With volunteers in 67 countries, the Tzu Chi Foundation is one of the largest charity organizations originating from Taiwan. For over fifty-seven years, the organization has provided services for those in need worldwide. What began as simple charity work with Dharma Master Cheng Yen and thirty housewives has gradually expanded into the eight fields of compassion in action. They are charity, medicine, education, humanistic culture, international relief, bone marrow donation, environmental protection, and community volunteerism. To this day, nearly all services are provided by foundation member volunteers, who labor with an attitude of love and gratitude towards all people.
Everyone has Great Love
The Buddha's teachings are neither so difficult nor profound. They are simple directions for our daily lives. Tzu Chi endeavors to put the spirit of the Buddha's teaching into daily life. "We learn from what we do and we do what we have learned." In this way, we experience the meaning of the admonition, "Let the Buddha be in your heart, the dharma in your words, and love in your deeds."
Education in the essence of purifying human minds must not be overlooked. Tzu Chi teachers "treat all children with the hearts of parents and treat their own children with the wisdom of bodhisattvas." In this way, the love that they teach will truly sprout, grow, and blossom. For over fifty-seven years, millions of people have enthusiastically responded and joined Tzu Chi's cause for compassion relief work. We deeply believe that in every heart there exists priceless and great love.
Great Love transcends all borders
In a rare meeting with Master Cheng Yen, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama stated, "Why should we help people who are in pain and in need of help? It has nothing to do with religion, race, or nationality. It has to do with the fact that they are our fellow human beings. That is why Master Cheng Yen's compassion, which transcends all borders, and the persistent efforts she makes in helping people fill my heart with respect and joy."
With compassion, Tzu Chi volunteers immediately respond to calls for help regardless of who is in need. Such international relief work demonstrates firsthand the truth of the Buddha's teaching that "All beings are equal." This is the meaning of "Great mercy even to strangers and great compassion for all."
Members of the Tzu Chi relief team are honored by the opportunity to use their abilities and skills to help end suffering and give their time and financial resources to distribute relief supplies to disaster areas. Overcoming obstacles of time, distance, and politics, Tzu Chi has provided humanitarian relief to those affected by war, flood, and drought in 133 countries.
Our services
Tzu Chi provides food, clothing, material necessities, medical care, and spiritual consolation for the sick, the elderly, and disaster survivors. Tzu Chi strives to educate the rich by demonstrating that giving and service are more meaningful than pursuing wealth, power, and prestige. With hearts full of gratitude for serving long-term care recipients and those who are affected by the disaster. We, the poor and the rich, help each other transcend misfortune wrought by human impurity.
Tzu Chi's medical care network includes seven hospitals plus one Chinese medicine hospital in Taiwan, one hospital in Indonesia, and a system of free mobile clinics around the world. What is unique about Tzu Chi's medical service is the attitude of the personnel. Tzu Chi doctors and nurses treat patients as they would their own kin, and with the intent to heal patients in both body and mind. Tzu Chi does not only aim to treat the symptoms of an illness but also addresses how a patient's illness affects their daily life and family.
The Tzu Chi International Medical Association (TIMA), established in 1996, has provided free medical services in 58 countries around the world to conduct 17,802 free clinics with more than 415,300 medical volunteer man-days put in. (2022)
In 1993, Tzu Chi established a bone marrow registry, Buddhist Tzu Chi Stem Cell Centre, with over 452,000 donors in the registry and over 6,300 marrow transplants in 31 countries. (2022)
Just do what is right
Tzu Chi volunteers have walked on the path of love for more than fifty-seven years. We have experienced success as well as disappointment, but we have always fearlessly upheld the attitude of "Just do what is right." Having grown from its original thirty members to millions of members from around the world, members of Tzu Chi have walked in unity on one path to accomplish its four missions. If every person can give love without asking for anything in return, we can look forward to a world of certain peace. We encourage you and many more people to join us in lovingly creating a new millennium filled with truth, goodness, and beauty.
