GREAT LOVE ACROSS THE TAIWAN STRAITS

#Rice and comforters distributed to survivors in Gongan County, Jianli County, E-zhou City, Dazhi City, and Yangxin County; scholarships provided for students

#The Tzu Chi Children's Welfare Institute constructed in Wuhan

The Tzu Chi Children's Welfare Institute in Wuhan, founded in 1928 by American Catholics, is the only institute in Hubei Province that mainly adopts orphans.

In 1994, Tzu Chi members visited the institute while doing relief work in Hubei. Due to insufficient funding, the institute could not afford heating or air-conditioning, and the children had to endure the summer heat and bitter winter cold in old, shabby buildings. Furthermore, the limited space caused great inconvenience in care and management. Seeing these conditions, the Tzu Chi people decided to donate a new multipurpose building with an area of 378,700 square feet. Completed on October 4, 1997, the new building functions as hospital, rehabilitation center, school, recreation center and orphanage. Renamed the Tzu Chi Children’s Welfare Institute, it is the first such institute that Tzu Chi has ever supported in mainland China.

Located near the bank of the Yangtze River, the institute was built with red tiles and white walls, resembling a castle in fairyland. With good facilities and management, the institute has become the benchmark for welfare facilities in Hubei Province. We are happy to provide a warm home for the children living there.

At the end of 1999, thirty members of the Wuhan institute, including teachers and students, were invited to Taiwan. Under the enthusiastic hospitality of Tzu Chi people, they spent ten days here visiting different places. The children, although born unfortunate, displayed their tenacity and vitality in their behavior. They not only knew how to show their gratitude, but they also knew how to reciprocate. We believe that after watching the Tzu Chi volunteers' spirit of unselfish giving, these children may nurture the same seeds of goodness in their own minds.

In July 1998, there was severe flooding on the Yangtze River. In order to protect municipal Wuhan, the local government decided to break up the levee so as to divert the flood. The counties of Jianli and Gongan were thus submerged under water. Hundreds of thousands of people were driven from their homes. Between September 1998 and February 1999, Tzu Chi volunteers went to investigate the situation there and they decided to distribute rice, cotton jackets and comforters to the survivors. In the summer of 1999, Hubei Province suffered another flood. Tzu Chi delivered rice and comforters to victims in the cities of E-zhou and Dazhi, and also in Yangxing County. We also helped more than seven hundred students resume their schooling.

Tzu Chi's relief supplies might never be enough to reach the hands of all the innumerable disaster victims on the mainland, but we tried the best we could to offer timely help to those that suffered most in each calamity.

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