Free clinic in mainland China

The Tzu Chi Foundation and the Xiamen City Medical Association jointly sponsored a forum to exchange views on the cultural aspects of medical services. The event took place from March 31 to April 3 in Xiamen, Fujian Province, China. Over five hundred medical staff and volunteers from Taiwan and China participated. During the event, a total of 2,300 patients were treated, eighty poor families received home visits, and 350 wheelchairs were donated to people in need.

At the site of the free clinic, medical personnel and volunteers helped to serve patients. When Dr. Lai Chi-wang, vice superintendent of Tzu Chi Hospital, had carefully and thoroughly examined one elderly woman, she kept saying: "It's so wonderful! You are so kind! You're such a great person!" By working with Dr. Lai, doctors from Xiamen also strengthened their own diagnostic skills.

One old woman with a cataract was found to require surgery. Since there were no surgical facilities at the clinic, she was instructed to go to a hospital. When the patient's granddaughter heard the news, her face turned pale and she kept asking how much the surgery would cost. After the free clinic was over, local volunteers helped fourteen cataract patients to receive surgery and arranged financial assistance for those in need.

One day during the clinic, two blood donation vehicles were present at the site. Tzu Chi members were the first to roll up their sleeves and donate their blood. By the end of the day, 260 people had donated 6,000 cc of blood, breaking the record of previous one-day blood donation drives.

For this event, ninety-six Tzu Chi members came from Taiwan, Shanghai, Fuzhou, Singapore and Malaysia. Taiwanese businesspeople working in Xiamen also contributed a great deal. Working with local government officials, they provided vehicles and donated funds. Two to three hundred local volunteers also helped to make the event run smoothly.

The local volunteers had already been working with Huang Ching-wen, a Taiwanese businessman in Xiamen, to promote volunteer work. They included Huang's own employees, students and instructors from Xiamen University, and others. Before the free clinic, they collected information on who in the area would require clinical services and what kind of medical assistance was needed. They also took care to determine who among these was in true need of financial help. The volunteers helped organize the free clinic site, moving tables, chairs and equipment. They guided patients to see doctors and pick up medicine, and after the clinic was over they helped clean up the site.

Free clinics are important for people who are too poor to pay for a visit to the doctor. However, a free clinic can only give temporary help. It takes continuous medical care to truly address the problems faced by poor patients.

Volunteers mobilized for Kosovar refugees

The sign depicted two adorable but sad-looking Albanian girls. When on April 17 and 18 pamphlets calling on people to help the Kosovar refugees appeared in all major cities in the United States, Tzu Chi volunteers took to the streets to raise money to help refugees driven from their homes by wars.

The Tzu Chi US branch and Knightsbridge International joined hands in April to transport medicine to refugee camps in Albania.

When Li Wen-mei was collecting money in central New York, she met a woman who shed tears when she made her donation. The woman, an Albanian who had immigrated from Kosovo, was deeply touched to see that Chinese people were willing to collect money in the streets in order to help her compatriots back home. She embraced Li Wen-mei and kept thanking her and Tzu Chi.

On the other hand, a Tzu Chi member in Chicago had a completely different experience. He encountered two Serbian men who angrily pointed out that Albanians had also killed many Serbs before. Even though he knew it was difficult to solve a longstanding racial hatred, this Tzu Chi member explained to them that a refugee problem caused by any race was of concern to all of mankind and that Tzu Chi did not take sides. Tzu Chi simply wanted to alleviate the refugees' plight and try to bring peace to the world.

The Tzu Chi Hawaii office received a check for US$500 from a Vietnamese donor. A note attached to the money stated that he had also spent time in a refugee camp and that he therefore had deep sympathy for the Kosovar refugees. He hoped his small contribution would be of some help.

Refugee camps in Albania
receive 4600 pounds of medicine

On April 10, the Tzu Chi US branch and Knightsbridge International transported US$300,000 worth of antibiotics to refugee camps in Albania. On April 13, Tzu Chi headquarters dispatched a team to Macedonia to join a special group from the Taiwanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Their goal was to identify the needs of the refugees and devise a proper plan to help them.

In order to avoid attacks by Serb forces, Albanians living in Kosovo have fled to neighboring countries. Over 650,000 refugees are estimated to have fled to Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro, and more are likely to follow if the war continues.

Edward Artis and James Laws of Knightsbridge International took the first batch of 4,600 pounds of medicine by ship from Bari, Italy, to Durazzo on the Albanian coast. The medicine they delivered would benefit 35,000 refugees.

Because Macedonia has diplomatic relationships with Taiwan, its Ministry of Foreign Affairs invited Tzu Chi, World Vision Taiwan, the Taiwan Red Cross, and several other local charity groups to set up field hospitals in western Macedonia and to provide relief supplies.

Nobel Prize winner visits Tzu Chi

Dr. Ferid Murad who won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1998 and his wife visited Tzu Chi on April 12. After his presentation on molecular biology at the Tzu Chi Still Thoughts Hall, a Tzu Chi medical college student asked him how to determine priorities in choosing a research topic. Dr. Murad suggested that people should find out where their interests lie and then follow those interests.

After his speech at the Still Thoughts Hall, Dr. Murad and his wife went to visit Master Cheng Yen at the Abode of Still Thoughts, where they had a wonderful talk. Since Dr. Murad and his wife expressed a great interest in charity and community work, Master Cheng Yen gave them the addresses of the Tzu Chi offices in the United States and invited them to join Tzu Chi activities in their home area once they returned home.

New heart examination technology

Tzu Chi Hospital in Hualien has developed a new way to clearly examine the heart with a new invention. The department of nuclear medicine has invented the first-ever way to examine the heart by connecting a gamma scanner and an electrocardiograph, both of which assist the doctor to forecast whether a patient will suffer from coronary artery disease and myocardial ischemia. It simultaneously examines cardiac contractility. This examination can reach an accuracy of 95%. Dr. Wen Chung-yuan, director of the department, indicated that through the 3-D visual effect and the heartbeats, the doctors could easily diagnose and identify any cardiac problem. The whole process takes up only fifteen minutes.

Dr. Wen indicated that this new technology could assist doctors to predict any future cardiac problem, to choose proper treatments, to do follow-up after treatment, to evaluate the functioning of the heart, etc. This method of examination is very safe and reliable. The department will also apply it to other diseases, such as cancer, kidney illnesses and tumors, to benefit more patients.

Dr. Wen pointed out that besides the one in Tzu Chi Hospital, there are six or seven other gamma scanners in Taiwan. The machine will inject radionuclides into the bloodstream, and these elements will radiate gamma rays which will be detected and displayed on the computer screen.