizhu Elementary School is located on a riverbank in an impoverished area of Jiangxi Province. Residents are scattered across a 1,000-meter (3,280-foot) mountain. Students have to travel across mountains and rivers to get to school. The way to school is rutted and dangerous, and there are occasional reports of boats that capsize while trying to cross the river. Therefore, residents had been actively engaged in fundraising and locating a safe place within walking distance to build a school. However, several storms ruined the construction site.

In the nearly collapsed school buildings, students in shabby clothes and bare feet sat on bricks. Having no desks, teachers had to hold students' homework on their laps to mark it. The volunteers who traveled all the way here to see this decided to start fundraising right away.

On September 20, 1997, the construction of Tzu Chi Elementary School in Baizhu was completed. Although classrooms, a cafeteria, and a playground were opened, the volunteers found another dilemma: More than 30 percent of the children in the area were too poor to afford schooling. Therefore, the volunteers tried to raise money to assist every poor child.

This subsidy program represented the love of Tzu Chi volunteers from various provinces of China. In the last ten years, this program has been extended to Jiangxi, Guizhou, Anhui, Hunan, and other provinces, in order to help children from impoverished or disaster-stricken areas continue their studies.

Embracing the seeds of love

"The more time we devote to the program, the more suffering children we find."

--Xu Juan-juan (許娟娟)

Whether it is about providing subsidies or caring for poor families, it is very common for volunteers to reach the site by walking for two or three hours. They have to be in good shape.

Qiu Yu-fen exercises by walking up and down the stairs of her 30-floor building twice every day; therefore, rough mountain roads and steep hills are no problem for her. Whenever she visits poor children, she always asks her guide to take her to the one who lives the farthest. To get there, they may have to go over a mountain, which is the only way to reach the children who live in the most remote areas and need the most help.

Xu Juan-juan, who joined Tzu Chi over ten years ago, recalled the first time she met Qiu: "I was really impressed with Qiu's devotion."

Xu spent her childhood in a city. The first time she joined a Tzu Chi activity to distribute educational subsidies, she traveled to a remote place in a mountainous area in Guizhou Province. There was no road, and it took three hours of walking to get there. "It was my first time walking on ridges between fields and crossing over mountains, and I had never seen such old and shabby houses," she said.

Guizhou Province is infamous for its rough topography, and the physical challenges opened Xu's eyes. "I had taken it for granted that people are born to lead a life free from worries and need. I didn't really know how other people lived until I joined Tzu Chi."

In Changqing Village, Guizhou, Tzu Chi volunteers visited a 16-year-old boy whose parents had died in the same year. His 20-year-old brother had left their hometown to earn a living, and this young man was on his own.

The local people built their houses with wood. People lived on the upper floors of the buildings, and the ground floors were used to raise animals and store farming tools. In the boy's house, we saw a tidy space free of foul animal smells, because he was too poor to raise domesticated animals. There were two chairs, a wooden bed, and a stove in the house. On the clean wall hung five pieces of clothing--all the clothes that the teenager had. Among them, a thin, long-sleeved jacket was the warmest. It was hard to imagine how he survived the winter, during which the temperature drops as low as 10 degrees Celsius (50 Fahrenheit).

On a visit to another family, we were told that the father had passed away and the mother had left the hometown to earn money, but she never returned. A 14-year-old girl had to take care of her eight-year-old brother alone. They supported themselves by cooking the vegetables they grew themselves. Their puny, frail bodies showed signs of malnourishment.

The girl's teacher said that the girl had to go home and cook every day at noon. It took more than an hour to walk home and back to school, so she was often late for the first class in the afternoon. However, the girl was really optimistic. She was happy to have three meals a day.

Tzu Chi's subsidy distribution program was scheduled during winter, before the new school semester started. Before going to the distribution site, volunteers put on thick coats, scarves and gloves against the cold weather. However, they were saddened to see the shivering children accepting the subsidies wearing thin, loose shirts and jackets with missing or loose buttons and worn-out shoes and pants. The scene was really emotionally stirring. Later, volunteers included extra clothes and school supplies in the distributions.

