The world of Tzu Chi Nov-Dec 2022 (Vol.144)

TZU CHI 144 45 Sending love to Buddha’s birthplace Tzu Chi’s footprints in Nepal Compiled by Yuan Shu-zhen, Wang Ying-xiu & Wu Xiu-ling 1993 Tzu Chi set foot in Nepal for the first time and built 1,800 houses for the severe flood survivors. 2015 Relief teams from Tzu Chi arrived in Nepal after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit Nepal. Besides free clinics and material distributions, Tzu Chi also helped build 137 prefabricated classrooms, while volunteers in 38 countries raised funds to help Nepal. 2016 Dalin Tzu Chi Hospital signed a MoU with Health Care Foundation Nepal (HECAF) and Tzu Chi Dialysis Centre in Malaysia, with the hope of facilitating the establishment of a dialysis centre in Lumbini. HECAF contacted Bhikkhu Maitri from the free clinic of International Buddhist Society (Nepal), and was granted permission to convert the two-storey clinic and dormitory into a dialysis centre; it was completed in 2019. Volunteers returned to Lumbini later to help Bhikkhu Maitri with the free clinic expansion work. 2020 — 2021 During the Covid-19 pandemic, Tzu Chi distributed material supplies to nearly 130,000 families in Kathmandu, Lumbini, Great Love Village and other locations, and donated 8 million pieces of pandemic prevention supplies to nearly 140 institutions. Together with Bhikkhu Maitri’s community centre, more than 100 women from villages in Lumbini were engaged in the production of 150,000 pieces of cloth masks for students, on a cash-for-work basis. Tzu Chi helped in the construction of a dialysis room at the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, and supplied additional dialysis machines to benefit more patients. Tzu Chi volunteers from Singapore and Malaysia, and Tzu Chi Hualien Headquarters initiated a mission to carry out 20 aid projects in Nepal, starting from charity, medical care and education, thereby showering Great Love on Buddha’s birthplace.