GREAT LOVE ACROSS THE TAIWAN STRAITS

#Food, clothing, comforters and coal were provided for flood victims in Haicheng, Qingyuan County and Xinbin County. An elementary school was built in Haicheng.

Between July and October of 1995, violent storms assailed the Hun River, a tributary of the Liao River, causing a massive flood rarely seen in history and leaving many people starving and homeless. After sending two relief missions to evaluate the situation, Tzu Chi decided to provide assistance for the three most seriously affected areas-Xinbin, Qingyuan and Haicheng.

At the end of November, relief teams went to seventeen cities and townships in three counties to deliver rice, corn, coal and quilted coats to nearly 40,000 flood victims. The weather was cold-14 degrees below zero Celsius (+7 F)-but Tzu Chi volunteers weathered wind and cold in order to personally distribute relief items to the survivors in the hope that the supplies could help them get through the severe winter.

In order to improve education in the disaster areas, the foundation built an elementary school in Haicheng so that schoolchildren there could continue their studies, which had been interrupted by the flood.

"Your coming here has indeed cheered us up and made us all the more confident in the reconstruction of our homes!" Both local residents and government officials said that what Tzu Chi members had done had greatly encouraged the flood victims. The charity work of the Tzu Chi people who never asked for anything in return was lauded by local officials as "a great example of love." Actually, the joy of the victims was the greatest encouragement to the Tzu Chi volunteers.

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