ENVELOPING THE WORLD WITH GREAT LOVE

In 1949, Nationalist troops, mainly from Yunnan province in southwestern China, continued to battle against the Chinese Communists after the Nationalist government had retreated to Taiwan. The troops battled on the borders of Yunnan and Burma, eventually retreating to the mountainous region in northern Thailand, where they became illegal immigrants. There were over sixty-thousand of them, living in sixty-four refugee camps.

The refugees did not have legal status in Thailand and were not allowed free entry to and exit from the mountain region. It was therefore difficult for them to work in the city, and their sole source of income was the meager crops yielded from what little arable land there was. Their children are ineligible for formal education and have no vocational skills to support themselves with. The hard life thus continues from one generation to the next.

In 1954, the R.O.C. government's Committee for Overseas Chinese set aside a budget to provide long-term aid for the refugees in northern Thailand. However, the budget was entirely expended by the end of 1994, and the government contacted Tzu Chi to help continue the assistance. Beginning in 1995, Tzu Chi implemented a three-year assistance program that included care for the veterans, reconstruction of the refugee camps, seminars on agriculture, provision of tea and fruit seedlings, emergency relief, and establishment of a Chinese school.

Tzu Chi rebuilt a total of one hundred and thirty houses at refugee camps in Huiho, Bangala, Misara and Changlong. The rundown huts became concrete houses, with electricity too. At night, light shone from windows and lit up the villages. Even more of a relief for the villagers was that finally they did not have to listen to water dripping all night long during the rainy season.

To improve the financial condition of the villagers, Tzu Chi invited agricultural specialists who toured the villages and gave seminars on the characteristics of crops that grew in Northern Thailand. Assistance for the cultivation of tea and fruit trees was provided to help increase the yield. Tea and fruit seedlings developed by a farm funded by Tzu Chi were also donated to the four villages.

Seeing how the Tzu Chi volunteers traveled so far to take care of the veterans, some Chinese businessmen in Thailand were moved to join in the cause. Later, the Tzu Chi Bangkok branch office was established to extend help to local people who lived in destitution and to carry out long-term charity work.

At the conclusion of the three-year assistance program launched and implemented by Tzu Chi workers from Taiwan, the responsibility of caring for the veterans in nursing homes and the Tzu Chi villages was taken up by volunteers from the Bangkok branch.

During the rainy season, mountain roads become virtually impassable and hamper distribution of the crops produced at the Tzu Chi villages. To solve this problem, the Bangkok office raised funds to build a new road for Huiho village. But no contractor was willing to undertake the construction, because the mountainous region lacked a water source and transportation of construction material was difficult. The volunteers therefore decided to build the concrete road themselves. The road, 1,300 meters (4,290 ft) long, was completed in 1998. From then on, village children no longer had to rise at dawn and trek to the bottom of the mountain with baskets of fruit to be sold, and then hasten back to the mountains again to attend school. They were spared that onerous task because now cars could run on the smooth concrete road.

In addition, the volunteers visited aged veterans in nursing homes in Phatang and Bann-mai Nong Bua regularly and distributed monthly living aids and necessities. During the three major holidays for the Chinese (Chinese New Year, Tomb Sweeping Day and the Moon Festival), volunteers always went up to the mountains to cook dishes traditionally eaten on such days and to lead group activities for entertainment.

In 1997, the Thai government lifted the ban on Chinese education. Tzu Chi is currently planning a secondary school in Amphur Fang in an effort to improve education for the refugees's children, so that they may have better job opportunities and thus solve their problems at the root.

Floods

Project time: August 1999
Aid provided: Living necessities



On July 31, 1999, in the northeastern region of Thailand where the Mekong River flows through, heavy rainfall combined with rising seawater caused floodwaters to inundate eight northeastern provinces.

The floodwaters surged so fast that residents had no time to salvage their belongings. The waters swiftly rose to neck-high levels, and many people climbed onto rooftops to wait for help. The armed forces mobilized large numbers of troops, helicopters, boats and trucks to rescue victims and place them in temporary shelters.

Tzu Chi volunteers in Bangkok found that most relief items were concentrated at towns and villages where transportation was more convenient. They decided to focus relief work on the more remote villages in Ginjuwenfu and Dadaofu provinces.

Tzu Chi volunteers asked the local government to provide information about survivors and assistance in reaching the disaster areas. At the same time, relief items were being purchased and packaged. On the seventh day after the disaster hit, large quantities of daily necessities and food were prepared and distributed to almost a thousand families in Ginjuwenfu and Dadaofu.

During the distribution, volunteers saw that several villages were still inundated and that inhabitants could reach the outside only with skiffs or by swimming. There was obviously an urgent need for relief supplies. Villagers told the volunteers that they thought Tzu Chi was a very special organization in that volunteers not only unloaded the relief items from the trucks, but personally handed the goods to survivors while warmly greeting them. The gesture made the villagers feel respected.

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