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International (1997-2005)
Tzu Chi in the USA
1989 – 2014

egistering as the hottest year on record at the time, 1997
in its latter half witnessed a record-breaking El Niño
Revent that caused unusual extremes of weather and
precipitation across both North and South America. The warm,
wet winter throughout the United States then led into the
deadliest hurricane season in two centuries. This combination
of winter storms and fall hurricanes led to widespread flooding
and mudslides throughout Central and South America as well
as the Caribbean.
Flooding in Peru affected more than 330,000 individuals
while damaging 70,000 homes. When Ms. Yuling Huang returned
from Peru to Hualien in May for Tzu Chi’s annual gathering, she
delivered news of the disaster, and Dharma Master Cheng Yen
asked U.S. Tzu Chi volunteers to go assess the situation. Seven
volunteers from California, Illinois, and Texas, including medical
professionals from Tzu Chi Free Clinic, traveled to Lambayeque
under the leadership of Hsueh-Jen Lin to assess the damage.
This was the first time that U.S. volunteers had taken on the
responsibility of carrying out disaster assessment. With the
support of volunteers from Global Headquarters, they then
planned and carried out disaster relief activities. In August,
Stephen Huang, then Director of Tzu Chi’s Religious Affairs
Department, led nine volunteers from Taiwan and eighteen
from the United States and Argentina to visit seventeen villages
in the disaster areas of Chiclayo, Lambayeque, and Ferreñafe,
where they held four days of distributions, providing supplies,
medicines, and medical services to more than two thousand
affected families.

Relief goods were distributed in Honduras in 1999.

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