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Quarter Century of Compassion
Medicine (1997-2005)
Tzu Chi in the USA
1989 – 2014

s taught by the Buddha, illness is one of the eight kinds of
suffering in life. In order to help relieve more beings of this
Asuffering, Tzu Chi strives to gather medical practitioners from
all around the world to treat not only the illness, but also the patient’s
heart and mind, while providing basic healthcare and preventive
education everywhere. In October 1996, the Tzu Chi International
Medical Association (TIMA) was founded in Hualien to serve this great
purpose. In the United States, medical volunteers held preliminary
meetings in 1998 in Hawaii and 1999 in Los Angeles, then officially
established the United States branch of TIMA in 2000.
Following California and Hawaii, New York, Houston, Atlanta, and
Chicago also established their own TIMA chapters, gathering dedicated
and kindhearted medical professionals who were eager to contribute to
their communities. By the end of 2004, seventeen chapters had already
sprouted up around the country. To this day, TIMA volunteers care for
the health of community members throughout the year. When disasters
strike, whether at home or abroad, they accompany disaster relief teams
to deliver medical care to survivors. When Katrina struck New Orleans
in 2005, U.S. TIMA members quickly set off to deliver medical care to
survivors housed in evacuation centers.
Seeing that many members of the Chinese-speaking community
did not know how to help themselves or seek help from others when
facing disease, Southern California TIMA and the Free Clinic established
a cancer support group in 2000 with members meeting at the clinic
each month so that cancer patients and their families could offer each
other support and encouragement while sharing experiences and
resources. A similar cancer support group was started in Houston in
2002, while others followed in New Jersey and Dallas in 2004.
Each year, four hundred thousand people in the United States
rely on dialysis to take over vital kidney functions. Since there had
not previously been any organizations offering support for Chinese-
speaking dialysis patients, Tzu Chi volunteers in New York started a
dialysis support group in 2001 to give patients a forum for sharing their
experiences, helping them to feel that they are not alone and thus trying
to bring them greater confidence and hope. TIMA in Houston started a
similar group in 2002, and Northern California followed suit in 2005 to
bring together dialysis and kidney transplant patients and their families
every other month to give them spiritual and practical support.

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