Tzu Chi volunteers deliver food to the Institute of Popular Education of Southern California in Los Angeles to help needy families through the coronavirus outbreak. Renee Chao
The United States
In mid-March 2020, Tzu Chi volunteers in Los Angles, California, delivered food to the Institute of Popular Education of Southern California (IDEPSCA) for distribution to underprivileged families. IDEPSCA is a non-profit organization in Los Angeles that serves low-income households and immigrant workers.
Maegan Ortiz, CEO of IDEPSCA, thanked Tzu Chi volunteers profusely upon seeing the food. She said that Tzu Chi has always been there for them, since the first day they started working together. “Thank you so much!” she exclaimed.
The CEO explained that many of the families IDEPSCA serves had no savings or extra food to soften the blow once their earnings dwindled. Given the current coronavirus situation, Tzu Chi’s assistance was critical.
The food prepared by Tzu Chi volunteers included fresh produce, canned fruits and vegetables, and dry goods such as rice, corn, beans, and cereals. It was enough to last 50 families of four for at least a week.
Tzu Chi’s assistance in helping the underserved is not limited to California. In many other places throughout the U.S., volunteers tried their best to carry out food distributions for the needy before the shelter-in-place orders went into effect. They wanted to help families weather this difficult time.
Tzu Chi volunteers provide support to rescue workers at a collapsed hotel in Quanzhou, Fujian Province. The hotel was being used as a COVID-19 quarantine facility. Huang De Xin
China
Applause erupted at 4:30 p.m. on March 10 at the site of a collapsed hotel in Fujian Province when a 24-year-old man from Zhejiang Province was rescued from under the debris. By that time, the man had been trapped in the collapsed building for 69 hours. The successful rescue was a shot in the arms for the rescue workers who had been working for three days and nights at the disaster site.
Xinjia Express Hotel, a hotel being used as a coronavirus quarantine facility in Quanzhou City, Fujian Province, collapsed on the night of March 7, trapping more than 70 people under the rubble. First responders rushed immediately to the site of the collapse and, at risk to themselves, began to rescue people from under the debris. They were aided by heavy machinery that had been brought in to facilitate the rescue operation. Also on-site were personnel from the city’s center for disease control—they were there 24 hours a day to disinfect the area.
Tzu Chi volunteers from Fujian Province set up a service station outside the cordoned area and provided hot food and other services around the clock for the first responders. Tzu Chi blankets and folding beds were rushed to the site for rescue workers to use. Liu, a rescue worker, said that when their rescue effort first started, they could only lie on the ground to rest. “It’s much better now with the folding beds available for us to sleep on, and the blankets are very warm,” he said appreciatively.
Through five days and four nights, Tzu Chi provided 560 servings of hot food, 246 folding beds, 760 blankets, and 3,035 reusable cups for the first responders. Volunteers were present on-site up to March 12, when the rescue work came to an end.
Volunteers move relief goods for a distribution for flood victims in Jardim Pantanal, São Paulo, on March 8. LIU RU-ZHU
Brazil
Heavy rains pummeled São Paulo, Brazil’s most populous city, on February 10. The downpours caused the Tietê River to overflow and badly flood Jardim Pantanal, a poor neighborhood on the east side of the city. Many families were gravely affected.
Tzu Chi volunteers visited the community and called on one household after another to compile a list of families that needed assistance. A distribution followed on March 8 during which food baskets, cleaning agents and tools, mattresses, and school backpacks were given out. The event benefited 73 families, each of whom received a food basket that weighed 17 kilograms (37 pounds) and a set of cleaning supplies. Mattresses and backpacks were given to some of the households.
Volunteers also promoted vegetarianism during the event. Their messages obviously touched a chord in the audience. Seven people said they’d become vegetarians for the rest of their lives; nine signed up to eat vegetarian for a year; and three said they’d do it for half a year.
Twenty-three volunteers worked together to pull off the event. They hoped that their efforts would ease the flood victims’ financial burdens and bring warmth to their hearts.
Children pose with school supplies and backpacks distributed by Tzu Chi in the city of Glew, Buenos Aires Province. ZHONG GUI-MAN
Argentina
Tzu Chi volunteers typically distribute school supplies around March to students from impoverished families in Villa Lujan, Quilmes, Buenos Aires Province. As the country’s dire economic situation continued to persist this year, volunteers decided to distribute school supplies in two more areas in the province to help underprivileged families.
To prepare for the distributions, volunteers considered the grade levels of the students, as students from different grade levels received different items. The supplies this year included schoolbags, drawing paper, colored pens, pens, pencils, scissors, glue, notebooks, erasers, rulers, and binders.
One of the distributions was held in the city of Glew on February 29. Participating families rushed forward to receive their goods when the distribution started, creating a little chaos, but volunteers quickly restored order by asking people to line up. Two volunteers checked the identities of recipients before they were guided by other volunteers to receive their supplies.
When volunteers helped the children put on their backpacks, the kids and their parents couldn’t help but smile—the kids because they had new book bags for school, and the parents because the financial burden of equipping their children for school had been eased. The event helped 186 students from 41 families.
The United Kingdom
The U.K. has been one of the countries hit hard by COVID-19. By early May, more than 178,000 confirmed cases had been diagnosed in the country, with the death toll exceeding 27,500.
Tzu Chi volunteer Wang Su-zhen (王素真) lives in Malvern, Worcestershire, England. Her mother had been a seamstress and Wang had learned good sewing skills from her when she was still alive. When Wang saw how the coronavirus pandemic had caused a shortage of face masks, she decided to put her skills to work making cloth masks for those who needed them. It was fortunate that her mother had left behind some scrap fabrics suitable for making into masks.
Wang posted a message on a community Facebook page about her project and was surprised to receive nearly 100 orders. People gave her very warm and positive feedback when they had received and used her masks. A resident in a neighboring town even phoned her to ask how to make masks. The caller indicated her desire to mobilize residents of her community to make masks for older people.
Wang was glad to have made many new friends through her project and to help them stay safer and more secure during the pandemic.
