ENVELOPING THE WORLD WITH GREAT LOVE

Apartheid was abolished in South Africa in 1994. However, that did not mark the end of all the country's problems-the chasm between the rich and poor remained, whereas the unemployment and crime rates increased. Although politically all races in South Africa were equal, there was still much to be done to improve people's lives.

As early as 1992, a group of local Taiwanese businessmen began to promote the Tzu Chi missions in South Africa. They undertook long-term aid for the poor and emergency relief work. Currently, Tzu Chi has six liaison offices in Johannesburg, Durban and Ladysmith, carrying out charitable and educational work.

The foundation's charity work in South Africa includes regular distribution of daily necessities in settlements of black people, boring wells for regions that lack water sources, visiting and providing funds for old folks homes, orphanages, and shelters for disabled or abused children. In the field of education, Tzu Chi has opened vocational training centers for black people and established scholarships and built schools for black students. From 1994 to 1997, a total of thirty-seven containers of clothes were collected in Taiwan and sent to South Africa to help 130,000 impoverished people get through the cold winters.

To solve the problem of poverty at the root, Tzu Chi members in Ladysmith decided to teach local people how to catch fish, instead of just giving them fish. They founded fifty-three vocational training centers to train residents in skills such as sewing. Students give part of their earnings back to the center to help more people acquire skills and improve their lives. The center thus operates on a circular fund.

Tzu Chi's long-term efforts have received a warm response from locals. The principal of the Vuku Zakhe Elementary School in Ladysmith gave up an opportunity for a transfer and instead stayed to work with Tzu Chi volunteers to build a new school. "Before Tzu Chi helped us, we had nothing but poverty," Gladys Ngema, a local teacher at the vocational training center in Durban, said. "Now that Tzu Chi is here, we have hope."

Natural disasters

Project time: 1992-present
Aid provided: Daily necessities and housing



Aside from long-term assistance to the poor, Tzu Chi volunteers in South Africa also bring emergency relief to victims of natural disasters.

On August 28, 1999, a tornado moving at a speed of 150km/hr (93 mph) whirled through Western Cape Province, killing three hundred people and wounding five hundred in the areas of Surrey Estate, Manenberg and Guguletu. One thousand families were made homeless and five schools were damaged.

Tzu Chi's liaison offices in South Africa put together one hundred thousand South African rand as relief funds and purchased emergency relief items. Seven days after the disaster, the workers distributed blankets, cookies, milk and clothes to two thousand families in the most affected areas.

In February 2000, heavy rainfall in South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe resulted in floods that displaced millions. In Northern and Mpumalanga provinces of South Africa, over a million people lost their homes, at least fifty people lost their lives, and transportation to the outside was cut off. The government proclaimed it the worst flood in fifty years.

Tzu Chi volunteers in Johannesburg went to investigate the situation. They found that in the only black area in the city, Alexsandra, around eight hundred houses built along the riverbank had been washed out by the floodwaters. The workers made contact with the municipal government, which provided land for Tzu Chi to erect sixty-nine houses for survivors.

The temporary houses, designed to last fifteen years, mark the establishment of the first Tzu Chi village in South Africa. During construction, Tzu Chi implemented a program which hired survivors as construction workers. The purpose was to provide employment opportunities for the victims and to give them a sense of participation.

In addition to the temporary housing project, Tzu Chi members also distributed medicine, food and clothes in Mpumalanga, where roads, bridges, and water and electricity supply systems had been destroyed by the flood, thus hampering the movement of daily necessities in the region.

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