One year, Xu brought 30 scarves with her. During house calls, she helped put them around children's necks. She said, "It was really heartbreaking to see them wearing so little. When my children were that age, they could get whatever they wanted and they couldn't even cook, let alone grow vegetables." The more she devotes herself to the program, the more needy children she finds.

Go to school and do good for others

"We don't just want them to continue their education--we also hope that they will foster a humanitarian spirit."

--Lin Zong-ming (林宗明)

Volunteers hand a subsidy to each student in person, which is like passing hopes and expectations directly from the donors to the children. This is to encourage them to study harder and dream for a better future, so that they will make the best use of the money, which is a collection of kindness.

In the first year of the distribution, children lined up in a chilly wind to receive the subsidies. With their breath coming out in puffs in the cold, the children waited, trembling and shivering. This made the volunteers come up with the idea of making use of the time by teaching Still Thoughts Aphorisms in small groups. A volunteer was assigned to each group to share one aphorism with the children, so that they were taught to do good deeds and study hard.

The volunteers carefully prepared the teaching materials. Lin Zong-ming said, "We tried to come up with stories that matched the meaning of the Still Thoughts Aphorisms. Besides making them simple and easy, we tried our best to present different stories every year."

In 2000, Wang Shu-hui (王淑慧), a retired teacher, brought Taiwan's model of teaching Still Thoughts Aphorisms. With more than 31 years of teaching experience, she knew how to help instill the positive ideas in children. She said, "The best way to teach is to use simple teaching tools and interesting games with local characteristics."

At Shui Jia Elementary School in Gansu Province, Wang taught the spirit of filial piety with the fable of a young crow who paid back his love towards his mother crow by feeding her when she got old. Wang put hay in a steel bowl, symbolizing a bird's nest. Using a bed sheet that she had borrowed from a local resident for a deposit of 20 yuan (US$2), she made two lively crow puppets. She named them "Ga-wa" and "Wa-ching," baby boy and girl respectively in the local dialect. With these, she gave a lively puppet show.

The following year, when she went back to the Shui Jia Elementary School, several children came running towards her, saying, "Aunty, we know you. You told us the story of Ga-wa and Wa-ching last year." Wang was surprised and happy to know that the children still remembered her from that story. She hoped that they would always remember its meaning.

Lin Zong-ming said, "In addition to continuing their education, we would like to cultivate a sense of humanity." The annual home visits help volunteers to better understand what the children need. Through the teaching of Still Thoughts Aphorisms, a sense of humanity has been instilled into the children, helping them walk on the right track in life.

In the past, local schoolteachers used to chat with each other outside the classrooms after taking their students to the distribution site. But then they also began to learn Still Thoughts with the students. Later, they also used the simple teaching tools to make their classes livelier and more interesting and help the students to understand the lessons better. Regarding the new involvement of these teachers, Wang remarked, "What we as volunteers can do and give is very limited. However, if the teachers themselves can get really involved, the children can learn more."

Wang said gratefully, "To be able to serve others was the goal of my life when I was a little child." That was why she decided to become a teacher after receiving her education with the help of a loan. "I knew that as a teacher, I would have a stable income so that I could help students in need. And if I taught with quality, my students would benefit a lot."

She is now retired, and she has come to China with her businessman husband, joined Tzu Chi as a volunteer, and dedicated herself to the foundation's mission of education. She said, "My life glows because of these children. The Still Thoughts teaching program has created the second goal of my life."

When she was a little girl, Qiu Yu-fen once asked her mother, "Why are we so poor?" Her mother took her into her arms and said, "Although some people are born rich and some poor, something that we all have equally is time. Everyone has 24 hours a day. With constant effort, you can change your fate."

