Page 7 - 42-Winter 2014_Final

Quarter Century of Compassion
Preface (1966-1989)
Tzu Chi in the USA
1989 – 2014

As time passed, Tzu Chi’s services expanded worldwide, and its volunteers have provided
from charity to encompass medicine, education, relief in more than eighty countries. These great
and humanistic culture, and the scope of its care milestones have been reached through the
grew rapidly. In 1972, Master Cheng Yen initiated perseverance of countless dedicated volunteers

a weekly free clinic to serve those unable to who make a tremendous positive impact on
afford medical care. Fourteen years later, the their surrounding communities by sharing their
first state-of-the-art Tzu Chi General Hospital compassionate care and giving without asking
was opened in Hualien, the first of six Tzu Chi for anything in return.

hospitals in Taiwan to date. In September 1989, Here in the United States, Tzu Chi has grown
it was followed by a nursing college, as a way from that first office in Alhambra to include
to both train talented professionals to serve at offices in twenty-seven states, with community
the hospital and provide career opportunities clinics, schools, academies, and bookstores

for local underprivileged aboriginal women. spread all across the country, as well as long-
The nursing college, in turn, was followed by term support extended to several nations in
a medical college, which later became Tzu Chi Central America and the Caribbean. The path so
University. far has been long, and often arduous, but worth

In December 1989, Tzu Chi’s first overseas every step.
office opened in Alhambra, California. After

serving the people of Taiwan for over two
decades, Tzu Chi’s spirit had been carried
abroad by pioneering volunteers who were
inspired by Dharma Master Cheng Yen’s calling

to give back to the local community where they
made a living and raised a family, wherever that
community happened to be.

Twenty-five years after it was first carried
abroad, Tzu Chi now has more than ten million
volunteers and donors in fifty countries

www.us.tzuchi.org | 7