The World Of Tzu Chi(Vol.115).

2019 • 10 30 pecial Feature savings. To compensate for the shortfall, Tzu Chi Hualien Headquarters contributed NT$20 million to be channelled to disaster areas in northern and central Taiwan. Home is where the heart is On the morning of September 21, 199On the morning of September 21, 1999, a team of volunteers fromTaichung arrived in Jiji to deliver relief supplies to the disaster victims. Volunteers island-wide were subsequently dispatched to disaster areas in northern and central Taiwan to assess the post-disaster situation, conduct visits to the affected households and distribute relief supplies. Throughout the post-disaster period ending late September, tens of thousands of Tzu Chi volunteers were involved in providing aid to disaster victims, preparing 1.3 million servings of hot meals and extending material relief and medical attention to 260,000 disaster victims displaced from their homes. In addition, donations of material provisions poured in from all over Taiwan, culminating in an excess of relief supplies. However, arrangements to resettle the displaced victims remained a pressing concern. Schools were converted into evacuation centres, with evacuees seeking shelter in tents assembled on the school grounds. The tents were a practical mode of temporary accommodation, but failed to provide a conducive living environment owing to poor sanitation and the lack of electricity and water supply. Therefore, Master ChengYen proposed a set of guidelines to improve the conditions of disaster areas, including disinfecting disaster areas for disease prevention; equipping disaster areas with sanitation facilities; collaborating with the government to construct prefabricated houses; transparent records of relief Tzu Chi volunteers assisted in sorting the abundance of incoming relief supplies donated by various quarters, before delivering them to the disaster victims. [Photograph by Hsiao Yiu-hwa]