The World Of Tzu Chi(Vol.115).

2019 • 10 12 eature organization was still financially constrained. Three months later, Master Cheng Yen heard that two poor patients in Taitung Hospital were unable to afford their medical bills, prompting her to travel southward again to offer them financial aid. Poverty and illness In the beginning, Tzu Chi’s charity outreach in Taitung was restricted by distance and a lack of manpower – until Tian-ding and Yu-nu joined the organization, giving Tzu Chi’s charity work in the region an encouraging boost. As new volunteers, the couple was inexperienced in assessing the needs of prospective care recipients and the appropriate amount of aid to be allocated. Hence, on March 23, 1973, Yu-nu wrote a letter to Master Cheng Yen relating the details of several cases that require assistance. She concluded the letter with an invitation to the Master to personally visit them in Taitung to bring them warmth and relief. Taitung was a relatively remote region with limited accessibility, and was less developed than other areas in Taiwan. The elderly locals were left behind to hold down the fort as many youths sought greener pastures in the more prosperous region of western Taiwan. When Master Cheng Yen was younger, she had travelled to many poor, rural villages in eastern Taiwan in search of an ideal place for spiritual cultivation. The Master had seen many impoverished, sick people with no one to rely on throughout her journey, hence the plight of the needy described in Yu- nu’s letter struck a chord with her. Ten days after receiving Yu-nu’s letter, the Master led several In the 1970s, Master Cheng Yen would visit the homes of care recipients in Luye, Taitung with the commissioners.