The world of Tzu Chi (Vol.106)

53 TZU CHI 106 home at home. Seniors can only enjoy happy and satisfying golden years when children rediscover the virtue of traditional filial piety and take care of their aging parents. Mr Tang: However, we live in an industrialized society now. Everyone leads a hectic life. Not only do seniors living alone need help from society, some who live with their children do, too. Due to pressures fromwork, even if the children are filial, they may not be able to help their parents as much as they want. Master Cheng Yen: Whether seniors live alone or with their children, we should try to provide the best care for them according to the times and the situation at hand. The purpose behind Tzu Chi’s promotion of volunteerism is to spread the idea that everyone can be a volunteer. If everyone in the community is a volunteer, people can watch out for and help one another; this is a community living as one tribe. When we treat one another as family, we will care about and help each other out at all times. When someone cannot take care of the seniors in his home because he is busy, his neighbours can help. This creates a circle of love. Actually, we should encourage healthy seniors to become volunteers too. They can help by taking care of seniors who are sick or by doing recycling work. Physical ailments are usually triggered by emotional ailments. If seniors have too much time on their hands, they may become bored and unhappy, which makes them prone to diseases. Therefore, if we motivate seniors to become volunteers so that they can utilize their abilities, then more social resources can be developed, and the seniors’ lives will be more fulfilling and enjoyable. In addition to recruiting volunteers, we could offer basic nursing classes and train home-nurses. Healthy seniors may only need volunteers to visit them regularly. But sick or very old seniors would require full-time care. Although volunteers are willing to look after the seniors, they have much to do and may not be able to attend to them full-time. Therefore, it is necessary to hire professional home-nurses as daytime caregivers and have volunteers as extra support. In the evening, when family members come home from work, they can take over. With the help of a professional caretaker, the children can go to work without worry. As for the seniors, they have caretakers to keep them company during the day and their families during the night. Then they would feel that life is warm and loving. Also, home-nurses could earn extra income, and communities could generate more jobs and fully utilize human resources. Ordinary families may not be able to hire a nurse. If our government could subsidize this project a little, it might lessen the burden on these families. Tzu Chi has been promoting community volunteerism for years. Its purpose is to awaken everyone’s compassion in order to purify people’ hearts and minds. When we encourage local residents to take care of the seniors in their communities, it is one way to purify people’s minds. * The article is extracted from the book “Friends from Afar: Conversations with Dharma Master Cheng Yen”.