We must not give care to the poor and the suffering like a dragonfly skipping over the surface of the water. Our care should be deep and constant.

Ladies and gentlemen, Amitabha!

In spite of the typhoon, you have still come to Hualien. The spirit that you show is really touching. You have not only demonstrated your love, but also unflinching perseverance. With love you have blessings and with perseverance you have wisdom. Therefore, you are cultivating both blessings and wisdom.

The Tzu Chi Foundation was established over thirty-three years ago, and now we are entering our thirty-fourth year. In the exhibition rooms at the Still Thoughts Hall, there are displays on the accomplishments of the Tzu Chi missions of charity, medicine, education and culture and international relief. Because of limited space, we cannot show all the charity work we have done in the past thirty-three years. We have mostly displayed the work done in more recent years.

The most important thing that I want to let you know is that all the contributions and donations you have made have been well used by Tzu Chi.

Wherever a disaster happens in Taiwan, Tzu Chi people are always the first to arrive. We provide material relief and long-term care for the victims. The care we provide is by no means like a dragonfly that only occasionally touches the water. In fact, care is constantly provided to the needy.

For instance, on the second of June, there was a fire at the Hospital of National Cheng Kung University in Tainan, southern Taiwan. The power was cut off, which in turn affected the supply of oxygen to patients. There were nearly a thousand patients in the hospital. Within fifteen minutes after the fire started, more than forty Tzu Chi members were on the scene.

Since most of them had had the experience of working as volunteers at Tzu Chi Hospital, they could easily handle the situation. They took care of patients, comforted them, helped transfer patients to other hospitals, and carried oxygen bottles with them. They were so thoughtful that they even served tea and soft drinks to the firefighters.

I saw on Tzu Chi TV how they handled the fire, and I was truly touched and grateful. No matter where they are, Tzu Chi people always show their great love and courage.

Yesterday I was told that because Typhoon Maggie was expected to bring torrential rains and flooding, the Lifesaving Team of the Tzu Cheng Faith Corps in Kaohsiung had already prepared life jackets and rubber boats so that they could deliver drinking water and food when necessary. It was quite touching to see Tzu Cheng members serving people so enthusiastically and professionally. Tzu Chi people in every corner of Taiwan are learning to be like Kuan Yin, the bodhisattva with one thousand eyes to see the suffering in the world and one thousand hands to reach out and help.

Some people ask why we are doing international disaster relief work and why we don't just concentrate on disaster relief here in Taiwan. I always believe that we should bless ourselves and hope that we will live in peace forever. If everyone heard that Tzu Chi had done some kind of disaster relief work here, then that disaster would have been a serious one. We should pray that there will be peace and no disasters in Taiwan, so that we will have more strength and resources to help people in other places where our assistance is needed.

In mid-June, Tzu Chi representatives will distribute fertilizer in five cities in Pyongan-namdo, North Korea, since every rice paddy needs to be fertilized twice a season. It is our second distribution effort there. Few people know anything about North Korea, and we have no idea what kind of assistance they might need.

Four years ago, tidal waves, floods, snowstorms and droughts caused great famine in North Korea. Since it is a Communist country and its people are very conservative, people outside the country have no way of knowing how bad things really are.

This reminds me of severe flooding in eastern Taiwan about twenty years ago. From Hualien to Taitung--almost half of the eastern coast of Taiwan--the situation was terrible. Because this was during the period of martial law and especially since it was close to the National Day holiday, news of the flood was completely suppressed by the government. I called on people again and again to extend their loving hands to help the victims, but residents in western Taiwan said that they had heard nothing about the disaster.

The situation in North Korea now is exactly the same as it was in eastern Taiwan twenty years ago. Although many children have died of malnutrition, the government doesn't want the international community to find out what is happening there. When we heard the news, we sent a fact-finding team to their capital, Pyongyang. However, the team was not allowed to go into the disaster area. Priority (giving the help that is needed the most) and directness (delivering relief materials directly into the hands of the recipients) are the major principles behind our international relief missions. If our members were not allowed into the disaster area, how could we know what relief resources were needed and how the material could be delivered into the hands of the victims?

Nevertheless, many people in Taiwan lovingly donated used clothing. As a matter of fact, most of the clothes were like new and made of good material. Tzu Chi people mended, washed and ironed enough clothes to fill eleven containers. When the North Korean government received those containers, they opened every box and checked the clothing piece by piece. Any clothes with English logos or bright colors were thrown away. From this you can see how conservative they are. However, the officials were able to feel the sincerity and love of Tzu Chi, since every item had been washed and neatly ironed.

A few months ago, we received a letter from the North Korean government. In addition to expressing their gratitude, they also extended a welcome to our members to visit the disaster area in order to see the actual situation. It was really a breakthrough. We sent twenty-five members to the disaster area to distribute relief supplies.

When other people suffer from hunger and cold, we can feel their pain and suffering. We were very grateful to the North Korean government for opening its doors so that we could send our love.

In January this year, the fact-finding team went to the devastated district and found that much of the land was barren. The area had been hit by tidal waves from the Yellow Sea, which had left a great deal of salt on the land. After that, there was further flooding and snowstorms and the land was frozen in the harsh winter. Now not a blade of grass can grow there.

Officials admitted that originally each person was allotted 700 grams [24.5 oz] of food each day, but then because of the infertility of the soil, the allotment was cut down to 300 grams. Since last year, only farmers could get even that much. Government employees, who did not need to expend as much energy in their daily jobs, only got 100 grams a day. Sometimes, they had nothing to eat at all.

The officials led the team to an orphanage. Three- and four-year-old children were feeble with malnutrition and had legs as thin as twigs. The Tzu Chi members couldn't help feeling sad when they carried the children in their arms.

Later, they visited a hospital which had nothing inside. The intravenous drip for one patient was from a container which looked like a soft drink bottle filled with a mixture of water and glucose or salt. It was hung up high and connected to the patient with a plastic tube. Looking at this person, we realized how blessed we are!

When our team came back, we immediately purchased 93,600 packs of powdered milk and sent them to the children. Meanwhile, we also provided 5,600 tons of chemical fertilizer for the farmers so that they could make the spring planting. A relief team will deliver another 10,000 tons of fertilizer in the near future.

I often say that each grain of rice contains our love and care. If we can help the Korean people plant crops so that they can have more harvests each year, then no one will die of famine.

I am very grateful for your continuing support of Tzu Chi. With strength from each one of you, we can build up a great power to help the needy. That is why we Buddhists often say that we should make as many good friends as possible. When we want to do something significant, our good friends will, of course, come to help us.

I wish you all good luck. May you cultivate both blessings and wisdom.