ENVELOPING THE WORLD WITH GREAT LOVE

Project time:

Lesotho has long been plagued by political unrest and violence. The people generally live in poverty, social welfare and medical resources are scarce, and the level of education is low.

Tzu Chi began operations in Lesotho in 1995, with Taiwanese businessmen making up half of the local members. They regularly handed out daily necessities to the poor and provided aid for charity organizations such as orphanages and shelters for the disabled. Over the years, they have helped more than ten thousand impoverished people and orphans.

In Maseru, the capital of Lesotho, a shelter for street children and orphans was struggling to stay open due to insufficient funding and an increase in the number of children living in the shelter. Some of the children living there were driven to stealing to feed themselves. Tzu Chi began to provide monthly food stipends for the children in 1996. Sewing machines and fabrics were donated to the shelter to start a sewing class. The children finally got enough food and began learning to make clothes. Better still, under the guidance of a local mason, the children built a warehouse for the shelter with their own hands.

Through their long-time involvement in bringing relief to the poor, Tzu Chi volunteers found that the essential way of lifting them out of poverty is to help them stand on their own. Therefore in February 2000, fifteen vocational training centers were set up in orphanages, centers for the disabled and churches around the slums of Maseru. Fabrics and sewing equipment were donated to help students acquire a useful skill.

Riots

Project time: September 1998
Aid provided: Daily necessities



On September 22, 1998, suspicions that the ruling party had manipulated a general election two months earlier gave rise to an outbreak of rioting in Maseru, the capital of Lesotho. Troops from neighboring South Africa were sent in to crack down on the violence, causing a wave of antiforeign sentiment. People looted foreign businesses and foreigners were expelled from the country.

Previously, there had been a bout of antiforeign riots and looting in 1991. After that, many Taiwanese still maintained businesses in Lesotho but moved their homes across the border into South Africa. Therefore, during the 1998 violence, even though their businesses were ransacked or destroyed, they still had homes to return to. But for thousands of mainland immigrants who had borrowed money from friends and relatives back home to start a new life here, the riot stripped them of everything they had.

Tzu Chi volunteers in Lesotho, having suffered great losses themselves, formed a relief team with volunteers in South Africa to meet the mainlanders at the border and arranged for them to stay in the houses of Taiwanese businessmen or emergency shelters.

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