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Quarter Century of Compassion
Charity (1989-1997)
Tzu Chi in the USA
1989 – 2014

harity is the essence of Tzu Chi. From the beginning, Tzu
Chi volunteers throughout the United States have used
Cexperiences learned from Taiwan to bring comfort to
those in hardship. In the early days, volunteers began by regularly
delivering joy to seniors and the disabled in nursing homes,
while also distributing clothing to the homeless and destitute on
holidays and in the cold of winter.
Love knows no bounds. On Christmas Eve 1991, U.S.
volunteers donated half a cargo container full of new and
secondhand clothing and toys to an American Indian reservation
in the mountains of Arizona to help the locals pass a warmer
and more pleasant winter. In September 1995, a team of ten
volunteers and youth group members spent the Mid-Autumn
Festival with inmates at a detention center in Long Beach to bring
warmth to those behind bars.
Whenever calamities strike, Tzu Chi volunteers extend their
hands to those affected. In late August 1992, Hurricane Andrew
inflicted heavy damage on South Florida. Tzu Chi volunteers from
the Northeast and Southern regions formed the Florida Disaster
Relief Team, arriving in Miami in September to assess the damage
and distribute relief aid to the fourteen most severely affected
areas.
During the Great Flood of 1993 that deluged the American
Midwest along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers and their
tributaries, Tzu Chi volunteers from the Kansas and St. Louis
offices traveled deep into the disaster areas in both July and
September to distribute drinking water and emergency cash.
In late October, as wildfires raged in four counties of Southern
California, volunteers from the Los Angeles area dispensed relief
cash in four disaster areas to more than one hundred severely
affected households.

When a major earthquake struck Los Angeles on January 17,
1994, volunteers arrived in Northridge, the epicenter, on the very
same day to distribute drinking water and food. Neighboring
Santa Clarita became the primary center of relief assistance, as
relief supplies were distributed daily and a mobile shower vehicle
was provided for those without water and electricity.

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