Free Clinic in Serang, Indonesia

On September 25 and 26, Tzu Chi members in Indonesia held a large-scale free clinic to provide medical care for the poor in Serang. During the event, a total of 4,371 people were treated.

"My daughter has suffered from a thyroid gland tumor for fifteen years," said Sitahun, a local resident, to Tzu Chi doctors with tears in her eyes. "If it weren't for your free clinic, I don't know when she would have been treated."

A thirty-year-old woman had lived with a tumor on her back for more than two decades. She said a friend who had been cured of a tumor in the last free clinic held in Serang recommended that she and eleven other friends come to receive treatment.

"My child is already eight years old now," said an excited father. "Many children tease her and call her a monster. Now she can finally look like a normal girl!" Like him, many parents traveled for hours by bus to bring their hare-lipped children to receive plastic surgery--something they could not have afforded under normal circumstances.

During the two-day free clinic, over three hundred people received surgical operations. "It is not that we have an unusually high number of people afflicted with tumors, harelips or thyroid tumors," Dr. Sumaqsudi of the Military Hospital explained. "It is simply because people here are too poor. When a free clinic is being held, they hurry over to be treated."

Altogether a total of 120 medical personnel and four hundred volunteers from the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan joined forces with local organizations, hospitals and government offices to make the free clinic possible.

Lin Chin-lon, deputy superintendent of the Tzu Chi General Hospital, put it well: "Actually, the free clinic did more than just provide free medical care--it brought out the love in the hearts of many people."

Prefabricated Houses in Turkey

With the arrival of winter in October in Turkey, the tents in which refugees live are no shelter from the cold winds and heavy rainfall. So on September 18, Tzu Chi sent a task group of seven to Turkey to talk with local personnel about the construction of prefabricated houses.

On September 21, while the group was still engaged in negotiations with contractors and looking for appropriate construction sites, Taiwan suffered a major earthquake. Many charitable organizations or individuals that had worked with or had known Tzu Chi contacted the team to inquire about conditions in Taiwan and expressed their willingness to help. Even Turkey, still in need of assistance itself, sent a 200-member rescue team to Taiwan. The love and goodness that had come full circle brought much warmth to the Tzu Chi members there.

Meanwhile, the team obtained an agreement from the city government of Goluck to supply water and electricity for the construction site chosen for the prefabricated houses. A local construction company was then contracted to build 250 to 300 prefabricated houses, which are to be completed before the end of December this year.

Each prefabricated house is 35.7 square meters [385 sq ft] in area and will include one bedroom, one living room, one kitchen and one bathroom. The building materials used will be heatproof and snowproof and the houses are to last for fifteen years. Public facilities to be established include a park, fences, a guardhouse, a medical station, a mosque and a kindergarten.

Target: Thirty Thousand Registered Donors

On September 15, Tzu Chi volunteers in Japan joined hands with the Japan Bone Marrow Bank Association and conducted a blood test drive for marrow donation in Tokyo. A volunteer with the association indicated that there have been two thousand marrow transplants in Japan, and there are currently 120,000 registered donors. She hoped to push the number of potential donors toward 300,000.

Fifteen Tzu Chi members, together with volunteers from the bone marrow association, went to various parts of Tokyo to conduct blood tests and help donors to register. One volunteer led five passersby at one time to the blood test station. She said, " If they show the slightest interest, I will not let them lose the chance to save a life."

Results were encouraging. In the Ikeba district, Sister Tzu Kui and her team were able to persuade 170 people to take blood tests and register with the bone marrow bank. Volunteers in other districts reported similar figures.

Establishment of Indonesia Branch

Tzu Chi's fifteenth overseas branch was established in Indonesia on September 27. On that day, more than two hundred Tzu Chi members showed up to take part in the inauguration ceremony and the celebration. Sister Liu Su-mei, head of the branch office, said that the elevation of the liaison office to a branch indicated that there will be much heavier duties ahead.

Tzu Chi members in Indonesia started their operations in 1994 in areas such as social welfare, emergency assistance, free clinics, and helping the government in wiping out tuberculosis. Currently there are twenty commissioners, ten trainee commissioners and more than one thousand regular members. Sister Liu said that because of political and cultural differences, it was not easy to promote the Tzu Chi missions in Indonesia, but their good works have received commendations from the local government and people.

The address, telephone and fax numbers of the new office follow:

JL. Mangga Dua Raya,
Gedung ITC Lt 5 Jakarta,
Utara, Indonesia

Tel: 021-6016332
Fax: 021-6016334

Emergency Food and Medicine to East Timor

In September, the Tzu Chi Australia branch participated in the "Mercy Ship Project" to transport relief items to the people in East Timor.

The pro-Indonesian militia had caused great turmoil and devastation in East Timor. After its partial takeover in September, the United Nations announced that humanitarian aid was much needed. The Tzu Chi Australia branch contacted an organization called Timor Aid, and on September 17 decided to contribute to the East Timor Mercy Ship project $100,000 Australian dollars [US$63,640] to purchase food and medicine that would be shipped to East Timor.

The ship filled with relief goods left for East Timor on September 27 and arrived at the port city of Dili on the 29. Distribution of the supplies was carried out on October 4.

Free Clinics in Malaysia

These children should have been in school, but instead they were running around barefoot in the fields. The majority of them had asthma, skin diseases and roundworms, for which their families could not afford medical treatment.

On October 31, the Tzu Chi Malacca branch conducted free clinical services and distributed goods in the Kampung Tebong Stesyen aboriginal village for a total of 188 villagers from this village and two nearby villages.

On that special day, ninety Tzu Chi volunteers, two doctors and seven hairdressers all came to provide free services to aboriginal villagers. Volunteers recorded patients' personal data, helped them get their medicine, provided free lunches and helped villagers get measured and select clothes that actually fit. Items distributed included rice, cooking oil, cookies, cooking tools, toys and shoes.

Dr. Lin Hui-ling remarked that most children suffered from asthma, roundworms and skin diseases because they lacked basic knowledge of personal hygiene and because they moved about in their bare feet. Adults mainly suffered from high blood pressure and diabetes due to unbalanced diets.

People in Kampung Tebong Stesyen gather latex for rubber or do odd jobs, so their lives are quite hard. Although the government had set up water and electrical services in the village, the villagers did not benefit from these utilities because they could not afford the deposit of 213 Ringgit [US$56.18]. A single well was their sole source of water. Such destitution has prevented villagers from receiving needed medical care, let alone sending their children to school.