Page 169 - 42-Winter 2014_Final

n April 14, 1966, Dharma Master Cheng Yen founded the Tzu Chi Merits Society
in Hualien with the support of thirty housewives who each put aside a couple
Ocents of their grocery money every day to establish a charity fund. During the
first five years, they helped a total of thirty-one elderly, ill, and poor people from fifteen
families. As word spread, more people participated and the program gathered strength.
It spread beyond Hualien: across the island and around the world.
Today, Tzu Chi is a nonprofit charitable organization with ten million volunteers and
donors in roughly fifty countries worldwide. Over the past forty-eight years, Tzu Chi’s four
missions—Charity, Medicine, Education, and Humanistic Culture—have grown from the
seeds of gratitude, respect, and love, and Tzu Chi’s activities have expanded to include
international disaster relief, bone marrow donation, community volunteerism, and
environmental conservation.

In the United States, Tzu Chi operates nine regional service areas with more than
eighty offices nationwide. Volunteers give back to their local communities through family
services, emergency disaster services, homeless services, school support programs,
college scholarships, income tax reporting assistance, relief distributions, holiday care
packs, free and low-cost medical clinics and outreaches, preventive health education,
cancer support groups, character education curricula, community education classes, and
production of positive, inspiring media.

Whenever disaster strikes at home or abroad, Tzu Chi volunteers deliver cash aid, hot
meals, and emergency relief supplies directly into the hands of disaster survivors. Over
the years, US Tzu Chi volunteers have actively provided relief after such major disasters as
9/11, Hurricane Katrina, the 2010 Haiti earthquake, and Hurricane Sandy.

In recent years, Tzu Chi volunteers’ charitable work has been increasingly recognized
by the global community. Tzu Chi was granted special consultative status with the United
Nations Economic and Social Council in 2010 and honored as a White House Champion of
Change in 2013. Dharma Master Cheng Yen was presented with the Roosevelt Institute’s
FDR Distinguished Public Service Award and named to the TIME 100
list of the world’s most influential people in 2011, and honored
with the Rotary International Award of Honor in 2014.

www.us.tzuchi.org | 169