Patting the shoulders of those thin, small children who could not afford an education, Qiu encouraged them by relating what her mother told her when she was a little girl. With more effort and attention, they can overcome obstacles in their lives and live a life that they will never regret.

Wang added, "Children are the hope of our family and society. To nurture them, we need education. In the current environment, people with a primary school education can only work as laborers, and the next generations will undoubtedly remain poor. This is a vicious cycle."

After more than a decade of doing business in China, Xu now owns a factory. She is very positive about the purpose of Tzu Chi educational subsidies, saying, "Children must receive an education, which is the way to a future."

In Guizhou Province, the subsidy program has been held for a decade. A decade ago, it was quite common to see 16-year-old teenagers attending first grade. This is no longer the situation. Students now attend the class appropriate for their age.

"We used to need translators for our home visits [since without learning Mandarin in school, most of these children only spoke their local dialect]. Since more children are getting an education now, we can interact with them directly." With a satisfied smile, Xu, who has never been absent since her first distribution activity, said, "This is our biggest achievement so far."

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My Role Model and My Strength

Liu Shao-lian, Guizhou Province

Father is handicapped, so Mother carries our family of four on her shoulders. Even though we live frugally, by scrimping on ingredients when we cook, for example, we are still unable to afford the tuition.

However, Mother said that she definitely supported me regardless of any hardship she had to go through, even if we had to sell our property for my tuition. Seeing her sacrifice so much, I feel so overwhelmed that I have to cry for her.

At school every day, images of her working really hard on the farm run through my mind. When I am in school, I eagerly look forward to holidays so that I can return home to see her. Each day is like a century to me.

Seeing her sunburned face and the wrinkles on her hands, I know she is getting older every day, and this really makes my heart ache. I said to her, "I don't want you to get so tired out. Let me quit my studies and go to Guangdong Province. I can get a part-time job there. What do you think?" She didn't agree with my idea at all. With a simple command—"Get back to school and continue your studies"--I dared not disobey her.

One day, my teacher said that some people from Taiwan were going to subsidize our education. I was really touched because, with that money, I could buy school supplies and pay for my tuition. What they brought my family was hope.

Although I am from a poor family, I feel that I am truly blessed. I am grateful to have a strong mother, who is my role model and motivates me to keep going with my studies.

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Today We Receive, Tomorrow We Give

By Ma Mao-chuan, Henan Province

My hometown is located on a remote riverbank of the Yellow River. Because of frequent floods, many people live below the poverty line.

Fourteen years ago, my mother developed a chronic disease, and since then she has been unable to work. Beside my parents, there are four children, three of whom are in school, and my sick, old grandparents. A family of eight people was such a great burden for my father, who was the only breadwinner for the family.

Last year, I passed the university entrance examination. It should have been thrilling news, but we learned that the tuition was as much as 5,800 yuan (US$747). I tried to find any kind of odd jobs to earn the money. After a month and a half, I was only able to get 400 yuan (US$51). For my future, Father put aside his dignity and tried his best to borrow from his friends. Although he tried his best, he couldn’t borrow very much.

Mother was so sad that she cried almost every day. A tough fighter throughout his life, Father was in tears as he said, "My dear son, I tried my best to support you. Seeing our dire situation, you know I can't pay the more than 10,000 yuan [US$1,288] a year for the tuition for you three. Even if we went without eating for three years, we still couldn't save that much money!"

I became really frustrated. I thought that poor children should never hold any hope for a college education.

Although I was completely disheartened, my school principal, Ma Wen-zhong, wrote to Tzu Chi about my situation. Soon, Tzu Chi sent me the full tuition. When the money was handed to me by my teacher, Gu Yu-ching, my family was moved to tears. It was more than money that we received. It carried ardent hope and priceless Great Love. It was Tzu Chi that fulfilled my dream to attend a university and build a ladder leading to the greatness of my life.

Although a long road remains ahead of me, with this Great Love, I am very positive about my future. I was handed the torch of love, and I decided to pass it on to others in need. This is my vow--to turn the receivers into givers.