The world of Tzu Chi August 2020 (Vol.125)

France On March 16, 2020, in response to the pandemic, French President Emmanuel Macron announced mandatory home confinement for 15 days starting at noon on March 17. The order was extended twice and ended on May 11. During that period, Tzu Chi volunteers, taking advantage of the short time they were allowed to go out, mailed masks to Taiwanese students in France who were returning to Taiwan so that they could be better protected during their journeys home. Volunteers also donated masks, protective clothing and gloves to a hospital in Bayonne, Centre Hospitalier de la Côte Basque, as well as the areas of Chanteloup-en-Brie and Sologne. The photo shows recipients acknowledging Tzu Chi’s aid on social media. Germany Eighty thousand medical masks provided by Tzu Chi arrived at Frankfurt Airport in April. Volunteers collected the shipment, then immediately headed towards Heinsberg, a region in Nordrhein-Westfalen that had been hit hard by Covid-19. Volunteers arrived at a supply intake centre set up by the local government’s fire department and donated 20,000 masks there. The masks were then delivered to three hospitals in the area. [Photograph by Lin Mei-feng] pecial Feature Europe 2020 • 08 32